Jewish doctors are ‘afraid to display their names on their badges’

One Jewish consultant who has resigned from the BMA – but preferred to remain anonymous – said that when she was grieving for friends in the aftermath of October 7 she was shocked by the lack of support offered by fellow doctors.

She added that, to make matters worse, she was seeing a flow of anti-Israel messages from colleagues on WhatsApp groups.

She said: “I thought, ‘where’s your humanity gone? Can you really not say anything kind about it and Jews [regarding the October 7 massacre]?’

“It’s been a shock to me and a wake-up call to how widespread antisemitism is.”

Having been a member of the BMA throughout her 20-year career, her resignation was triggered by a social media post blaming Israeli for bombing a Gaza hospital that was proven to be caused by an errant Hamas rocket – and the union’s refused to withdraw its statements.

“I’m yet to see a statement on the targeting of Israeli hospitals,” she said. “I don’t think they can talk about the devastation of one healthcare system and not another. And they are not experts in international politics. There’s clearly so much bias in their mailouts and social media and I don’t remember seeing that level of bias before.

“They’ve chosen this as their campaign when there are atrocities going on in healthcare around the world. Why do they have so many opinions on this one and not others?”

She added that politics should stay out of hospitals, as it had the potential to impact the way a patient was treated. “It should always be patients over politics. My worry is if other doctors and healthcare professionals are not thinking this, it becomes dangerous. There could be bias against Jews and Israelis.”

She has had “a lot of” discussion on the topic with fellow Jewish colleagues, many of whom have suggested it is better to stay on the inside. But she felt this was impossible. she said: “How could I support and pay money to a union that does not represent me?”

She was shocked, too, by the absence of motions put forward on anti-vaxxers who have contributed to children ending up in British hospitals with measles. “It’s a UK trade union; we should be prioritising things affecting the healthcare of our population.”

In an op-ed for Jewish News, David Katz, head of the Jewish Medical Association and a longstanding member of the BMA with current roles within the organisation, called it “a matter of profound regret” that Jewish doctors were “increasingly grappling with the question: should we remain within the BMA, or resign from it?”*

Katz – an immunopathologist – wrote in the piece that he expected the topic of vaccinations to be raised as an emergency motion at the BMA conference. However, none of the 25 proposed emergency motions were on vaccination. Instead, 13 were about Israel and war, and an emergency motion questioning the Israeli Medical Association’s membership of the World Medical Association was prioritised.

Speaking to the JC, Katz said it was “a disgrace” that the measles vaccination was not mentioned once throughout the BMA meeting.

“If they didn’t mention – once – immunisation and the drop in vaccination during the entire meeting, it suggests they’re out of touch with reality and only interested in tackling the fight in the Middle East,” said Katz.

“If 10 per cent of the motions that we submitted to them related to immunisation, and problems about immunisation, I could completely understand that. But instead, 10 per cent deal with the situation in the Middle East. Are you telling me that this subject is more than tenfold more important at the moment in medicine compared to immunisation?”

A second senior doctor who spoke to the JC anonymously left the BMA a year ago because she felt it “has been slowly taken over by these far-left individuals as part of their woke mentality, which unfortunately, as we all know, includes anti ‘Zionist’, but in fact just antisemitic, behaviours”.

She also felt the BMA no longer represented her. She recalled the exploitation of Holocaust imagery when shoes were left outside the trade union building. “I’m just so sick and tired of everybody repurposing our collective trauma and rewriting definitions to turn that against us as a community. There’s a lot of focusing on their anti-Israel – and therefore often veering into anti-Jew – sentiments.”

The result is that Jewish doctors feel unsafe. “It’s making us feel very unwelcome and intimidated. I don’t leave my clinic room, because of the awful anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian discussions over lunch. I don’t go to the staff room; I just stay in my clinic room and work. I just don’t feel comfortable. Everyone knows I’m Jewish.”

She went on to say that colleagues had taken their obviously Jewish surnames off their name badges, and go by their first name.

“I have a friend who’s Dr Cohen who didn’t want to have that on her name badge anymore. I still have a sign on my door, because I don’t care as long as I’m not with my children. But I do know a number of people who have taken their names off.”

Recently, an Israeli patient turned up at their department to register her details with a receptionist. When she arrived at the front desk ready for her appointment the following week, the same receptionist was there but this time wearing a pro-Palestine badge, the patient was “so freaked out” that she promptly left.

She left a message apologising and asked the doctor to urgently remove her address from the system because she was afraid. “There are repercussions of people in our hospital wearing the little watermelons or lanyards, or various other things that are going on, whether we have people feeling intimidated or people who are refusing anaesthetics because they’re worried.”

The second senior doctor felt strongly that healthcare professionals should leave their political stance at the hospital door. She herself removes her yellow ribbon off before she gets to work, because while she does not believe that the hostage symbols are political, she is aware that others might perceive them to be.

“And I don’t think it’s right to make anyone feel uncomfortable,” she said. “My role in there is as a doctor. You shouldn’t be prejudiced in any way. I think wearing any labels to show any affiliation is wrong, so I take it off, and I would expect people to do the same for us. But unfortunately, things like that do slip in, and we end up intimidating staff or patients.”

She recalled how during Eid and Ramadan last year, the London hospital where she works had a marquee and an ablutions room for staff and patients that took up one whole floor. In addition, information on how to care for and support patients and staff through their fasting during Ramadan was provided on their website and intranet. Yet when it came to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, there was, she says, “nothing”. That same silence applied to the aftermath of October 7 and to Chanukah.

“As usual, we are a minority that doesn’t count,” she said. “The NHS is becoming a very horrible place to work. These little insults that build into a bigger picture of we don’t count is making more and more of us feel less welcome.”

She said she was “worried” that the NHS is becoming something of which she no longer wants to be part. “Which is a is a bit shocking, given the fact that I’ve been working for the NHS since I qualified and being a doctor is a very important part of my life, and I don’t want to work privately. It’s depressing.”

Dr Farhad Cooper, an HIV doctor who grew up in Finchley, was “so disturbed” by what he has observed as a “real imbalance and a complete bias for this issue”, that he decided to do an audit of the number of times that the British Medical Journal, which is owned by the BMA but stated to be editorially independent of it, mentioned terms like Palestine and Palestinian in the last five years.

“This audit shows the incredible bias. I think the word Palestinian hadn’t been mentioned once for about two or three years, until October 7,” he says.

Talking about his Jewish doctor friends, he said: “I remember one of my colleagues saying, ‘Do I even have a place in this country? Where can I bring up my kids?’

“Now, there are Jews who are also feeling, ‘I don’t want my employer to see me as a Jew,’ which I find really sad. I get it, because when you come home, you’re still a Jew who has to explain things to your kids, you have to live, and the last thing you want is your work life to also be about being a Jew in this difficult time. I found that very upsetting.

“It must feel so awful for somebody who’s been trained through medical school and thought this organisation was going to look after them, [and is] suddenly turning a blind eye. My concern is that this is no longer a medical organisation or journal of any value whatsoever. It is just a campaigning and populist tool. It’s not fit for purpose.”

Kamran Abbasi, Editor in Chief at the BMJ, said: “The BMJ is editorially independent of the BMA and we absolutely deny your allegation of bias against Israel. The BMJ has a longstanding record of reporting on humanitarian issues in relation to any country.

“Our readers are rightly concerned about the extent of the damage being done by Israel to healthcare facilities, health and humanitarian workers, and civilians in Palestine. Indeed, this week over 600 medical professionals from Israel have demanded an end to the attacks on healthcare personnel and infrastructure — and an immediate end to the conflict. Our coverage is justified by Israel’s actions.”

A BMA spokesperson said: “The BMA has a long and proud history of campaigning on global health and human rights, that are so inseparably intertwined. This is something we have continued to do since October 7, 2023, and throughout the subsequent Israel-Gaza war, during which time we have repeatedly called for the release of all hostages, a ceasefire and the respect for international law.

“Elsewhere we have also lobbied and campaigned in recent years around conflicts in Sudan, Ukraine, Myanmar and Syria. Wherever in the world, it is never acceptable for doctors, patients or healthcare systems to come under attack.

“As with all communications, anything published in this area is done using the most accurate and up-to-date information available, and with the input and expertise of specialist BMA staff and elected leaders.

“There is no place for any discrimination or bias within the BMA, NHS, or wider society, whether that’s based on religion, nationality, ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, gender identity or disability. We are committed to making the BMA and its events inclusive, and wellbeing of all members and staff is our priority.

“We are deeply concerned that some Jewish members have raised issues regarding this year’s annual conference, and we have been contacted by a small number of members wishing to resign who have referenced this specifically. However, claims that we are failing to support Jewish doctors or turning a blind eye to concerns are completely untrue. We would invite any members wishing to raise any concern to discuss it directly with us.

“The BMJ, while owned by the BMA Group, has complete editorial independence and is not influenced by BMA policy.”

On ARM – the annual representative meeting – and vaccinations, a BMA spokesperson said:

“At ARM, four of more than 75 motions debated related to Israel and Gaza, the selection of which followed proper, rigorous and democratic processes. Motions are submitted to ARM by grassroots members from across the country and reflect the strength of feeling on a wide variety of issues, in this case the concern for the situation in the Middle East, and in particular its impact on healthcare in the region.

“It’s important to recognise that within these motions, policy was passed decrying antisemitism and calling for support for Jewish doctors. Meanwhile the motions made principled calls on medical neutrality that apply to all conflicts worldwide, and are not limited to that in Israel and Gaza.”