Complaints of antisemitism among doctors have soared since October 7

Complaints of antisemitic abuse among doctors have surged since the October 7 attacks and the start of the Israel-Gaza war, the General Medical Council has said.

Jewish doctors said they heard heard reports of some medics celebrating the attacks by the terrorist group Hamas.

According to figures obtained by the BBC using freedom of information requests, there were eight complaints of antisemitic abuse made from the start of last year until October 7.

In the following four months, 60 medical professionals were reported to the regulator for antisemitic remarks or conduct.

Of the 60 complaints, 22 are undergoing “triage”, in which the General Medical Council (GMC) decides whether a complaint should progress to a full investigation.

According to the GMC, last year 1,903 — about 1 per cent — of doctors were Jewish.

The figures also showed an increase in complaints about Islamophobia by doctors since the attacks: 16 cases were reported from October to January compared with three in the preceding nine months.

The Times understands that there is no universally agreed definition of antisemitism or Islamophobia in the law for the GMC to use.

Dr Fiona Sim, a public health consultant who works with the Jewish Medical Association (JMA), said that many young doctors preferred to complain through the charity, to remain anonymous.

“Immediately there were people who were celebrating Hamas attacks and being pretty unpleasant to their colleagues on the ground and on social media. We were getting those sort of reports coming in,” she said. “We’ve been carrying on, unfortunately, receiving concerns, reports, complaints, anxieties and distress from colleagues.”

Sim said that most of the abuse was online, through physicians’ group chats or on social media, and that it even had spread into personal messages directed to Jewish colleagues within the groups.

“The biggest numbers of reports that come to us, concerns, are from doctors groups, so professional groups, and they’re usually either on WhatsApp or Facebook … and some of those doctors are posting similar stuff on Instagram, on Twitter as well, and on their web pages in some instances,” she said.

“Doctors, colleagues, get accused of being child killers,” she said. “They get sent images of dead children, sometimes offline or into their private accounts to be accused further. They get told that they can’t possibly be a doctor if they’re also a Zionist.”

Dr Salman Waqar, of the British Islamic Medical Association, also told the BBC that while the figures showed an increase in Islamophobic incidents, it was difficult to give an accurate representation of the problem as people were afraid to complain to the regulator.

A spokesman for the JMA described one of the complaints they had received: “A doctor expressed concern about a colleague’s repeated posting of political material on their internal [professional work group].

“The doctor who raised concerns confidentially with JMA was upset by the repeated posts despite requests to their colleague to stop, and was unaware of the same doctor’s prolific posts on social media, including Twitter/X, of content that supports conspiracy theories, such as that Israel bombed their own citizens on 7/10/23, that Zionists [or] Jews caused 9/11, and some indication of holocaust denial and trivialisation of the Holocaust by modern-day comparison of Israel with Nazism.”

Professor David Katz, chairman of the JMA, said that despite only putting serious cases to the regulator, some of its referrals to the GMC had been closed without further investigation.

He added that the GMC’s definition of antisemitism was obscure despite attempts from the JMA to clarify it, and said that often when complaints were taken forward, they were not just antisemitic but also had elements of other prejudices.

“They seem not to want to say somebody is guilty of antisemitism,” he said. “They want to say somebody is guilty of antisemitism and homophobia, antisemitism and misogyny, antisemitism and a criminal offence. Is racism, antisemitism, on its own not enough?”

A GMC spokesman said: “We recognise the significant impact the ongoing conflict has on members of the profession, patients, and all those affected.

“Since October 2023 we have received a high volume of complaints about doctors’ comments on social media related to ongoing conflict in Gaza.

“Doctors are entitled to personal beliefs and there is nothing preventing doctors from exercising their right to speak about or campaign on issues, but this must not affect their relationship with patients or the treatment they provide or arrange.

“Our guidance is clear that discrimination is not compatible with the responsibilities and duties of a doctor.”