A MOTION to be heard tomorrow at the BMA annual conference in Brighton challenges the crackdown ordered by the Labour government against any doctors who oppose Israel’s genocide and support the Palestinian struggle against illegal occupation.
The motion from the BMA’s consultants’ conference calls for the definition of antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) be dropped by NHS England.
The motion says that adoption of this discredited definition, which has been interpreted as equating all criticism of Israel with antisemitism, has had a ‘chilling effect’ on political speech and is used in attempts to silence doctors expressing ‘ethical concerns about Israel’s actions in Palestine’.
The motion further demands ‘urgent guidance and support to members who face disciplinary action or professional detriment for expressing legitimate political views or ethical concerns about international conflicts, including Palestine/Israel’.
A recent review conducted by Labour’s independent advisor Lord Mann, was the latest in the drive by the Starmer government to ban NHS staff from exhibiting ‘political’ badges linked to the pro-Palestinian cause.
Mann, a notorious former right-wing Labour MP and supporter of the Zionist state, was appointed by the previous Tory government as its ‘antisemitism adviser’ a role he continues to play for the Starmer government.
According to Mann’s review, NHS workers displaying a small pin on their uniform symbolising solidarity with the Palestinians who have endured a genocidal war that has killed nearly 73,000 people, mainly women and children, in Gaza is causing so much fear amongst Jewish patients that they are fleeing hospitals.
Mann’s review went further recommending banning NHS staff from wearing their uniforms at protests.
Labour has fully accepted the proposals of this review and added it to the arsenal of attacks already in place against doctors and medics under the guise of fighting antisemitism.
The Labour government and Mann disregard completely the fact that NHS workers are incensed at the war crimes being committed on a daily basis by Israel in Gaza and across the occupied West Bank.
They ignore the deliberate targeting of health workers in Gaza, the latest taking place on 15 June when Mohammed Mousa Al Habil, an emergency room nurse at Shifta Hospital in Gaza, and his six year-old son were killed in an Israeli strike making him at least the fifth Palestinian healthcare workers killed since the ‘ceasefire’ agreement came into effect.
According to the World Health Organisation, at least 1,700 healthcare workers have been killed since October 2023.
Over 43,000 Palestinians are living with life-changing injuries, a quarter of them children, while over 1,400 have died waiting for medical evacuation that never came.
At the same time, Israel continues to block medical supplies from entering the Gaza Strip, leading to severe shortages of essential medicines and medical supplies.
It comes as no surprise, that NHS workers who dedicate their lives to serving the vulnerable and sick are showing their support for the Palestinians.
All Israel’s war crimes are swept under the carpet by the Labour government whose only concern is to stifle the overwhelming opposition to Israel’s genocidal war from workers and youth.
Last week, Medical Aid for Palestine (MAP), which works in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories, issued a statement demanding that world leaders, including the UK government, urgently act to end the genocide, guarantee full humanitarian access to Gaza, suspend all arms sales to Israel immediately and called for the International Criminal Court to investigate attacks on healthcare by the Israeli state.
The BMA conference must reject this latest attack on NHS workers by a Labour government that is complicit in Israeli genocide and whose main concern is to use the full force of the law to try and intimidate workers into remaining silent over war crimes.
The urgent job today, is to force the TUC to mobilise the strength of the working class in a general strike to bring down this Labour government and go forward to a workers government that will give its full support to the Palestinians and the creation of the independent state of Palestine.
This is the way forward.
