AIBU - problems with antisemitism amongst NHS medical staff?

[Twiglets1]

The Campaign Against Antisemitism, a prominent UK watchdog group, has identified five healthcare professionals whose public statements it considers antisemitic or anti-Israel.

The five individuals, all current or former National Health Service employees, include midwife Fatimah Mohamied, who allegedly endorsed a post supporting Palestinian “resistance” on Oct. 7, 2023 by responding “Hell yeah!!!” to a post during the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, that said: “Palestinians have a right to resist their occupation — we have a right to support them.”

Additionally, physician Dr. Abdelaal Ragheb Elfarra claimed Zionists control the media and the world; psychiatrist Dr. Ahmed Sewehli said regarding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “you need to be dead”; and emergency physician Dr. Nadeem Crowe described Israel as a “terrorist octopus.” Occupational therapist Zaida Akhtar allegedly shared a video appearing to encourage violence against Netanyahu’s son and a “false flag” claim about the Bondi Beach attack in Australia last year.

The allegations concerning the medical professionals follow a review published in June by John Mann, the British government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, which found “routine ostracism” of Jewish staff and patients within the NHS.

Jewish community representatives have warned that antisemitism in healthcare can affect patients at moments of particular vulnerability.

Karen Newman, a vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, described that concern during parliamentary testimony on May 14. She spoke about Jewish patients hesitating to request kosher meals after seeing a Palestinian badge on a nurse’s uniform.

“That is not a moment when you feel good asking for kosher meals,” she said.

https://www.jns.org/news/world/medical-staff-antisemitism-flagged-in-uk

Legally it is until the international court case makes a decision and then we can say it is or isn't legally classified as a genocide.

At the moment it's opinion.

What has this got to do with the NHS? If patients are being treated in hospital, they are not interested in your politics. They deserve compassionate care that is free of triggers and of any kind of bias, including racism and antisemitism.

I didn't imply the NHS isn't doing anything about it.

I didn't comment in my first post one way or the other about what the NHS is/isn't doing about it.

The second post of the thread (if people made it that far) I said, "I know (or at least think it highly likely) that the vast majority of NHS employees are not racist in any way."

Post 3 on this thread I said the UK government and NHS England accepted all 36 recommendations of the independent review.

That shows the NHS took the review seriously and didn't just rush to deny charges of antisemitism.

The op brings up making posts opposing Netanyahu as one the the examples of senior NHS figures being anti-semetic. I'm saying I disagree.

Your examples are about people's views on Palestine and Israel, not British Jews. Someone being against genocide and the Israel administration does not make them anti-semetic. That's like saying someone who speaks out against Al-Queda is xenophobic and won't treat Muslims well.

Some of my examples are about what Jewish people have experienced in the NHS. As a reminder

The allegations concerning the medical professionals follow a review published in June by John Mann, the British government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, which found “routine ostracism” of Jewish staff and patients within the NHS.

Key Findings of the Review

• Extent of Antisemitism: The review found that anti-Jewish racism, routine ostracism, and hostility are persistent and, in some cases, normalised across certain NHS settings.
• Impact on Staff and Patients: Evidence showed Jewish staff facing increasing discrimination from colleagues—with some considering leaving the service—and Jewish patients expressing reluctance to seek medical treatment.
• Regulatory Concerns: The report highlighted shortcomings in how health and care regulators (such as the General Medical Council) and NHS employers identify, report, and act on antisemitic behaviour.

The issue is that people like yourself are viewing people against genocide (or alleged genocide in your opinion) and people in support of Palastine as anti-semetic. Is there real racism and ostracism or are people perceiving it as that when it is just in fact just people being anti-genocide?
You even say in response to a PP asking about examples of mistreatment towards patients
"Would you consider it a problem for healthcare professionals being racist against your race or religion on social media, as long as it couldn't be proved that they would treat you worse at work?"
There's no clear evidence that those people you quoted in your OP are anti-semetic, just that they are against the Israeli government and genocide, yet you and many others use that as 'evidence' of antisemitism.

Halal food should be banned in the UK as we’re a civilised country so that’s not the best example but I otherwise agree

It's not just my opinion that it's legally called alleged genocide until the court case makes a decision. It's fact.

I'm not saying it is genocide or it isn't genocide. I'm saying only an international court can make that distinction and the court is still considering the evidence.

I don't think most people supporting Palestine are antisemitic. Most of my friends are more pro Palestine than pro Israel and I know they aren't antisemitic. I'm pro Palestine myself if you mean having sympathy for ordinary Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank.

However, it has been discovered that there are problems with antisemitism amongst NHS medical staff. That doesn't mean all staff, of course. I tagged you in the findings from the Mann report and you know the NHS have taken the report seriously. But you are ignoring the findings from the Mann report and even the lived experience of someone on this thread saying they were afraid to order a Kosher meal in hospital.

People should keep their political views out of their workplace, especially in a healthcare setting where they're dealing with vulnerable people.

I'm appalled that any nurse or medic is allowed to wear a Palestine badge, or the badge of any country.

For me it calls into question why we have allowed our NHS to become so over-reliant on foreign nationals.

That's not fair. The thread title claims it's about antisemitism but 90% of the OP is about criticism of Israel and support of palestine. (The minimalisation/denial of the horror at Bondi Beach obviously not in this category) so don't blame people for "immediately making it about Israeli crimes" when that's what the OP is about.

I don't think that being anti- Netenyahu is antisemitic is it? They are against war and the regime imposed on innocent people. They're not being racist against UK, European or any individual Jewish people?

But these people who were found to be too extreme obviously shouldn't be in a healthcare setting. That's fair enough. Same as NHS workers shouldn't be homophobic, extreme far right etc.

How does thinking a war criminal is a terrible person make you anti-Semitic though?

Do you have any evidence to back up this wildly racist claim?

Of course.

@CurdinHenry 's post at 9.30am rather summed up your approach to this. In my opinion only of course.

That a genocide is or has taken place
has not been established by a court. So at the moment it is just an opinion. Establishing a genocide as a fact will take many years in view of the evidence that will need to be gathered.

I honestly think this kind of thing is why cannot tackle anti-semitism properly. Not you but the statement you are responding to.

Allegations of anti-semitism seem to regularly conflate “hating / criticising somebody for being Jewish” with “hating / criticising somebody who happens to be Jewish”.

Source?

No poppies then? No staff veteran networks?

Poppies and veterans networks are not political. Particularly when we had conscription. Plus they are relevant to this country not another place thousands of miles away.

Exactly this. It’s minimising antisemitism by claiming the examples in the OP are antisemitic. And that’s probably why this thread isn’t that supportive of OP.

Jews are not responsible for the actions of Israel, its leaders and the settlers. They are
not one and the same. Yet calling it out gets you called anti-Semitic. So are organisations like the CAA saying they are one and the same? So which is it?

This is the issue with the CAA - they have gone so far in labelling anything antisemitic that they are actually part of the problem as they are maintaining this mindset that British Jews are responsible for what is happening in Israel. They need to be protecting British Jews against antisemitism, not make the situation worse by claiming any criticism of Israeli and Netanyahu is a risk to Jews.

And the CAA isn’t the only one. The one that always comes to mind is Natasha Hausdorff, who when asked whether there should be a limit to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, her response was that she has a “serious problem” with the idea that Jews can’t live in certain areas because they’re Jewish. She is conflating the two, most likely deliberately, but in doing so it’s suggesting that the actions of the settlers is because they’re Jewish. How can she, and others, not see the damage they cause with this line of argument.

They are somewhat political. The equivalent issue would be recieving criticism/ having one's motives slurred for wearing a white poppy.