{"id":112728,"date":"2025-09-04T00:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T00:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/112728\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T00:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T00:25:14","slug":"belgian-hospital-suspends-doctor-after-jewish-medical-diagnosis-causes-uproar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/112728\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgian hospital suspends doctor after &#8216;Jewish&#8217; medical diagnosis causes uproar"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A doctor in Belgium has been suspended from his position after a diagnosis he allegedly wrote said that a nine-year-old patient\u2019s problem was that she was Jewish.<\/p>\n<p>A letter written last week by the hospital\u2019s director said that the medical file, which went viral on social media, was not intended as an anti-Jewish slur, and that the doctor was merely transcribing the words of the patient\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n<p>However, further investigations into the doctor\u2019s social media accounts revealed that he had posted dozens of antisemitic messages, leaving the hospital with no choice but to suspend him, the hospital said.<\/p>\n<p>According to the initial report, after a young girl arrived at the AZ Zeno Campus Hospital in Knokke-Heist with pain in her arm after a fall, the doctor wrote that her condition seemed normal, reports said.<\/p>\n<p>However, in the description of the current problem, the doctor described the pain in her left forearm, and added, \u201cNo allergy. Jewish (Israeli).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tGet The Times of Israel&#8217;s Daily Edition<br \/>\n\t\t\tby email and never miss our top stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tBy signing up, you agree to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/terms\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">terms<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A screenshot of the diagnosis was shared on social media, angering many, who saw the \u201cdiagnosis\u201d as antisemitic.<\/p>\n<p>Some said the mention smacked of \u201cracial antisemitism\u201d theories from the past century that considered Jews to be a separate and inferior race.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In Belgium, a doctor examined a sick young girl.<\/p>\n<p>In the \u201cmedical issues\u201d section, right after allergies, the antisemitic doctor wrote: \u201cJewish.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s next, refusing to treat Jews?<\/p>\n<p>This is beyond unacceptable. But after this summer, sadly, nothing surprises me anymore. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7acuxeEumZ\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/7acuxeEumZ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HenMazzig\/status\/1962167180759359856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">August 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A letter later written by AZ Zeno director Emanuel Van Hoecke <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/s_antisemitisme\/status\/1962122069883142477\" rel=\"nofollow\">said<\/a> the whole thing was a misunderstanding. The note merely records that the patient\u2019s mother mentioned her Jewish faith and a trip to Israel, which the doctor dutifully transcribed, the letter said. It also said that Arkawazy was not the doctor who wrote the diagnosis in the first place.\n<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, however, an investigation into Arkawazy\u2019s social media accounts by pro-Israel activists found that he had previously posted dozens of antisemitic messages on social media, including a vile montage depicting Orthodox Jews as vampires ready to devour a sleeping baby.<\/p>\n<p>These were reported to the hospital, which has since suspended him as it conducts an investigation into his conduct, according to a letter the hospital shared with The Times of Israel.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"fr\" dir=\"ltr\">???????????????? SIGNALEMENT : Le Dr. Qasim Arkawazy, radiologue d\u2019origine irakienne ???????? exer\u00e7ant \u00e0 l\u2019h\u00f4pital AZ Zeno dans la station baln\u00e9aire de Knokke-Heist, relaie des dizaines de contenus antis\u00e9mites, islamistes chiites et antisionistes.<\/p>\n<p>???? Parmi ces publications : un montage ignoble\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/IDTBYM5j1e\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/IDTBYM5j1e<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SwordOfSalomon (@SwordOfSalomon) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SwordOfSalomon\/status\/1962165581727007110?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">August 31, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe hospital had been informed of several posts previously shared by the doctor mentioned on his private account that could be considered hate speech,\u201d the letter said. \u201cAZ Zeno has the fullest comprehension of the many indignant reactions and would like to stress that there is absolutely no place for discrimination within the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/static-cdn.toi-media.com\/www\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AZ_Zeno_campus_Knokke-Heist_6-4-2018_14-19-03.jpeg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3633097\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/AZ_Zeno_campus_Knokke-Heist_6-4-2018_14-19-03-640x400.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The AZ Zeno Campus Hospital in Knokke-Heist, Belgium (Paul Hermans\/Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n<p>The Jewish Information and Documentation Center (JID), a Belgian organization dedicated to fighting antisemitism, applauded the decision to suspend Arkawazy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis decision sends a powerful message: Antisemitism will not be tolerated, especially not in healthcare, where trust, neutrality, and respect for every patient are indispensable,\u201d JID vice president Ralph Pais said in a statement. \u201cThis incident once again demonstrates that antisemitism is not an abstract concept, but leads to dangerous and unacceptable discrimination \u2014 even in situations of medical emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The European Jewish Congress called the \u201cJewish\u201d diagnosis \u201cdehumanizing, discriminatory and utterly unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not just unethical, it\u2019s dangerous,\u201d the EJC <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/eurojewcong\/status\/1962492929273975282\" rel=\"nofollow\">said<\/a> on X. \u201cNo parent should fear that their child\u2019s care might be compromised because of their Jewish identity. We call on Belgian authorities to take immediate disciplinary action and make clear: Antisemitism has no place in healthcare \u2014 or anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t<a href=\"https:\/\/static-cdn.toi-media.com\/www\/uploads\/2025\/08\/iStock-2160893802.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3612522\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/iStock-2160893802-640x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"375\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Illustrative: A nurse prepares to give an injection (iStock by Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Since Hamas launched its attack against Israel on October 7, there have been a number of high-profile cases of antisemitism in the medical field.<\/p>\n<p>In August, a Muslim nurse in the Netherlands was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/dutch-nurse-under-investigation-after-threatening-to-kill-zionist-patients\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">investigated<\/a> for threatening on social media to kill Israeli patients. 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Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A doctor in Belgium has been suspended from his position after a diagnosis he allegedly wrote said that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-112728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}