A British-Jordanian doctor has said Zionism is achieved by “extreme violence” and “impunity” during his lawsuit alleging discrimination by an NHS trust that suspended him after he criticised Israel on social media.
Dr Nadeem Crowe, who has Palestinian family and friends, called Israel and its military “terrorists” and Hamas “freedom fighters” on his personal X account in his free time, a central London employment tribunal has heard.
The A&E bank doctor was suspended mid-shift at the Royal Free Hospital, Camden, north London, in August 2024 after a colleague complained about his comments, the panel was told.
Crowe was not immediately given details of the allegation and was left “for a day and a night to worry that I might have harmed a patient”, he said in his witness statement.
He claims to have been harassed and discriminated against by the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, and its responsible officer, Dr Jane Hawdon, “because of his anti-Zionist beliefs and his manifestation of those beliefs”.
Jude Shepherd, representing the two respondents, told the panel on Tuesday: “The respondents’ primary case… is that there was no disciplinary action.”
The doctor claimed on X that Israel has a “rapist, baby killing, murderous army” and said: “This Palestinian Holocaust is written in to Israeli and Jewish history books for forever.”
Another post said: “Israeli facts are always lies. Sure call Hamas terrorists but understand this – Israel and Zionism is the largest terrorist network the world has ever seen and the Holocaust of the Palestinian people by Israel and its supporters is written in to history forever.”
Crowe also re-posted another account’s statement: “We must dismantle Zionism as we did Nazism, because it is clear that they are bedfellows.”
He alleges that he was harassed and directly and indirectly discriminated against in relation to his protected anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian beliefs.
He further claims to have experienced race-related harassment and direct and indirect race discrimination.
Asked for his views on Zionism, he said: “It was the formation of a state for the Jewish under the ideation of a political movement that is shielding under the terms of Judaism and the Jewish people being a monolith.”
Living in the Middle East led him to believe the means of achieving that are: “Impunity in terms of international law, and extreme violence.
“And I believe that is what Zionism has represented for decades to most people other than those people who are of Zionist belief and Zionist following.”
Crowe claimed most Zionists – whether Christian, Jewish or atheist – believe they have done nothing violent.
This is also what has been said by the Israeli state, he added.
A Royal Free employee, who has been kept anonymous in tribunal proceedings, complained about his posts on August 13, 2024, calling them “absolutely vile” and antisemitic.
On not receiving details of the complaint, Crowe told the panel: “I felt like my soul had been ripped out, I felt like I had woken up in some twilight zone where somebody was going to punch me and tell me that I hadn’t read what I had read.
“I wouldn’t have been able to continue that day, my legs were shaking, I felt my mind was everywhere, I couldn’t form a sentence – I thought I had done something horrific in terms of a patient.”
Crowe was informed that his bank employee status was suspended on August 14 pending a meeting.
The suspension was lifted on August 16 after he deleted the posts, and the next day he returned to work.
However, he has alleged that Hawdon “put implicit pressure on him to delete his social media posts or face a full investigation”.
Crowe has said he felt unable to return to work at the hospital as he stopped trusting his colleagues and did not know who complained about him.
The doctor stopped working shifts because of sickness and has not returned since August 25 2024, the respondents have said.
Crowe later lodged a grievance about the trust’s treatment of him that he says is yet to be answered.
He broke down in tears on Tuesday, after describing how: “That grievance to me, and when I continue to read it, was really me begging my second home – my employer that I’ve given everything to – to just give me an answer of why I’ve been treated the way I’ve been treated.”
The tribunal continues on Wednesday.
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