Alaa Abd El-Fattah, the long-imprisoned Egyptian political activist who arrived in the UK last week, has “unequivocally” apologized for social media statements calling for the killing of Zionists and whites.
On Friday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other cabinet ministers announced on social media that they were “delighted” that El-Fattah had been brought to the UK and reunited with his family after 12 years in prison. However, his previous comments – such as him considering “killing any colonialists and especially Zionists heroic” - soon circulated online.
In a public statement on Monday, El-Fattah said he was “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.”
However, he admitted that, looking at the tweets now, “the ones that were not completely twisted out of their meaning, I do understand how shocking and hurtful they are, and for that I unequivocally apologize.”
Comments expressions of 'anger and frustrations'
El-Fattah said his previous comments were mostly expressions of a young “man’s anger and frustrations in a time of regional crises (the wars in Iraq, Lebanon, and Gaza), and the rise of police brutality against Egyptian youth.”
He claimed that while he was deeply embedded in “antagonistic online cultures” at the time, young him never intended to offend a wider public and was actually “engaged in the non-violent pro-democracy movement.”
El-Fattah denied that any of his previous tweets included homophobia, saying that he has paid “a steep price for support for LGBTQ rights in Egypt." He also rejected accusations of Holocaust denial, adding, “I take accusations of antisemitism very seriously.”
It is notable that El-Fattah was able to obtain British citizenship in 2021 without going through a “good character” check.