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

Yep

But people will look at the poll and decide it's anti semitism in action

Yes a white poppy is political. It is denegrating the war dead of this country.

How disappointing - yet predictable - that so many posters are choosing to quibble over the part of the OP that refers to criticism of Netanyahu (not antisemitic, I agree) and are using that as an excuse to swerve addressing the actual point of the OP and thread, which is about actual antisemitism within the NHS.

Antisemitism which is not contested, as it has been identified in the Mann report and the NHS have themselves accepted there is a problem with.

They're undoubtedly political, you're just hypocritical.

Did we read the same op?

If someone starts a thread about antisemitism in the NHS that gives the example of NHS workers opposing Netenyahu, obviously that is going to be part of the conversation. How could it not be?

They recognise the sacrifice - unchosen for many, given conscription - of those who fought and died for us to have freedom in this country. People had to fight regardless of which party was in power or their own political leanings. They knew it needed a collective effort to safeguard the whole country. That’s not political.

If that's what you believe it to represent I can understand why you wouldn't wear one

That's not why anyone I know wears one.

I wear both fwiw.

It is political and a consistent non hypocritical logic would also ban those along with any other political cause that staff wish to show respect or support for. So I was asking PP if they should be banned. Given poppies and such could also be distressing for patients and make some patients feel unsafe. Or we let NHS be adults and human and show support with badges provided they treat all patients with dignity and respect.

Poppies commemorate people who died during the two World Wars in this country. Remembering their deaths is not a political act. A huge number of people have a relative who died or was injured in those two wars and should be remembered by the people of this country. Its in no way comparable to supporting a side in a current war thousands of miles away and intimidating Jewish people. If you think that then something has gone very wrong.

Poppies do not make people feel unsafe Im afraid. Not red ones. As much as you would like to pretend they do.

Its part of the UK culture, you see. So if a person is assimilated they should know and understand this.

I strongly disagree with the genocide in Palestine. I also disagree with the terrorist actions in October 7th. I have my own opinions and my job role has nothing to do with it. However I also don't think any political badges or symbols should be worn at my place of work and I strongly believe in treating everyone as I would want to be treated. I include poppies in that too.

I am a UK person and have very complicated feelings about the British army, which anyone educated on UK history would know why. I'm not saying I feel unsafe but you don't get to decide that for people when you're all for banning one thing on the feelings of people and now are being hypocritical.

People died to defend this country from invasion.

If you wear a white poppy you are jumping onto that fact for your own political purposes. In order to distort the memory.

If you are a pacifist and would not have agreed witb defending this country from Hitler then Im sure there are many other emblems you can wear without trying to distort the red poppy's symbolism.

Anything that frames war as noble or necessary is a political symbol and you're showing that by acting like poppies are the only way to respect or commemorate people when surely your point was that staff should leave their political opinions at home? No patient needs to know your opinion no? Would you allow clinicians to wear white poppies as a statement? An anti war badge?

I think you are very strange Im afraid. Im assuming as a "UK person" you did study history at a British school?

Again. Poppies commemorate dead people. They are not political symbols. They are British cultural symbols.

And yes. The Second world war was a necessary and just war. October 7th was not.

Anyway we are moving away from tbe topic in hand.

You know you're showing an embarrassing level of misunderstanding your own point by assigning political agendas to people while trying to argue the poppy isn't political...

You're almost there aren't you, thinking loading..

I disagree. I ve been consistently arguing there is no political agenda with poppies. It is a cultural symbol.

Im talking about red poppies of course, which may be why you are confused.

A lot of medics wear a Palestinian badge or another symbol to commemorate dead health care workers killed unjustly when trying to care for their patients. They're supporting dead people which is inherently unpolitical apparently..

Yes if you say so....

And yet by not wearing the red poppy you can ascertain PPs opinions, so it's not as neutral or unpolitical as you are making it out to be. Now if a Muslim British medic didn't wear a poppy, are they showing a lack of respect for the dead?

No I don't judge people for actions they don't take. Only actions they do.

Ok so a British Muslim medic wearing a white poppy then?

Any amount of racism within the NHS is unacceptable. It's heartbreaking to think that people may be reluctant to seek help because of their race or religion and any member of staff found to hold these views should be struck off.

The Isreal- Palestine conflict is incredibly divisive (and incredibly difficult to unpick, IMO). But regardless of an individual's beliefs surrounding it, no one in Britain should be blamed, threatened, or treated poorly because of it. I would have expected a Palestinian presenting in A&E on October 7th to be treated with the exact same dignity and respect as anyone else by medical staff, Jewish or otherwise. And I expect Jewish patients to be afforded the same dignity and respect today, regardless of who is treating them. If you can't manage that, you have no place working for the NHS.