The following press release was issued on 21 October 2025.
Healthcare Workers Against Censorship (HAC) is a collective of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals dedicated to protecting the rights of all healthcare workers to advocate for global justice, challenge censorship, and maintain professional independence without fear of reprisal or regulatory persecution.
Contact: hcwsagainstcensorship@gmail.com
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Healthcare Workers Against Censorship (HAC) today condemned the arrest of Dr Rahmeh Aladwan, a respected physician and prominent advocate for Palestinian human rights, labelling the action as the latest and most egregious step in a coordinated campaign to silence medical professionals speaking out against the genocide in Gaza.
This case raises urgent concerns about the intersection of free speech, professional regulation and institutional power, and exemplifies the growing erasure of moral autonomy, freedom of conscience and expression among healthcare workers.
Dr Aladwan’s arrest follows months of intense, politically motivated harassment driven by pro-Israel lobby groups and enabled by professional regulatory bodies, including the General Medical Council (GMC). These groups include UK Lawyers For Israel (UKLFI) and Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA). These organisations are themselves subject to significant controversy regarding their methods, including an ongoing Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) investigation into UKLFI over alleged legal intimidation (SLAPPs) of Palestine advocates, and scrutiny of the CAA’s political nature by the Charity Commission, often
amplified by certain media outlets, including The Telegraph.
A pattern of vexatious complaints and regulatory overreach
On 25 September 2025, an interim hearing of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) considered complaints against Dr Aladwan arising from social-media and protest speech. The MPTS panel decided not to impose interim restrictions on her registration. The decision stated that the complaints had not satisfied the test for interim suspension because there was no evidence of patient risk or undermining public confidence.
Just under two weeks after the initial interim orders tribunal cleared Dr Rahmeh Aladwan, the GMC re-referred her case to the MPTS for a further hearing on 23 October 2025. This followed a coordinated campaign by the zionist lobby, including over a dozen newspaper articles and a judicial review threat by the pro-Israel group Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA). Israel-backed health secretary Wes Streeting, who has received over £30,000 from pro-Israel donors, amplified the pressure by condemning the MPTS ruling as a “failure’ and vowing to seek “urgent advice” on overhauling the system, including easier suspensions (actions that risk breaching his ministerial code of conduct and undermining judicial independence).
On 21 October 2025, Dr Aladwan was arrested by the Metropolitan police service for four offences, three of
malicious communications and one of inciting racial hatred relating to comments posted online and made at a protest. Crucially, this latest arrest comes despite Dr Aladwan having previously successfully defended her position through the GMC’s internal fitness-to-practice procedures. Where cases have been escalated, bodies such as the Interim Orders Tribunal (IOT) have either dismissed the most serious allegations or found no grounds for sanction based on the evidence presented, affirming that her political expression did not impair her fitness to practice.
Dr Aladwan, along with dozens of other doctors, has been the subject of a relentless, high-volume campaign of complaints submitted to the GMC by external organisations, including the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) and Jewish Medical Association (JMA).
These groups have been documented creating ‘dossiers’ of social media posts, pressuring regulators and employers into disciplinary action over political speech, rather than any genuine concern for patient safety or clinical competence. This undue influence on a public regulator compromises its independence and fairness.
HAC notes that the GMC’s own data reveals the discriminatory nature of this campaign: a vast majority of these politically motivated complaints have to be closed at the triage stage, failing to meet the threshold for investigation, yet the process itself inflicts severe psychological, professional and financial duress on the
targeted doctors.
A politicised and repressive climate
Last week, health secretary Wes Streeting and prime minister Sir Keir Starmer publicly promoted a narrative equating criticism of Israel with anti-jewish hatred – a more precise term than antisemitism, as Palestinians are Semites. Their recent push to enforce the notorious IHRA definition of anti-jewish hatred across public institutions comes despite the definition’s longstanding criticism by legal and academic experts for conflating anti-zionism with anti-jewish hatred and chilling legitimate speech on Palestine.
The timing of Dr Aladwan’s arrest, two days before her scheduled MPTS hearing, raises serious concerns about political interference and state coordination. It signals an increasingly authoritarian pattern in which professional regulators, the media, the police and the government act in tandem to suppress dissenting voices, particularly those advocating for Palestinian human rights.
“Dr Aladwan’s successful defence against these targeted, politically driven complaints should have ended the harassment. Instead, the intimidation has escalated to a shocking arrest,” said a spokesperson for HAC.
“This is a direct assault on the right of healthcare workers to exercise their freedom of conscience and speech, outside of their clinical duties.”
Our demands
HAC calls on the relevant authorities and the GMC to immediately cease the harassment of Dr Aladwan and all doctors engaged in lawful political speech and human rights advocacy.
We demand:
- Unconditional release: Dr Rahmeh Aladwan must be released without charge.
- Investigation into regulatory overreach: The GMC must be formally investigated for allowing its regulatory function to be compromised and weaponised by external political lobby groups such as CAA, UKLFI and JMA.
- Protection of free speech: All authorities must uphold the legal protection of lawful and legitimate political speech, distinctly separate from clinical responsibilities, ensuring it is not subject to professional sanctions driven by lobbying groups with foreign interests that do not represent the British public.
HAC demands that the GMC contracts its regulatory remit and ceases intervention in non-clinical political conduct altogether, preventing the weaponisation of its process for political gain.
