A Jewish doctor was heckled at the British Medical Association’s annual meeting just hours after religious leaders warned it risked becoming a ‘vehicle for Jew hatred’.
Members shouted ‘shame’ as the female medic told delegates she was a ‘practicing Jew’ during a heated debate related to the Israel-Hamas war.
In a letter issued on the eve of the conference, the Jewish Medical Association expressed concerns about the number of motions delegates had submitted calling for action against Israel or accusing it of war crimes.
It said the atmosphere going into the meeting ‘already feels very different and notably hostile’ compared with previous years, when the focus has typically been on the NHS, staffing, patients and union bureaucracy.
The JMA warned Jewish attendees should ‘expect to encounter a mix of overt anti-Semitism, bullying, harassment and flag-waving activism’, which ‘fills them with trepidation’.
Around 30 motions submitted for debate related to the Middle East conflict, which is equal to almost one in ten of all submissions.
Emma Runswick, deputy chair of council at the BMA, told delegates: ‘I want to say that it is completely unacceptable to shout ‘shame’ at somebody who has just said that they are a practising Jewish woman’
However, the BMA said many were unlikely to be selected as taken collectively ‘they risk being perceived as discriminatory, more specifically, anti-Semitic’.
The words Israel or Israeli appears 75 times in motions published ahead of the conference.
Organisers noted that some posed a ‘possibility of breaching BMA values’ and ‘possible legal risk’ if debated with a view to becoming union policy.
They include calls for the BMA to lobby government to stop supplying weapons to Israel and repeat claims that ‘Israel commits systematic apartheid’, ‘Israel’s acts in Gaza could amount to genocide’ and Israel ‘continues to occupy and oppress the Palestinian people and to use disproportionate and indiscriminate force against civilians’.
Four motions submitted by the London Regional Council call on the BMA to boycott Israeli medical journals, conferences and academic/commercial exchanges, claiming the country is breaching human rights.
The JMA letter, seen by the Mail, said its members are ‘deeply concerned that the meeting environment could become itself a vehicle for discrimination and Jew hatred’.
It adds: ‘Many motions include accusations of genocide by Jews in ‘an Apartheid State’, whether they are labelled as ‘Zionists’, ‘Israelis’ or simply ‘Jews’.’
Dr Joanna Sutton-Klein, an emergency doctor in Manchester, was heckled by at least two delegates as she tabled a late motion drawing attention to ‘anti-democratic’ attempts to remove motions related to the Israel-Hamas war from the conference agenda.
She said motions should be selected for debate in a democratic and transparent manner and added: ‘One of the justifications for the silencing of these motions was that they might be perceived as anti-Semitic so I want to stand up here today as a practising Jew to say there is nothing Jewish about the attempt to remove motions that you disagree with.’
Emma Runswick, deputy chair of council at the BMA, told delegates: ‘I want to say that it is completely unacceptable to shout ‘shame’ at somebody who has just said that they are a practising Jewish woman, there is absolutely no place for that in this Association.
‘We reserve our shame for the governments and employers who mistreat us and our patients.’
Dr Patel added: ‘I will not have that behaviour. I warned you at the start if that behaviour is heard again I will singly find you actually so stop.’
Later she told delegates that the comments would not be tolerated, telling the person who heckled to ‘come and find me or I will come and find you’.
A Community Support Trust spokesperson said: ‘The rise of anti-Jewish hate incidents in the medical profession has been particularly disturbing, mirroring an overall increase of antisemitic incidents in the UK since 7 October.
‘It’s especially alarming to see such incidents occur as this is one part of society where we would expect everyone to behave with utmost professionalism.’
Speaking earlier this month, health secretary Victoria Atkins said NHS staff will be banned from displaying Palestinian flags at work if the Conservatives win the general election on July 4.
A BMA spokesperson said: ‘The BMA takes extremely seriously behaviour which is discriminatory, racist or offensive in any way.
‘In this instance, one or two members chose to disrupt the speech by a Jewish doctor who was speaking out in defence of the Palestinian community in Gaza.
‘This action was called out immediately and we are now investigating.
‘We have not been contacted directly by the Jewish Medical Association with regard to the specific points made in their letter, but nonetheless we are deeply sorry to learn of the contents and we will be making contact with them to discuss this further.
‘The BMA stands firmly against all forms of discrimination and prejudice and we believe in dignity and respect for all individuals, regardless of their personal characteristics.
‘We are committed, as a trade union and a professional association, to taking an anti-racist approach to every aspect of our work.’
