Glasgow University rector backed violence and Hamas terror, tribunal hears

One read: “We congratulate our brothers in Hamas and our comrades in the Popular Front on the anniversary of their inception. May you remain sincere, steadfast, and vigilant. May your strength endure and your enemies be humbled #Hamas _35 #Hamas #Our_inception_is_resistance.”

Another referred to the “Iranian Martyrs in the Popular Front of the Liberation of Palestine”, adding: “Their blood is Iranian. Their heart is Palestinian.”

The doctor also wrote an article for Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar in March 2018 in which he talked of the “martyrdom of resistance fighter Ahmad Nasr Jarrar, the hero of the Nablus operation”, saying the Palestinian people “have no weapon left but revolutionary violence”.

Ros Emsley Smith, for the GMC, said the doctor had "over-stepped the boundaries of legitimate political speech into the realms of misconduct”.

She said the re-posts were objectively supportive of violence, terrorism and antisemitic.

Giving evidence, Abu-Sittah said he had reposted the comments, which were in Arabic, because he found them “intellectually and culturally interesting”.

He said the reposts would be difficult for anyone unfamiliar with Arabic language and Arabic culture and he’d wanted to highlight “inherent contradictions” within them.

In relation to the repost about Hamas, he said: “It’s not an ironic repost, it’s a rebuttal to government propaganda for being historically inaccurate.”

He also accused the UKFLI of “dog-whistling” and racially profiling Palestinians as “inherently violent”.

He also claimed they wanted to “destroy my life” because he had met International Criminal Court (ICC) investigators.

In May 2025, an interim orders tribunal (IOT) rejected a previous application to suspend him after he argued that a complaint against him was political in nature and he was not the author of the posts complained of.

The doctor’s website describes him as one the world’s leading specialists in craniofacial surgery, facial aesthetics, cleft lip and palate surgery, and trauma related injuries.

He’s worked extensively in conflict zones and provided medical assistance at the al-Shifa and al-Ahli hospitals in Gaza, which came under attack after the start of the war with Israel in October 2023.

In January 2024, he visited the Hague to meet International Criminal Court (ICC) investigators and gave evidence to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for South Africa's genocide case against Israel.

He has undertaken fellowships at Great Ormond Street Hospital and Royal London Hospital and occupied senior posts at the American University of Beirut Medical Centre, later becoming a director at the Global Health Institute at the American University of Beirut.

He returned to the UK in 2020 and continues to provide plastic and reconstructive surgery in the private sector.

Abu-Sittah was elected Rector of University of Glasgow in March 2024 after winning 80 per cent of student votes.

He stood on a platform of opposing the war in Gaza, divesting the University of Glasgow from the arms trade, connecting with universities in Palestine and more.

A month later, The Times reported that had he had compared the Israeli leadership to "the psychosis of the Germans in the 30s and the 40s” and described Western powers, including the US, UK, Germany, France, Australia and Canada, as "the axis of genocide”.

He has appeared in a documentary about his work in Gaza, written books about treating the victims of war and received several recognitions, including a Royal College of Surgeons fellowship in 2010.