After old social media posts were resurfaced and framed as “antisemitic” and inciting violence, Egyptian political activist Alaa Abdel Fattah said he was shaken by what he described as attempts to smear his integrity and values, as calls mounted in Britain for his deportation to Egypt and the stripping of his British citizenship.
What should have been a long-delayed reunion between a former political prisoner and his family instead ignited a coordinated online campaign demanding his expulsion.
The backlash erupted just days after Alaa arrived in the United Kingdom, following a decision by Egypt’s public prosecutor to lift his name from travel ban lists. The move came in response to a request submitted by his lawyer, Khaled Ali, nearly three months after President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi issued a decree pardoning the remainder of Alaa’s prison sentence on Sept. 22.
On Friday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Abdel Fattah’s family announced his arrival in Britain.
The moment carried deep personal significance. After years behind bars, Abdel Fattah was finally able to travel and reunite with his 14-year-old son, Khaled, who attends a special-needs school in Brighton due to autism. But Starmer’s public welcome of Abdel Fattah in London quickly triggered an online campaign calling for his deportation to Egypt and the revocation of his British nationality.
Abdel Fattah has held British citizenship since 2021 through his mother, academic Laila Soueif, who was born in Britain in 1956.
Who launched the campaign?
“I’m delighted that Alaa Abd El-Fattah is back in the UK and has been reunited with his loved ones,” Starmer wrote on X, praising Alaa’s family and thanking President El-Sisi for granting a pardon. The online campaign began shortly afterward.
According to an investigation by the Egyptian fact-checking platform Saheeh Masr, the initial spark came after Abdel Fattah’s sister, Mona Seif, replied to Starmer’s post by urging the British prime minister to free people imprisoned in the UK for activism in support of the Palestine.
Her comment prompted a backlash from right-wing British X accounts, particularly those openly supportive of Israel’s occupation of Palestine. These accounts called for Mona Seif’s deportation and posted abusive attacks targeting Alaa Abdel Fattah himself.
Saheeh Masr reported that bloggers openly supportive of Israel’s occupation launched the campaign, using Abdel Fattah’s past posts expressing support for Palestinian resistance as ammunition. The account that initiated the campaign, operating under the pseudonym “prudent rose fire finch,” had previously published 15 comments focused on defending Israel and attacking British Labour politicians who criticized Israeli policies and the bombing of Gaza during the war.
The campaign later drew in several British members of Parliament, along with public figures and journalists known for their pro-Israel positions.
It was soon amplified by Egyptian accounts united by their support for President El-Sisi. Participation from Egypt included two journalists, one working for Al-Bawaba News and another for Cairo News, a channel affiliated with United Media Services, a conglomerate owned by an Egyptian security agency, according to Saheeh Masr.
The campaign circulated posts written by Abdel Fattah on X between 2010 and 2012. Among them were statements such as, “Dear Zionist, do not speak to me. I am a violent person calling for the killing of all Zionists, including civilians.” Another read: “Yes, I consider killing colonialists, especially Zionists, a heroic act, and we need to kill more of them.”
The campaign ignored the context in which those posts were written — Abdel Fattah’s political support for Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation.
Shock and apology
“I am shaken that, just as I am being reunited with my family for the first time in 12 years, several historic tweets of mine have been republished and used to question and attack my integrity and values, escalating to calls for the revocation of my citizenship,” Alaa said.
In a Facebook post published in the early hours of Monday, Abdel Fattah said that upon rereading the posts, those whose meaning had not been entirely distorted — he now understands how shocking they could be and the harm they might cause.
“They were mostly expressions of a young man’s anger and frustrations in a time of regional crises (the wars on Iraq, on Lebanon and Gaza), and the rise of police brutality against Egyptian youth,” he wrote. “I particularly regret some that were written as part of online insult battles, with the total disregard for how they read to other people. I should have known better.”
Reflecting on his earlier writing, Abdel Fattah said he now hears “the voice of a much younger person,” immersed in confrontational digital cultures and using flippant, shocking and sarcastic tones during the chaotic early years of social media. He stressed that the younger version of himself never intended to harm a broad audience and was instead part of a peaceful, pro-democracy movement, repeatedly arrested for demanding full equality, human rights and democracy for all.
Today, Abdel Fattah said, he is “a middle-aged father” who believes “all our fates are entwined, and we can only achieve prosperous and safe lives for our children together.” He said the initiatives he has led reflect that belief.
He also said several posts were entirely misrepresented, in some cases in bad faith. One tweet was circulated as evidence of hostility toward LGBTQ+ people, when it was in fact mocking homophobia. Another was falsely framed as Holocaust denial, when its context showed he was ridiculing Holocaust denial.
“I take accusations of antisemitism very seriously,” Alaa said. “I have always believed that sectarianism and racism are the most sinister and dangerous of forces.” He said he paid a heavy price for defending the rights of religious minorities in Egypt, including imprisonment after defending Egyptian Christians falsely accused of violence.
“This weekend was supposed to be the first time I celebrated my son’s birthday with him since 2012,” Abdel Fattah said. “I have been imprisoned in Egypt for almost his entire life for my consistent promotion of equality, justice and secular democracy. That included publicly rejecting anti-Jewish speech in Egypt, often at risk to myself, defense of LGBTQ rights, defense of Egyptian Christians, and campaigning against police torture and brutality.”
Is deportation possible?
Among those calling for Alaa’s deportation and the stripping of his citizenship was Robert Jenrick, the UK’s shadow justice secretary.
Reform UK leader and MP Nigel Farage also urged the Home Office to revoke Abdel Fattah’s citizenship and order his deportation, saying he had filed a report with counterterrorism police over Abdel Fattah’s social media posts.
Under UK law, the home secretary may strip a person of citizenship if it is deemed “conducive to the public good.” British nationals who hold dual citizenship can be deprived of their nationality. If Abdel Fattah were convicted of a criminal offense, he could face immediate deportation if stripped of British citizenship.
During his imprisonment, Abdel Fattah’s family endured severe hardship as they sought his release after he exceeded the legal maximum for detention. His mother undertook a hunger strike that pushed her to a critical condition, nearly costing her life, and appealed repeatedly, including to the presidency, until his release was secured three months ago.
Abdel Fattah was arrested on Sept. 28, 2019, on charges of “publishing and broadcasting false news inside and outside the country, misusing social media, aiding a terrorist group with knowledge of its aims, and joining a group established in violation of the law.”
He was sentenced to five years in prison in December 2021 after two years in pretrial detention. He was due for release at the end of September 2025, according to earlier statements by his lawyer, Khaled Ali, who said authorities failed to count pretrial detention toward the sentence. Instead, the sentence was calculated from the date the military ruler ratified the verdict, issued by an Emergency State Security Court on Jan. 3, 2022.
