Ghassan Abu Sittah’s targeting is a reminder of both the racist & revolutionary potential of medicine

Renowned British-Palestinian surgeon and Palestinian rights advocate Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah has been vindicated following an attempt by pro-Israel lobby group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) to have him suspended from practicing medicine.

The original complaint was made by UKLFI to the General Medical Council (GMC), the body which regulates doctors in the UK. UKLFI claimed Dr Abu Sittah, who has given evidence to the UK war crimes division and the international criminal court, was “unfit” to practise medicine over alleged social media posts. Dr Abu Sittah argued before the Tribunal that the complaint was political in nature, he was not the author of a number of the posts he was accused of publishing, and that translations provided of posts in Arabic were substantially inaccurate. The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) asserted that the smears from UKLFI were “designed to bring Dr Abu Sittah’s distinguished reputation into disrepute” and “undermine” his “rights to freedom of expression”.

Despite the targeted nature of the complaint, the GMC chose to take it forward to a tribunal, filing a suspension request as part of its ongoing investigation. However, the tribunal ultimately dismissed it, concluding that there was no evidence to suggest any risk to his patients or the general public, and further declined to impose any conditions on his use of social media.

Institutional discrimination

The GMC has been accused multiple times of systematically discriminating against doctors of colour in their referral, investigations and sanctioning processes. The fact that the GMC took UKLFI’s complaint forward, including a request for suspension, has reinforced this belief for many, further damaging trust in the regulator.

The medical establishment as a whole is rife with systemic racism towards staff, patients and the public. The suppression of doctors speaking in solidarity with Palestine, in particular the targeting of those who are Muslim and/or Arab, represents an escalation of this institutionalised discrimination, and has come as no surprise to those who have already experienced it. Numerous Muslim and Arab doctors have been referred for disciplinary processes in the workplace with threats of GMC referral for expressing solidarity with Palestinians. Others have experienced doxxing and harassment online.

The particularly insidious suppression of doctors’ political speech highlights the fact that politicised doctors represent a threat to Israel. As Dr Abu Sittah highlighted in a recent interview, "Medicine allows you to agitate in a way that the system is not prepared for you to agitate because you are the scion of respectability in Western professional life. You’re a doctor. And so when you start to agitate, then you’re more likely to be heard.” Doctors, especially those who have worked in Palestine, can use their social licence to undermine Israel’s propaganda, and act as witnesses to the immense violence committed by the state.

Medical industrial complex

Israel heavily depends on their medical industrial complex to support their economy. The global Israeli pharmaceutical giant TEVA contributes millions to the Israeli state in taxes. They supply more packs of medication to the NHS than any other supplier.

As the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, highlighted  on a recent trip to Israel, medical technology is a key area of collaboration between the UK and Israel. For example, Palantir, a military and surveillance company currently supplying the Israeli military with advanced AI weaponry, recently gained a hugely controversial data contract with the NHS worth £330 million.

This only reinforces how significant a threat an organised healthcare workforce that takes up boycott, divest and sanctions campaigns would be to Israel.

Double standards amidst genocide

In contrast, British doctors publicly defending war crimes, or volunteering to provide medical services to the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have attracted little outrage or regulatory measures from the medical establishment. Globally, medical institutions have failed to respond to Israeli medical complicity in occupation and genocide. In October, hundreds of Israeli doctors signed a petition calling on the IOF to target hospitals, calling them “terrorist nests”. More recently, testimonies have highlighted that some Israeli doctors are participating in the torture of Palestinian prisoners. This is not new, but a continuation of an established legacy of Israeli health professionals actively collaborating with torture and illegal detention.

The global medical establishment’s complicity goes beyond silence, including active legitimization and justification of war crimes. In November, Chatham House, a prominent think tank that have a focus on global health, published a piece by a military doctor debating the legitimacy of targeting hospitals, parroting Israeli propaganda that Hamas was utilising hospitals as military bases. In March, the Journal of the American Medical Association published multiple letters which repeated false claims that Al-Shifa hospital was a military “command centre”.

The contrast between the participation of the medical establishment in Israeli state violence versus the active suppression of solidarity with Palestinians represents a fundamental friction at the heart of medical practice. Western biomedical systems were a pillar of colonialism, from developing ‘global health’ as an extension of empire to the violent philosophy of eugenics. Despite this, medicine retains a revolutionary potential which Palestinian doctors have invigorated across the world.

In service of the people

Israel is desperate to target healthcare in order to prevent the survival, healing and reproduction of Palestinian life. While colonialism seeks to dominate and extinguish life, a medicine in service of the people seeks to nurture it and to fight oppression. Palestinian doctors, who have long been a key pillar of Palestinian liberation movements, have been steadfast in practicing medicine as resistance to genocide; preserving its life-affirming revolutionary potential.

Far beyond the hospital and clinic itself, a truly liberatory medical practice is driven by the knowledge that only through changing the conditions which create sickness can health justice be achieved. Throughout history, especially in the global South, doctors have been active parts of revolutionary and anticolonial movements fighting for the fundamentals of life and health.

As doctors in the imperial core we must learn from this history and not be deterred by threats and intimidation. We must follow the call of our colleagues in Palestine and build a politicised workforce that can support movements for liberation in Palestine, in the UK and globally.

Dr Rhiannon Mihranian is doctor, organiser, and researcher focussed on health justice as a tool for radical systems change. Her work focusses on environmental justice, anti-colonialism, and re-imagining health systems. 

Dr Sara el-Solh is a physician-anthropologist, writer and organiser using health as a lens through which to radically reimagine a just world.

Follow them on X: @rhi_mihranian

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Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.