NHS doctor accused of spreading anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories

A NHS doctor has been accused of posting material peddling offensive anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about the 9/11 attacks.

Dr Najmiah Ahmad, a consultant anaesthetist at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust in Berkshire, has been brought before a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) panel to face accusations of misconduct.

She has admitted reposting claims by a former US airline pilot that the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job” which was covered up by the “Zionist-controlled media”.

The post on X, which she shared in December 2023, stated: “The Zionist owned-and-controlled mainstream media has suppressed this important story for years.

“Are you surprised? 9/11 was an inside job, The Zionist owned-and-controlled US government was complicit.”

Dr Ahmad also admitted reposting an AI-created image the following month, showing five Hasidic Jews wearing the Star of David celebrating as a plane above them flies towards the World Trade Centre’s twin towers. The image was accompanied by the caption: “5 Dancing Zionists on 9/11 attacks”.

The MPTS panel was asked to determine whether the posts amounted to misconduct by being “objectively anti-Semitic, seriously offensive and motivated by racial or religious hostility and/or prejudice against Jews”.

The General Medical Council (GMC) alleged that the 9/11 “Zionist media” comments promote the anti-Semitic trope of Jewish control of governments or institutions.

The panel heard last week that the twin towers image should also be deemed anti-Semitic and seriously offensive because the men are wearing black hats and hair styles typically associated with Hasidic Jews and were “celebrating the events of 9/11 with items and a white van to suggest they were involved with the events of that day”.

On Friday, it ruled that the posts were anti-Semitic and offensive, but found it not proved that they were motivated by racial and religious hostility towards Jews.

The tribunal accepted Dr Ahmad’s explanation that she did not appreciate at the time of her reposts that the terms Zionist or Zionism were often used as proxy for the terms Jew or Jewish.

The panel will now go on to decide whether Dr Ahmad breached professional standards to the extent that she is unfit to practise medicine, posing a risk to patient safety and public confidence in the profession.

Dr Ahmad is expected to challenge the accusation of misconduct.

In a statement to the tribunal, she said: “I have just been confronted with a painful truth: that the posts I shared silently are a modern incarnation of one of the oldest and most dangerous lies used to persecute Jewish people.”

Regulators ‘failing’ to deal with anti-Semitic incidents

The hearing, which is set to conclude on Tuesday, comes amid a number of controversial cases involving NHS staff accused of anti-Semitic behaviour.

Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, has pledged to change the law to make it easier to strike off NHS staff who express racist views.

Following the Manchester synagogue attack Mr Streeting said he was concerned about the spread of anti-Semitism in the NHS and accused regulators of “completely failing” to deal with incidents.

In November a resident doctor who joked about gassing “the Jews” was let off with a warning by the medical regulator in November.

Dr Martin Whyte, a former executive member of the British Medical Association (BMA), had written that he found videos about the Holocaust being a sham to be “pretty convincing”.

The General Medical Council (GMC) said it was “not suggested” Dr Whyte “holds anti-Semitic views himself” and that it was not his “intention” to be anti-Semitic.

Dr Rahmeh Aladwan, a trauma and orthopaedics doctor, escaped suspension by the MPTS in September over posts that appeared to demonise Israelis and Jews and described the Holocaust “as a fabricated victim narrative”.

The tribunal ruled there was not sufficient evidence sufficient to establish that Dr Aladwan posed a real risk to patients, and that allowing her to continue practising would not undermine public confidence in the medical profession.

In a separate case Dr Asif Munaf, a former contestant on BBC’s The Apprentice, faces being struck off after an MPTS panel last week found he posted numerous comments which were anti-Semitic, offensive and motivated by prejudice.

Dr Munaf, whose comments included claims that Jews were “born with the inherent ability to deceive” and were “nasty, jealous and obnoxious rats”, was also found to have sold sick notes.

The panel is to reconvene shortly to determine whether the facts found proved mean that his fitness to practise is currently impaired.

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