A barrister who is standing to be an MP in the east London constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow, has posted a string of anti-Israel posts including an October 7 conspiracy theory that Israel knowingly allowed the attacks to take place to “expel” Palestinians.
Sham Uddin, who was called to the bar in 2015 and practices family, civil and criminal law at the Kings Bench Walk Chambers, has been a vocal critic of Israel on social media boasting he is the barrister most feared by the “Israel lobby.”
Uddin who is standing as an independent candidate, has used his platform to attack Labour’s sitting MP, Rushanara Ali, after she did not back a Gaza ceasefire vote in parliament.
In one post shared on the professional platform Linkedin Uddin said: “There is evidence that in my opinion that this attack by Hamas was done with the connivance of certain parts of the Israeli government, which was to expel the Palestinians from Gaza in order to bury the two-state solution.”
In another post he said: “This is not a conspiracy theory but reality.”
He described the October 7 Hamas massacre as a “false flag operation” claiming it was “an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party.”
He said Israel intended to “cleanse” the Gaza strip “and soon they will do that to the West Bank. The same thing happened with the six-day war in 1967 as a result of which they ethnically cleansed Tel Aviv, Haifa and other places of Palestinians.”
In another post he said a British IDF soldier killed in Gaza was “a terrorist and a war criminal.”
He shared a picture of the killed 19-year-old Benjamin Needham and said: “This soldier who has died fighting for the IDF in my opinion is a terrorist and a war criminal.
“He has the blood of countless Palestinians including defenseless children on his hands. Israel in my opinion is a xenophobic and racist country governed by war criminals.”
In another post, Uddin claimed that Suella Braverman who served as Home Secretary until November 2023 “has acted as a buffoon and kowtowed to the racists and is now kowtowing to her Israeli masters.”
He also made other posts drawing attention to the fact she is married to someone Jewish.
In another post seen by the JC, Uddin invokes imagery of a dog claiming that Israel controls the US.
He said: “When it comes to Israel, the USA is the dog Israel is the tail and the UK is the ass. But it is the tail that wags the dog – and the UK stores the crap from Israel. This is the reality.”
Uddin, who uses his platform to appeal for donations for his campaign to stand as an independent candidate in the east London seat, has already been the subject of complaints made to Bar Standards Board for some of his posts.
In a post addressing one complaint, Uddin said: “I put you on notice that I intend to waive the Palestinian flag outside the Bar Standards Board offices in Holborn London, because it is my opinion that the Bar Standards Board is influenced by the Israel lobby in the United Kingdom in persecuting barristers, who speak up against Israel and its crimes against humanity.”
In a letter sent to a complainant from the BSB about Uddin’s posts, the regulator said there was “insufficient evidence” that Uddin would discriminate against future clients.
The BSB told the complainant: “Every person including barristers has a Article 10 right of freedom of expression. Arising out of the conflict in Israel and Palestine there has been much debate in the press and on social media between people holding strong opinions.
“We carefully considered the 2 screenshots that you forwarded. In our assessment they were putting forward a political opinion albeit in terms that some might find distasteful.”
When contacted about Uddin’s most recent posts by the JC the BSB said it “does not usually comment as to whether or not it has received any information about potential misconduct by a barrister however it might have come to our attention.”
Uddin posted the JC’s request for comment to Linkedin and said: “I have no comment to make.”
