Surgeon vindicated after attempt to have him banned from practice fails
Renowned British-Palestinian plastic surgeon Professor Ghassan Abu Sittah, who has volunteered repeatedly in Gaza to help Palestinians recover from injuries recover from wounds inflicted by Israeli occupation forces, has been vindicated by the General Medical Council (GMC) after an attempt by a group of pro-Israel lawyers to suspend him from practicing medicine was rejected.
Abu Sittah was represented by a legal team from the famous (and Jewish-founded) human rights Bindmans LLP, including Tayab Ali, director of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP). His lawyers argued that the complaint was politically motivated.
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) had claimed that posts Abu Sittah had allegedly made on social media posed a risk to patients. Abu Sittah clarified that he was not the author of many of the posts and that others originally written in Arabic had been mistranslated and misused against him. According to ICJP, UKLFI were unable to produce any independent translations to the Tribunal.
A statement from ICJP on the outcome reads:
This attempt to undermine both his prominent reputation as a public figure, known for his voluntary medical service in Gaza, and his rights to freedom of expression has been unsuccessful.
The Tribunal found that there was no evidence that patient safety would be compromised and heard testimonies on the quality of his work and equal treatment of patients.
UKLFI is well known for its attempts to suppress pro-Palestinian speech and solidarity. The group tried to force Tower Hamlets Council in London to take down Palestinian flags put up by residents in solidarity with Gaza, by claiming that local Jewish residents felt threatened – and successfully browbeat Chelsea and Westminster Hospital into removing a display of art by Palestinian children by claiming that Jewish patients had complained. A Freedom of Information Act request subsequently revealed that the hospital had received no complaints about the display.
Professor Abu Sittah has also previously succeeded in overturning an entry ban imposed by the German government to prevent him from attending a Palestine solidarity event at which he was scheduled to speak.
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Many congratulations – once more – to Professor Ghassan Abu Sittah, on his legal victory, and many congratulations to the legal team from Bindmans LLP, especially Tayab Ali, director of the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP).
Surely – by now – the Courts, the governing bodies of organisations like the GMC, our universities, etc, etc, should be aware that any complaints received from a Zionist organisation should be treated with a healthy dose of scepticism, and treated as vexatious, unless proven otherwise.
So many Zionist organisations – so many lives disrupted. Their complaints seem to happen on a weekly – if not daily – basis.
Someone must have noticed!
One would hope that the courts could recognise vexatious humbug when it shows its face.
I have to confess looking both UKKFI and Paul Mason News quite often. They are so reactionary they have to be read to be believed!
Well Well well well…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyg1j0lv1go
‘Ants are everywhere’: Labour MP’s tenants reveal condition of flats
A Labour MP rents out flats with black mould and ant infestations, the BBC has discovered.
Jas Athwal, the newly-elected MP for Ilford South, owns 15 rental flats, making him the biggest landlord in the House of Commons.
In one block of seven flats owned by Mr Athwal nearly half the tenants said they had to regularly clean their bathroom ceilings to remove mould.
The BBC also saw evidence of ant infestations in a number of the seven properties.
“The ants are everywhere,” one resident said, pointing to insects climbing up a door frame. “They are on my kid’s body and on their clothes.”
Another resident said they had been threatened with eviction by the letting agent if they complained about problems in their flat or started claiming benefits.
Mr Athwal said the properties were managed by an agency, he had not been aware of these problems, and denied any tenant had been threatened with eviction.
He said he did not take on tenants on housing benefit to avoid conflicts of interest with his role as the local council leader.
He described himself as a “renters’ champion”.
But Andrew Boff, a Conservative member of the London Assembly who has also visited the flats, is calling on the Labour Party and Redbridge Council to investigate.
According to the Redbridge Council website Mr Athwal requires a selective property licence in order to rent out the block of seven properties, a system he introduced in December as the leader of the council.
A search on the council’s public licence register indicates that none of the seven properties has a licence. The BBC has separately seen evidence suggesting that one of the seven properties does not have a licence.
We have also asked Redbridge Council to confirm this information. They had not responded at the time of publication.
Mr Athwal stood down from his role as council leader last month after being elected to Parliament. He said he is in “full compliance” with the landlord licensing scheme.
When I visited the properties, which are above an empty shop in Ilford, the communal areas were dirty and the lights did not work.
Fire alarms were hanging loose from the ceiling, and a washing machine had been dumped next to a set of stairs.
One resident showed me black mould growing on their bathroom ceiling, adding that a family member is a “clean freak” who keeps scrubbing the area with bleach to keep the mould at bay.
Another said they had googled black mould and realised it could be toxic.
“The whole ceiling would be black if we didn’t clean it every few weeks,” they said.
I knocked on every door and spoke to most of the tenants. None wanted their name to be used. Some specifically said this was due to a fear of being evicted.
“Please don’t use my name,” said a resident. “Finding a new flat is very difficult.”
Most of the people I spoke to said Mr Athwal and his property manager were slow to respond to complaints or were completely unresponsive.
While I was at the block, the property manager was tipped off about my visit and tenants started to get calls from him. After receiving these calls they became hesitant about talking to me. This appeared to me to be intimidation.
One resident who had spoken on camera about problems with their flat later asked that we not use the interview and another asked me not to use images of the mould two days after allowing me to take pictures of it.
Labour’s 2024 general election manifesto included a commitment to “prevent private renters being exploited and discriminated against”.
I’m deeply concerned,” said Conservative Andrew Boff, who has also visited the flats, spoken to residents and took pictures of the mould.
“I worry that there are people who are Jas Athwal’s tenants who are now frightened to speak for fear of being evicted.”
“We’ve heard this time and time again about how the threat of eviction is used to excuse poor maintenance of properties,” he added.
He has called for the Labour Party and Redbridge Council to investigate Mr Athwal.
“Here we have a situation where somebody who is the leader of Redbridge Council, which introduced a licensing scheme, which he told everybody else to sign up to, and he didn’t do it himself,” he said.
Mr Athwal did not respond to a request for interview but said in a statement: “My properties are managed by an agency, selected for their quick response times and excellent customer service. This is evidenced by the long tenure of the tenants – over 87 years across 15 properties.
“I pride myself on being a good landlord and no tenants have ever been evicted. Repairs and improvements have been made to properties as recently as two weeks ago.
“To ensure tenants enjoy a secure, long-term home, rents are kept below market rate and, in many cases rents are frozen at the rate first agreed.
“Every Redbridge rental property I own is in full compliance with the landlord licence scheme, and have been since its creation. Landlords are contacted by the council when licences are due for renewal, this has not yet occurred for my properties but licences will be renewed when the notices are issued.”
Around 60 current MPs receive income from rental properties, according to Parliament’s latest register of interests.
Disgraceful.
So let’s hear staunch athwal ally weasely screeching’s ‘outrage’ about how the beeb and the toerags have stitched up the slum landlord HE helped to get a seat in government.
Out with it, queen…
Also, I note keef has had the thatcher portrait in #10 moved. Doesn’t say where to, but I’ll bet keef will be spending a lot more time on the khazi and exiting looking rather flushed 😙🎶
But he won’t mind. The bogroll’s on expenses.
Anyway, I wonder where they’re gonna hang keef?
I suggest westminster bridge.
All the Palestinians want is their country back & The Balfour Declaration (1917) said a Jewish Home in Palestine (but not a state) but it also said that this should not have a negative impact on the indigenous (Palestinian) population.
Palestinian intellectuals like Edward Said after years of conflict came to support One Multi-Ethnic Democratic State of Palestine (from the rivers to the sea) and Arafat said this in his speech to the UN in Paris (it had to be held there as the USA wouldn’t let him enter America). But some argue the Palestinians have suffered from poor Leadership which is why Palestinian intellectual H.Eid (as well as supporting the above One Democratic State) calls for “A new Palestinian grassroots approach.”
I’ve said many times the USA & Israel (with the rest of the capitalist West (wanting a share) profits from arms sales, and want Gaza’s land, gas, oil & to build a new canal in the Levant, so Palestinian’s are being slaughtered for profits.
Yet the oppressed of world and a few progressive MPs and most of the Global South & other countries are standing with Palestine and for the above logical and peaceful solution and BDS is working.
We have to keep on, keeping on.
UPDATE:
Mr Athwal has now also admitted his flats do not have the correct property licenses required under a scheme he introduced as Redbridge Council leader.
He had earlier claimed to the BBC that he had complied with the rules.
Mr Athwal said he was “shocked” and “profoundly sorry” to hear of residents’ issues, which he had not been aware of due to the properties being managed by an agency, and promised repairs and maintenance will be completed “swiftly”.
“Wasn’t me guv, it was the agency. I only lied about the licences”
Approaching around twenty-four hours now, and we have still not yet had a BTL posting providing a URL link to the relevant property licence for us to peruse.