CAA flags five NHS staff and a BBC Arabic reporter over social media posts

Right · 2The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a UK watchdog group, identified five healthcare professionals whose social media posts and public statements it considers antisemitic or anti-Israel, according to a Daily Mail report published on Saturday 10 October. 1 2 Right · 2The five are midwife Fatimah Mohamied, Dr Abdelaal Ragheb Elfarra, psychiatrist Dr Ahmed Sewehli, emergency physician Dr Nadeem Crowe and occupational therapist Zaida Akhtar; the Jerusalem Post says three of the five are doctors. 1 2 Right · 2According to the Daily Mail, Elfarra said in an April 2025 protest video that "Zionists control the media. Zionists control the world", posted a caricature of Benjamin Netanyahu holding a knife over a child in a hospital bed, and shared a post about the Rothschild family controlling the world's money. The CAA told the paper the caricature echoed blood libel tropes. 1 2

Right · 2Mohamied allegedly replied "Hell yeah" to an 7 October 2023 post saying Palestinians have a right to resist occupation, and wrote in a deleted January 2025 blog post that Jewish cultural safety was being used as a "smokescreen" for colonialism and genocide. The Jerusalem Post adds that she was a "cultural safety champion" at West Middlesex Hospital and that Nursing and Midwifery Council and Metropolitan Police Prevent referrals about her were dismissed. 1 2 Right · 2Sewehli, a Manchester-based psychiatrist, is reported to have replied "You need to be dead" to a Netanyahu post; Crowe is reported to have described Israel as a "terrorist octopus"; and Akhtar allegedly shared a video seeming to encourage violence against Netanyahu's son Avner and a "false flag" claim about the Bondi Beach attack. 1 2 Right · 2Crowe was suspended mid-shift from the Royal Free Hospital in August 2024 after complaints about his online activity and is awaiting an employment tribunal outcome on his claim of discrimination and harassment; Royal Free London declined to comment on the case. Crowe denied supporting Hamas and Mohamied denied wrongdoing, while Crowe and Mohamied declined to comment to the Daily Mail and the paper carried no responses from Akhtar, Elfarra or Sewehli. 1 2

Right · 1Separately, the Telegraph reported that BBC Arabic journalist Layla Bashar al-Kloub called Ahmad Jarrar and Omar Abu Leila "martyrs" in 2018 and 2019 posts; the paper says both killed Israeli civilians. It also said she described Israel's Jewish population as "terrorists". A BBC spokesman said the BBC takes allegations of breaching its social media guidance "very seriously", took urgent action to investigate and does not comment on individual staff. 1 Right · 2The CAA's Stephen Silverman said employers and regulators were failing to rein in "radicalized doctors and nurses" and called the situation "a national disgrace". The investigation follows the CAA's documentary 'Malignant: Anti-Semitism in the NHS' and a June review by the government's independent antisemitism adviser John Mann, which found "routine ostracism" of Jewish staff and patients. 2 1 Right · 2Official bodies responded in general terms: NHS England said any antisemitism is "wholly unacceptable" and it is implementing all of Lord Mann's recommendations; the Department of Health and Social Care expects regulators to take "the strongest possible action"; the General Medical Council said it can investigate serious concerns; and Leeds Teaching Hospitals and Birmingham Community Healthcare trusts said they investigate allegations or condemn antisemitism. 2 1