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UK Doctor Known for Antisemitic Posts Arrested After Violating Bail, Charged With Inviting Support for Hamas
Dr. Rahmeh Aladwan addresses the Activist Independent Movement’s Nakba77, Birmingham Demonstration for Palestine, outside the local BBC offices and studios in 2025. Photo: Screenshot
A British Palestinian doctor based in the United Kingdom and known for antisemitic social media posts on Friday pleaded not guilty to inciting support for Hamas, a proscribed terrorist group, and publishing material intending to stir up racial hatred.
Rahmeh Aladwan, 31, appeared in Westminster Magistrates Court in London, where she was released on bail. The doctor, who is part of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), will next appear at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey, in London on April 24.
The court appearance came one day after British law enforcement arrested Aladwan and slapped her with four counts of “inviting support for Hamas” and two counts of stirring up racial hatred through both spoken words and written material. The charges followed a series of statements and publications she allegedly made in support of Hamas and antisemitic conspiracy theories.
According to a statement from the Metropolitan Police, officers apprehended Aladwan at her residence in Pilning, South Gloucestershire, and transported her to a central London police station on the grounds that she had breached bail conditions “imposed following previous arrests.”
British law enforcement had arrested Aladwan on Oct. 21, charging her with four counts related to malicious communications and inciting racial hatred.
A group of demonstrators praised Aladwan, a trainee trauma and orthopedic surgeon, as she left the courthouse on Friday. One waved a Palestinian flag. Another wearing a keffiyeh held a protest sign while someone banged a drum and a voice yelled, “You’re a hero.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a British charity and watchdog group, noted that a social media account titled “GLOBALISE THE INTIFADA” called for the gathering, urging that “our sister Dr Aldwan needs our support” and “this is as serious as it gets.” The account features inverted red triangles to bookend its name, a symbol used by Hamas to mark Israeli targets to be attacked in its propaganda. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the symbol has been widely used by activists to express opposition to the Jewish state and support for the Palestinian terrorist group.
“It speaks volumes about pro-Palestine activists in Britain that they rush to the defense of those charged with supporting Hamas,” CAA said of the demonstration.
According to police, on July 21, 2025, on King Charles Street in London, Aladwan “used words that were threatening, abusive, or insulting intending thereby to stir up racial hatred or having regard to all the circumstances was reckless as to whether racial hatred would be stirred up,” a violation of the Public Order Act of 1986.
On Nov. 19, 2025, police allege that Aladwan “published or distributed written material that was threatening, abusive or insulting intending thereby to stir up racial hatred or having regard to all the circumstances was reckless as to whether racial hatred would be stirred up,” a violation of the same law.
Aladwan’s charges of inviting support for a proscribed terrorist organization range from summer through winter of last year, with her alleged crimes committed in July, August, October, and on New Year’s Eve.
The UK’s Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS), which adjudicates on complaints made against doctors, in November suspended Aladwan from practicing medicine for 15 months in response to complaints filed by the CAA, finding that her words could have an “impact on patient confidence” and discourage people from seeking treatment from her.
Some of Aladwan’s antisemitic statements in the original CAA complaint against her included “Britain is totally occupied by Jewish supremacy” and “I will never condemn the 7th of October,” referring to Hamas’s 2023 invasion of and massacre across southern Israel. She also infamously labeled London’s Royal Free Hospital “a Jewish supremacy cesspit.”
In a July 6, 2025, posting on X, Aladwan clarified her position for those still confused about her activism’s mission, writing, “Let’s make this crystal clear: anti-Zionism means ‘Israel’ has no right to exist. No debates. No exceptions. ‘Israel’ is genocide. Its supporters are genocidal — and that includes over 90% of Jews on earth.”
Aladwan’s antisemitism has served as the iceberg’s tip in UK, signaling a lurking crisis in the country’s system of socialized medicine.
Last year, Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for an urgent review to accelerate regulators seeking to counter hateful medical practitioners. “There are just too many examples, clear examples, of antisemitism that have not been dealt with adequately or effectively,” he said at the time.
The results of the investigation came in this week. UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced their planned implementation through a series of reforms.
These challenges of antisemitism manifesting in medical settings have also shown up in South America, Australia, and across Europe.
In January, Argentina’s José de San Martín Hospital suspended Miqueas Martinez Secchi, a resident physician specializing in intensive care, after writing about Jews on X that “instead of performing circumcision, their carotid artery and main artery should be cut from side to side.”
In February, Australian nurses Sarah Abu Lebdeh and Ahmad Rashad Nadir pleaded not guilty after seizing international attention when a video of them threatening to kill Israeli patients went viral.
In the Netherlands last year, police investigated a nurse who threatened to deliver lethal injections to Israeli patients. In Belgium, a doctor listed “Jewish (Israeli)” as a medical problem when treating a 9-year-old. A Belgian-Israeli living in Amsterdam revealed that a nurse in Amsterdam denied her medical care after refusing to remove a pro-Palestine button.
Responding to Aladwan’s arrest, a CAA spokesperson said, “The cycle of repeatedly arresting Dr. Aladwan and her breaching her bail conditions and being re-arrested may finally be broken, as she now faces charges relating to terrorism and other offenses.”
“This is a doctor whose current interim suspension from practice was even in doubt, so pitiful is our healthcare regulation system, and who has been repeatedly arrested and faced effectively no penalty,” the spokesperson added. “This case will now be a real test of English justice, and whether it can be delivered for British Jews.”
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London Police Set Up Specialist Jewish Protection Team
A police officer stands at the scene, after a man was arrested following a stabbing incident in the Golders Green area, which is home to a large Jewish population, in London, Britain, April 29, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Hannah McKay
British police are setting up a new team of 100 officers including counter terrorism specialists to help protect Jewish communities across London after a series of antisemitic attacks including the stabbing of two men.
The plan announced on Wednesday for a dedicated protection team comes as officers announced more arrests for antisemitism, including detaining a 35-year-old man on Saturday after rocks were thrown at an ambulance belonging to the Jewish community.
London‘s top police boss Mark Rowley said Jewish communities were facing “sustained threats” from hostile state actors as well as extreme right-wing groups, elements of the extreme left, and Islamist terrorists.
Detectives are examining whether the arson incidents have possible Iranian links, after British security officials warned that Iran was using criminal proxies to carry out hostile activity.
Since late March, there have been a number of high-profile arson attacks with four Jewish ambulances burned and synagogues targeted. Last week, two Jewish men were also stabbed. Both victims survived the attack.
Over the past four weeks, police said they had arrested around 50 people for antisemitic hate crimes and charged eight individuals. On top of that, 28 arrests have been made as part of investigations alongside counter terrorism policing for arson and other serious incidents.
“This new team will be primarily focused on protecting the Jewish community, which faces some of the highest levels of hate crime alongside significant terrorist and hostile state threats,” said a statement from London‘s Metropolitan Police force.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer convened a meeting on Monday with business, health and cultural leaders aimed at trying to tackle antisemitism.
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Iran Reviewing US Proposal to End War, Though Key Demands Remain Unaddressed
People walk on a street near a mural featuring an image of the late Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, May 6, 2026. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran said on Wednesday it was reviewing a US peace proposal that sources said would formally end the war while leaving unresolved the key US demands that Iran suspend its nuclear program and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
An Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson cited by Iran‘s ISNA news agency said Tehran would convey its response. US President Donald Trump said he believed Iran wanted an agreement.
“They want to make a deal. We’ve had very good talks over the last 24 hours, and it’s very possible that we’ll make a deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, Trump had sounded more pessimistic about the chances of a deal. In a Truth Social post, he threatened to restart the US bombing campaign in Iran, calling the possibility of Tehran agreeing to the latest US proposal a “big assumption.”
Trump has repeatedly played up the prospect of an agreement that would end the war that started Feb. 28, so far without success. The two sides remain at odds over a variety of difficult issues, such as Iran‘s nuclear ambitions and its control of the Strait of Hormuz, which before the war handled one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply.
A Pakistani source and another source briefed on the mediation said an agreement was close on a one-page memorandum that would formally end the conflict. That would kick off discussions to unblock shipping through the strait, lift US sanctions on Iran, and set curbs on Iran‘s nuclear program, the sources said.
It was unclear how the memorandum differs from a 14-point plan proposed by Iran last week, and Iran has yet to respond to the latest US proposal.
Iran‘s semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing an unnamed source, said the US proposal contained some unacceptable provisions, without specifying which ones.
Iranian lawmaker Ebrahim Rezaei, a spokesperson for parliament’s powerful foreign policy and national security committee, described the text as “more of an American wish-list than a reality.”
“The Americans will not gain anything in a war they are losing that they have not gained in face-to-face negotiations,” he wrote on social media.
OIL PRICES TUMBLE
Reports of a possible agreement caused global oil prices to tumble to two-week lows, with benchmark Brent crude futures falling around 11% to around $98 a barrel at one point before rising back above the $100 mark.
Global share prices also leapt and bond yields fell on optimism about an end to a war that has disrupted energy supplies.
Trump on Tuesday paused a two-day-old naval mission to reopen the blockaded strait, citing progress in peace talks.
The US military has kept up its own blockade on Iranian ships in the region. US Central Command said forces fired at an unladen Iranian-flagged tanker on Wednesday, disabling the vessel as it attempted to sail toward an Iranian port in violation of the blockade.
NO MENTION OF KEY US DEMANDS
The source briefed on the mediation said the US negotiations were being led by Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner. If both sides agreed on the preliminary deal, that would start the clock on 30 days of detailed negotiations to reach a full agreement.
The full agreement would end the competing US and Iranian blockades on the strait, lift US sanctions, and release frozen Iranian funds. It would also include some curbs on Iran‘s nuclear program, with the aim of a pause or moratorium on Iranian enrichment of uranium.
While the sources said the memorandum would not initially require concessions from either side, they did not mention several key demands Washington has made in the past, which Iran has rejected, such as curbs on Iran‘s missile program and an end to its support for proxy militias in the Middle East.
The sources also made no mention of Iran‘s existing stockpile of more than 400 kg (900 pounds) of near-weapons-grade uranium.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump’s ally against Iran, said on Wednesday the two leaders agreed that all enriched uranium must be removed from Iran to prevent it from developing a nuclear bomb.
Tehran denies wanting to acquire a nuclear weapon.
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Brussels cathedral installs plaques apologizing for medieval antisemitic persecution depicted in stained glass
(JTA) — More than 650 years after Jews in Brussels were executed and expelled following false antisemitic accusations, church officials at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula have installed a plaque apologizing for the persecution commemorated in its stained glass windows.
At a ceremony on April 27, Archbishop Luc Terlinden of Mechelen-Brussels and Rabbi Albert Guigui, the chief rabbi of Brussels, unveiled four plaques, written in Dutch, French, English and Hebrew, providing historical context for the windows and an apology for the antisemitic persecution tied to the events they depict.
The plaques, which Terlinden signed, state that “baseless accusations of the desecration of the Eucharistic host were made against Jewish communities” in medieval Europe and that the accusations “led to persecution, massacres, and unjustifiable expulsions.” The windows show Jews being executed at the stake in response to their alleged attacks on the Eucharist, bread that Catholic doctrine considers a literal representation of Jesus’ body.
“Theological and social anti-Judaism is in direct contradiction with the Gospel of Christ, which calls for truth, justice, and brotherhood,” the plaques say. “We ask forgiveness from the Jewish people for the suffering these accusations have caused.”
The stained glass windows in the cathedral depict the “Brussels Host Desecration,” an antisemitic accusation in 1370 that Jews had desecrated communion wafers, leading to the execution of Jews in Brussels and the expulsion of the city’s Jewish community.
The windows have drawn scrutiny for decades, particularly as the Catholic Church sought to reckon with its history of antisemitism. In 1969, shortly after the landmark Nostra Aetate declaration rejecting longstanding anti-Jewish Catholic doctrine, the Archbishop of Brussels ordered that several paintings be removed and a plaque be mounted to offer context about the remaining depictions.
Several years later, the European Jewish Congress noted last week, Catholic leaders did install a plaque that drew readers’ attention to “the biased nature of the accusations [against the Jews accused of the desecration] and to the legendary presentation of the ‘miracle.’”
But Flora Cassen, the director of the Brandeis Center for Jewish Studies and a scholar of European antisemitism, said the existing plaque was “very ambiguous about the responsibility and what happened” and installed in an easy-to-miss location. The new plaques, she said, contain a clear and “very moving” apology and cannot be missed by anyone who comes to see the windows.
“The significance is enormous of the church finally putting a plaque there that tells the story, that acknowledges the antisemitism behind it, that acknowledges that it was a slander and that it resulted in persecution and in the execution of Jews in Brussels and their expulsion,” Cassen said.
The new plaques cite Nostra Aetate and the Catholic Church’s subsequent effort under Pope John Paul II to reckon with historical antisemitism in 2000. They affirm the church’s “commitment to combat all forms of antisemitism, to deepen dialogue between Jews and Christians, and to pass on to future generations a clear remembrance, based on the acknowledgement of truth and mutual respect.”
While some have called for the historic windows to be removed, Guigui said in a statement that the plaques represented an appropriate way to address relics of historical antisemitism.
“What matters today is how we look at these images,” the rabbi said. “They must not be erased, because they are part of history, but they must be accompanied by explanation and moral insight in order to understand the context and avoid repeating past mistakes.”
The post Brussels cathedral installs plaques apologizing for medieval antisemitic persecution depicted in stained glass appeared first on The Forward.