An Egyptian NHS doctor who “glorified terrorist violence” by mocking Israeli civilians fleeing the Hamas attacks in October 2023 has won a legal challenge against deportation.
In one of three social media posts hours after the attacks began, Dr Menatalla Elwan, 34, who worked at an NHS trust in Liverpool, reposted footage of music festivalgoers running from Hamas terrorists and wrote “if it was your home, you would stay and fight”, accompanied by a smiling face emoji.
The Home Office tried to remove her temporary right to remain in the UK, but Elwan, who has lived in the country legally since 2016, challenged the decision and was backed by an immigration tribunal judge.
On 7 October 2023, militants from Hamas, an organisation proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000, entered Israel and carried out attacks on civilians.
Judge Davies said Elwan’s reposting of the video along with her comments amounted to “expressions of support and justification for, and indeed glorification of, Hamas terrorist violence”.
In a second post, Elwan said: “Israel was never a country. They illegally occupied Palestine. Would u support Russia invading Ukraine? Israel kill Palestinians everyday, didn’t see anyone caring. Also there are no civilians in Israel.”
The doctor, responding to a post on X by the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, also wrote: “Just take all the Israelis to UK away from terrorist Palestine a win for everyone, no?”
Elwan’s posts were referred to the Home Office, which moved to cancel her permission to stay, the tribunal in Manchester heard. The department said it was satisfied her continued presence in the UK “would not be conducive to the public good”.
Elwan appealed against the decision, saying it breached her freedom of expression and family life, which are protected under the European convention on human rights (ECHR).
Davies found that immediate cancellation of her leave to remain “was not reasonable or proportionate” under the ECHR or common law.
He said her conduct was “short-lived” and a “one-off” in the context of her “overwhelmingly positive and otherwise blameless length of permitted leave within the UK”.
The judge went on: “Even though Dr Elwan did not make a full or public retraction or apology, she had taken down the posts even before the media publicity occurred.
“It is clearly possible to imagine far more egregious posts having been posted by persons not subject to immigration control on that day. The posts, read overall, did include protected expressions of political opinion.
“The [Home Office] also had to consider the consequences to Dr Elwan and, indeed, to the wider community, of immediate cancellation, requiring her to leave her existing post.”
The judge quashed the cancellation of her leave to remain in the country as a skilled worker until mid-2027 and asked the Home Office to “take the decision afresh”. However, he rejected Elwan’s appeal against a decision to refuse her indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
