Britain's Jewish doctors are under attack.
Death threats, institutional indifference, and the growing exodus of Jewish doctors from Britain reveal a crisis that the UK's medical establishment refuses to confront.
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This is a guest essay by Florit Shoihet, a journalist covering Israel affairs, the Jewish diaspora, Middle East analysis, and life in the UK.
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
It was a short email, like many of the death threats this British Jewish doctor has received.
Subject: “Legitimate target.” Body: “May I find you walking the streets of London. I’ll put a bullet through that Zionist face of yours.”
These sorts of threats are regularly passed to the Community Security Trust, a charity which provides security to Jews in the UK.
But as many of the senders are anonymous, not much can be done.
This doctor’s main crime was to call out antisemitism and double standards towards Israel, while consistently condemning other forms of racism and supporting a future Palestinian state. Yet there is little room for nuance nowadays when you have “a Zionist face.”
“Everything went crazy after October 7th. Since then, every year has been terrible for us,” said a senior member of the Jewish Medical Association, which was founded in 2007 to support Jewish healthcare professionals and students. These days it increasingly focuses on combating surging antisemitism in the healthcare system.
The Jewish Medical Association source asked to remain anonymous so as not to become a more obvious target. The campaign against the organization has intensified recently. A newly incorporated UK-based advocacy group, Healthcare Workers Against Censorship, says it promotes “freedom of speech for all individuals working within the healthcare sector.”
Its activities, however, seem to suggest that this “freedom” should be guaranteed for anyone but Jews.
In a fundraising video, Healthcare Workers Against Censorship’s three listed directors (Dr. Rehiana Ali, Dr. Tamara Ali, and Dr. Ranjeet Brar) preach about doctors being allowed to engage in “lawful political speech,” only to end the video with a photo of two of them holding a sign reading: “Say no to ‘genocide’ doctors — Ban the Jewish Medical Association.” In the video, they claim that “doctors are being targeted by well-financed pro-Israel lobby groups – ardent Zionists,” warning that “the result is a chilling effect across the entire profession.”
In November 2023, Dr. Brar distributed pamphlets depicting the Star of David enmeshed with the swastika, titled: “Zionism: a racist, anti-Semitic, and reactionary tool of imperialism.” He was arrested by police, though no prosecution followed.
Last April, he gave a speech outside the U.S. embassy in which he called for the complete destruction of Israel, expressed support for Iran and for Lebanese and Yemeni “resistance,” said that the U.S. and Israeli embassies are parasites,” and referred to the “Epstein class” as the “enemies of humanity.”
“They’re trying to destroy us as an organisation, but I don’t think they will manage. They’ve said recently that the Jewish Medical Association should be banned because we’re ‘an extremist group’,” the association source said, laughing bitterly. “Many of Healthcare Workers Against Censorship’s doctors are very loudly antisemitic and anti-Zionist. The concern is that they don’t just threaten using words, but that other people will pick that up. It’s a bit like ‘globalise the intifada’ — people hear that and do something, thinking it’s okay to be violent.”
Healthcare Workers Against Censorship is probably the most radical expression of the intimidation Jewish healthcare workers face in the National Health Service (the UK’s publicly funded healthcare system).
Earlier this month, the UK government’s adviser on antisemitism, Lord Mann, published an urgent government-commissioned report on antisemitism in the health service, noting that he had heard “evidence of routine ostracism of Jewish people, continuous negativity to people because of their identity, extreme behaviours including serious race hate incidents.”
For David, a Jewish senior consultant with more than 20 years’ experience in the National Health Service, who also asked to remain anonymous out of fear of repercussions, these findings came as no surprise. A WhatsApp group of hundreds of British Jewish doctors has been filled since October 7th with stories of antisemitic incidents.
Despite avoiding bringing politics into work — “I don’t think it’s relevant,” he said — David has experienced what he calls “a lower level of antisemitism that no one will bother reporting,” adding that “some people would be appalled to find out that they are antisemitic.”
Perhaps a precise definition of antisemitism would be useful, yet even on that basic matter, the medical world is split. The widely accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism was adopted by the UK government in 2016 and by National Health Service England last year, amid a surge in antisemitism in the health service.
Lord Mann explains in his report that it is “the most prominent international standard of anti-Jewish racism … a helpful guide and gives confidence to Jewish communities,” adding that it preserves freedom of speech, as criticism of the actions of Israel, or support for a Palestinian state or for the plight of Palestinians, “does not in and of itself constitute antisemitism or contradict the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.”
But for the anti-Zionist crowd in scrubs, who do not believe Jews should have their own homeland, this is not enough. “We’re the only minority group whose own description of the hate perpetrated against us is not accepted,” said the Jewish Medical Association source.
This past week, the British Medical Association voted for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition to be scrapped. The motion asserted that the definition has a “chilling effect” on political expression and on doctors who have “ethical concerns about Israel’s actions in Palestine.” The British Medical Association, which already has an impressive track record of antisemitic, Israel-obsessed motions and actions, has managed to hit a new low with this vote.
Watching the vote was like watching a crash in slow motion. Dr. Shabina Sultan, who delivered the motion, received loud applause, unlike the Jews who gave counter speeches, many of them exposing antisemitic incidents they and their fellow Jewish healthcare professionals have experienced. Sultan claimed, ‘The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition is used to silence Muslims and Palestinian voices, by equating anti Zionism with antisemitism. This definition weaponises accusations to suppress our voices and to obscure our oppression.”
David, one of the few Jews who is still a British Medical Association member, told me after the vote that he is considering leaving the organisation for good, saying. “They have a blind spot for Jews, even as we experience more racism per head than any other group. If they want to lobby the government to remove this protection, to facilitate attacks against me and allow people to target me, I won’t feel they can represent me any more.”
He also noted that the motion was listed as an international relations issue: “They are othering Jews, treating antisemitism as a foreign issue rather than a persistent problem here.” David added that “the British Medical Association had a choice and has actively chosen to stand in solidarity with antisemites, not Jews.”
The implementation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition has not been watertight, as the National Health Service did not require its organisations to adopt it. But in some cases it has had an impact. Dr. Brar, who was suspended by King’s College Hospital National Health Service Foundation Trust after his April remarks, recently filed a judicial review claim against the Trust, challenging its alleged use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition.
Meanwhile, many Jewish doctors are leaving the country. Speaking by phone from Israel days after his migration, Dr. Baruch Michaels, a junior doctor, says his whole family has left Britain, despite having lived here for 400 years, since the days of Oliver Cromwell. He did not grow up in fear of being visibly Jewish, but “in the last 10 years I really noticed the change,” he said. “My main experience of antisemitism is going to and from work: being shouted at in the streets, threatened with acid.”
The National Health Service was not a safe haven for him and he ended up quitting the British Medical Association. He once heard a colleague say they would not treat an Israeli patient at Accident and Emergency department, adding: “I think Britain is a ship we can turn around, but only if the government and the general public start to understand what is going on.”
After the vote, the British Medical Association told the Jewish Chronicle:
“Doctors must be able to legitimately challenge the actions of states and armed forces, especially when healthcare is under threat, without being unfairly accused of any kind of discrimination, or threatened with disciplinary action. This motion speaks to the frustration of members who feel that their freedom to do this is under threat, and we will continue to advocate for all doctors and medical students to appropriately exercise freedom of expression on matters of conscience while at the same time protecting them from discrimination.”
“Antisemitism is completely unacceptable” and there is no place for it within the British Medical Association, National Health Service, or wider society, it stated.
However, before the vote, when I approached the British Medical Association for comment about what it has done to tackle antisemitism within its own ranks, I was answered with silence.
With that attitude, perhaps the ship cannot be turned after all.
A version of this essay also appeared in The Spectator.
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Good article. My heart goes out to these doctors, but I honestly think they should be among the first to leave. Unlike many people, they often have the skills and financial means to build a new life elsewhere, whether that's Israel or another country where antisemitism is far less prevalent.
The sad reality is that Jews are usually the first target. The same trend is happening here in Canada, and I suspect we'll see it in more and more Western countries unless something changes. Eventually, Britain's non-Jewish population will have to decide what kind of country they want and whether they are prepared to confront the forces that are changing it. That is ultimately their fight to have.
My advice to Jewish doctors would be: protect your families and your future first. If, in time, Britain turns things around, those who wish to return can always make that choice. Until then, I'd rather see Jewish doctors saving lives in places where they are respected than wondering whether they are safe going to work.
The test is simple: would Britain tolerate this against any other minority? Doctors threatened in the street. Colleagues suggesting Israelis should be denied treatment. Advocacy groups trying to ban a Jewish medical association. Professional bodies redefining antisemitism over the objections of Jews themselves. No serious society can call that inclusion. The Red-Green alliance has learned to weaponize medical ethics, civil-rights language, and “free speech” claims to make Jewish identity and Zionism professionally dangerous. If Britain’s institutions will not defend Jewish doctors, they will not defend civilization. The ship is not drifting. It is being steered.