Dr. Omar Abdel Manan, an Egyptian-British neurologist who specializes in pediatrics, takes it upon himself to defend the Palestinian cause, which is going through its most dangerous stages in light of Israeli plans to liquidate it.
Dr. Abdel Mannan – during the “The Interview” program in the episode (10/19/2025) – touched on his most prominent milestones in supporting the Palestinian cause, the visits he made to the occupied territories, and the solidarity events and initiatives with workers in the health sector in the Gaza Strip during the recent war.
Abdel Manan revealed that his first involvement with the Palestinian issue was during the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip in late 2008.
According to the Egyptian-British doctor, his first visit to the Palestinian territories was in 2011 when he visited the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem.
Abdel Manan graduated from Oxford University School of Medicine in 2011, and has authored more than 30 research papers. He also participated in establishing an educational platform that brings together Oxford hospitals and medical colleges in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
As for Gaza, he said that his first visit there was in October 2014 to assist and train medical students and newly graduated doctors, and he revealed that the entry procedures there were different from the West Bank due to the occupation and siege and coming through the Erez crossing.
He reviewed part of the extent of the harsh suffering that the people of Gaza experienced during the years of the siege, but he revealed that his feeling in Gaza remains different, as he is treated with wonderful humane treatment in contrast to the occupation’s procedures at its airports and crossings.
He pointed out that his last visit to Gaza was in 2020, before the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, and his visit was also scheduled for mid-October 2023, but it was canceled after the “Al-Aqsa Flood” attack.
In 2023, Abdul Manan founded the “Health Workers for Palestine” initiative with the aim of mobilizing health sector workers around the world in solidarity with Gaza, which works to ship and deliver medical aid to the Strip.
The doctor, who is still in his doctoral degree, contributed to raising more than half a million pounds in donations for the besieged Palestinian Strip.
The Egyptian-British doctor revealed the details of the launch of the initiative two days after the outbreak of the last war, as it began through an exchange of messages between doctors, nurses, and health sector workers after the development of events in Gaza.
According to the doctor, the unprecedented Israeli bombing of Gaza forced doctors and nurses in Britain to raise their voices loudly and document what was happening, especially since the Palestinian voice was absent in the British media.
He pointed out that a demonstration was organized in which at least 300 doctors and nurses participated in front of the British Prime Minister’s Office in November 2023, during which they raised the names of health sector workers in Gaza who had been killed since the beginning of the war.
According to Abdel Manan, the beginning of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza was through a fundraising event, but it was prevented for “security” reasons before the matter developed into a protest in front of the Prime Minister’s Office, before protests continued in many British cities.
The doctors’ protests are trusted in the British street – he says – despite the British political and military support for Israel, noting that the words of the doctors have more weight and weight.
But he acknowledged that the effect was slow, pointing to the bias of the British government in dealing with those wounded in the Ukraine war compared to those wounded in the Gaza war, stressing that the reason was purely racist.
His personal study
As for his personal experience, Abdel Manan was born in Egypt and lived there for 8 years before immigrating to England, but that did not prevent him from being interested in Arab issues, especially the Palestinian issue.
He said that his studies at Oxford University had a profound impact on his interest in the Palestinian issue, because it included many students of different nationalities and religions, noting that he got to know many Palestinians during his studies at the university.
He looked back at his academic career, as he studied human medicine at Oxford and graduated in 2011, then worked in London so that he had to live there. He said that his doctor father advised him not to study medicine because it was a tiring profession and required study throughout his life.
Published On 19/10/2025
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Last update: 23:53 (Mecca time)