The sister of the ‘extremist’ Egyptian dissident who Sir Keir Starmer welcomed to Britain praised the ‘imagination’ of Hamas militants after the 7 October attacks.
Mona Seif, who headed a long-running campaign for her brother Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s release, suggested the 2023 violence against Israel was ‘understandable’.
She has also been revealed to have compared ‘Palestinian resistance’ with ‘Ukrainian resistance’ on the day of the terrorist atrocity.
Ms Seif celebrated the arrival of her brother in the UK on Boxing Day, which was also welcomed by the PM following years of Mr Abd El-Fattah’s detention in Egypt.
But past social media posts subsequently surfaced in which Mr Abd El-Fattah, a dual British national, appeared to have called for violence against Zionists and the police.
Mr Abd El-Fattah this week apologised ‘unequivocally’ for several historic tweets and claimed some of the posts had been ‘completely twisted out of their meaning’.
The PM has been fighting off calls to deport Mr Abd El-Fattah and strip him of his of his British citizenship.
Senior Tory MP Robert Jenrick has now branded both Mr Abd El-Fattah and Ms Seif as ‘extremists’ over the past social media posts.
Mona Seif, who headed a long-running campaign for her brother Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s release, is pictured alongside Labour’s David Lammy in 2022
Mr Abd El-Fattah’s arrival in the UK on Boxing Day was welcomed by the PM following years of his detention in Egypt
It is understood Sir Keir Starmer was not aware of Mr Abd El-Fattah’s own ‘extremist’ social media posts when he said he was ‘delighted’ he had returned to the UK
Mr Jenrick also highlighted how Ms Seif had been ‘feted by the likes of David Lammy’ after the senior Labour MP, now Deputy PM, campaigned alongside her in 2022.
‘When Starmer welcomed the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the BBC described his sister, Mona, as a ‘human rights defender’,’ he said.
‘She’s been feted by the likes of David Lammy. It turns out, like her brother, Mona has extremist views.’
On the morning of 7 October 2023, the day when Hamas launched a series of attacks on Israel, Ms Seif posted pictures of militants flying by paraglider to her X account.
‘Something out of a sci fi movie,’ she wrote.
‘I guess it takes a special kind of imagination to find new ways of resisting an extremely advanced occupation army whose war crimes are constantly justified and endorsed by some of the most powerful governments!’
Ms Seif quickly followed it up with another post, in which she added: ‘Once again the discrepancy between many of those celebrating Ukrainian resistance but now condemn Palestinian resistance, speaks loudly of their hypocrisy.
‘You are either with people’s right to resist an army occupation or not! It can’t be ‘only for people who look like me’.’
The next day, on 8 October 2023, Ms Seif suggested that ‘armed resistance’ was ‘understandably one of the main forms of resistance’ in ‘occupied’ land.
The Mail has attempted to contact Ms Seif for comment. On Monday, Ms Seif addressed the row over her brother’s past social media posts, which she branded a ‘vile campaign against him’.
‘There is something incredibly heartbreaking and infuriating to be witnessing this vile campaign against him -and our family- with people portraying him as something completely opposite to who he really is, and while he paid a steep price for his convictions,’ she posted on X.
She added her brother had ‘expressed a lot of anger towards… war machines’ and ‘state institutions responsible for massive systemic guman rights violations and crimes’.
On the morning of 7 October 2023, the day when Hamas launched a series of attacks on Israel, Ms Seif posted pictures of militants flying by paraglider to her X account
Ms Seif quickly followed it up with another post in which she compared ‘Palestinian resistance’ with ‘Ukrainian resistance’
In a further social media post, Ms Seif suggested the 2023 attacks against Israel were ‘understandable’
Mr Abd El-Fattah was detained in Egypt in September 2019, and in December 2021 was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of spreading false news.
His imprisonment was branded a breach of international law by UN investigators, and he was pardoned by Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi in September after years of lobbying by Conservative and Labour governments.
He flew to the UK on Boxing Day and was reunited with his son, who lives in Brighton, after a travel ban was lifted.
Since then, posts from as early as 2010 have surfaced in which the activist appears to call for violence against Zionists and the police.
Mr Abd El-Fattah said in a statement issued on Monday: ‘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.
‘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 apologise.
‘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.
‘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.’
Yvette Cooper, the Foreign Secretary, has ordered a Foreign Office review of ‘serious information failures’ in the consular case of Mr Abd El-Fattah after the emergence of his ‘abhorrent’ social media posts.
She said successive PMs were not briefed on the tweets dating back as far as 2010 and that civil servants in charge of the case were also ‘unaware’ of them.
In a letter to chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Dame Emily Thornberry, Ms Cooper said that long-standing procedures and due diligence arrangements had been ‘completely inadequate’ in the case and that the Government viewed the tweets as ‘abhorrent.’
The Conservatives and Reform UK have both suggested Mr Abd El-Fattah should have his British citizenship stripped for the posts.
It is understood there are no current plans for this and the law does not appear to provide grounds to deport him.
Downing Street insisted Sir Keir was not aware of Mr Abd El-Fattah’s posts when he voiced his ‘delight’ at his arrival in the UK last week.
