Top British doctor suspended over pro-Palestine, anti-Israel social media posts

A prominent National Health Service (NHS) physician at a hospital in north London has been suspended due to a series of anti-Israeli comments made online in solidarity with the Palestinians amid the Tel Aviv regime’s genocidal war on Gaza.

An account apparently associated with Dr. Ellen Kriesels, a consultant pediatrician and clinical lead for community pediatrics at Whittington Health NHS Trust, referred to Hamas as “oppressed resistance fighters, not terrorists.”

The statements made by the account noted that the response to the Hamas-led Operation al-Aqsa Flood against Israel on October 7, 2023, was “always trying to frame the Jews as victims. So ridiculous. So excruciating. So exhausting.”

In one post, the account compared the plight of Palestinians to the Black Lives Matter and Me Too campaigns.

“And anybody saying ‘not all Jews’ doesn’t get it. You are like the ‘not all men’ (Me Too protests) and ‘all lives matter’ (BLM protests) brigades.

“Clutching your pearls and deflecting from the evil that is going on; Jews slaughtering non Jews,” the account said.

The trust became aware of the social media posts after Dr. Kriesels participated in a pro-Palestinian protest in London on September 6.

She was photographed holding a placard that displayed the Israeli flag, where the six points of the Star of David were labeled with the terms “rape”, “steal”, “cry”, “lie”, “cheat”, and “kill.”

As stated by the trust, Dr. Kriesels is currently undergoing an internal investigation and is “not presently scheduled to be working.”

A source affiliated with the trust has verified that she was suspended.

This comes as a YouGov survey, commissioned by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), revealed that 45 percent of the British population thinks that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is akin to the treatment of Jews by the Nazis.

The analysis revealed that more than 20 percent of Britons (21 percent) now support or align with four or more statements considered to be anti-Semitic. In 2021, the corresponding figure was only 11 percent.

Wes Streeting, the Secretary of Health, has previously vowed to crack down on the noticeable increase in anti-Israel sentiments within the NHS.

At the conclusion of the previous year, he informed British daily newspaper The Telegraph that he would implement a “zero tolerance approach” to “anyone who uses the conflict in the Middle East as a pretext to attack communities” in the health service.

In May, he prohibited NHS personnel from donning their work uniforms during marches and from exhibiting pro-Palestinian badges at their workplaces, as part of the anticipated crackdown.

Earlier this year, British-Jordanian emergency medicine physician Nadeem Crowe initiated legal proceedings against the Royal Free London medical facility, which is part of the NHS, following his suspension from employment due to his posts expressing solidarity with Gaza.

‘In an online video, he stated that the hospital’s medical director chose to suspend him on August 14, 2024, without providing any justification, prior to his being called to an “informal disciplinary meeting” where he was informed that the cause for his suspension was due to “disturbing posts on social media concerning” Israel’s war on Gaza.

The physician clarified that he was permitted to resume work at a later date; however, he was counseled against submitting a complaint, which led him to resign and subsequently file a complaint with the employment tribunal.

In his legal action, Crowe asserts that he possesses the right to voice his opposition to war crimes perpetrated by Israel, which includes the devastation of the healthcare infrastructure in Gaza.

“I am also a British Arab expressing pro-Palestinian views on social media in my personal capacity, while senior British healthcare leaders have expressed pro-Ukrainian and anti-Russian views in their professional capacities on NHS websites without facing any punishment or even criticism from healthcare authorities. I believe this is discriminatory and denies my beliefs protected under the Equality Act,” he said.

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