What did Alaa Abd el-Fattah say in past social media posts and why is there a backlash?

"In the posts, most of which appear to have been deleted and could not immediately be verified, he described the killing of Zionists as heroic, adding we need to kill more of them. In 2011 he is accused of saying police don't have rights, we should just kill them all. He also once described British people as dogs and monkeys."

"In a lengthy statement issued in the early hours of Monday, Abd el-Fattah apologised, saying he understood how shocking and hurtful his past comments were. 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, he said."

"A No 10 source said Keir Starmer, his deputy and the foreign secretary were unaware of Abd el-Fattah's past comments, which the government condemned as abhorrent. Conservatives MPs such as Iain Duncan Smith, the former party leader, and Alicia Kearns, a former chair of the foreign affairs select committee, said they too were unaware of Abd el-Fattah's posts and that they regret lobbying for his release."

Most of the social media posts were written on X between 2010 and 2012 during the Arab Spring when the British-Egyptian democracy activist was turning 30. The tweets appeared to show Abd el-Fattah calling for violence against Zionists and the police, describing killing Zionists as heroic and urging more killings. Screenshots suggest posts during the 2011 London riots urging people to burn the city and attack police, and a 2012 post stating "By the way I'm a racist, I don't like white people so piss off." Abd el-Fattah apologised, calling the comments expressions of youthful anger amid regional wars and police brutality, and said some tweets were misunderstood or written in online insult battles. Government figures and Conservative MPs expressed shock and regret over lobbying for his release.

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