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Belgian Doctor Suspended Over Antisemitic Social Media Posts Amid Rising Antisemitism in Western Health Care

People take part in pro-Hamas protest in Brussels, Belgium, Nov. 11, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
A Belgian hospital has suspended a physician after discovering antisemitic cartoons on his social media accounts, days after defending him for labeling a patient as Jewish in records for no apparent medical reason.
Last week, Dr. Qasim Arkawazy — a radiologist at AZ Zeno Campus Knokke-Heist in the town of Knokke, Belgium — listed “Jewish (Israeli)” as a medical problem in the report of a nine-year-old girl treated for arm pain.
In Belgium, a doctor examined a sick young girl.
In the “medical issues” section, right after allergies, the antisemitic doctor wrote: “Jewish.”
What’s next, refusing to treat Jews?
This is beyond unacceptable. But after this summer, sadly, nothing surprises me anymore. pic.twitter.com/7acuxeEumZ
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) August 31, 2025
The Jewish Information and Documentation Center (JID), a Belgian nonprofit that combats antisemitism, filed a formal complaint with both law enforcement and the country’s medical authorities, urging a swift response to the incident.
Sparking outrage within Belgium’s Jewish community, this latest controversy reflects a broader wave of antisemitism in health-care settings, raising concern among Jewish patients across Western countries.
Shortly after the incident, the hospital initially defended Arkawazy’s decision to note the patient’s ethnicity “for medical reasons,” later acknowledging it “could be seen as offensive” and confirming that the patient’s digital file had been updated.
However, JID’s complaint prompted an investigation that uncovered several antisemitic posts on Arkawazy’s social media, ultimately leading to his suspension.
According to multiple reports, Arkawazy — a Shi’ite Muslim originally from Baghdad, Iraq — had shared several antisemitic cartoons on Facebook in the months following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
The posts included a cartoon showing several babies decapitated by the tip of a Star of David, along with an AI-generated image portraying Hasidic Jews as vampires poised to devour a sleeping baby.
SIGNALEMENT : Le Dr. Qasim Arkawazy, radiologue d’origine irakienne
exerçant à l’hôpital AZ Zeno dans la station balnéaire de Knokke-Heist, relaie des dizaines de contenus antisémites, islamistes chiites et antisionistes.
Parmi ces publications : un montage ignoble… pic.twitter.com/IDTBYM5j1e
— SwordOfSalomon (@SwordOfSalomon) August 31, 2025
“AZ Zeno immediately launched an internal investigation to carefully map out all the elements; an external investigation is also underway,” the hospital said in a statement.
“The doctor involved was suspended with immediate effect so that the investigation can proceed calmly and thoroughly,” the statement read.
The incident in Belgium comes amid a surge of medical professionals in several Western countries voicing antisemitic sentiments, including outright death threats against Israelis.
Last month, three Dutch hospitals canceled or refused to host lectures by Israeli physician Dr. Amit Frenkel, head of intensive care at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, who was scheduled to speak about treating victims of mass-casualty events, including terrorist attacks.
The hospitals cited “serious concerns” over safety, warning of possible violence from anti-Israel activists.
In Italy, two medical workers filmed themselves at their workplace discarding medicine produced by the Israeli company Teva Pharmaceuticals in protest against the Jewish state and the war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, a doctor in the UK was allowed to return to work last month after praising Nazi leader Adolf Hitler during an antisemitic rant and making racist comments about a colleague.
In the UK, other troubling incidents have drawn attention, including one at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), which recently apologized after a patient reported anti-Israel posters displayed at a facility.
The posters — bearing slogans such as “Zionism is Poison,” “Free Palestine,” and accusations that Israel starves and kills Palestinians — left the patient fearing she might receive substandard care if staff learned she was Jewish.
In a separate incident, midwife Fatimah Mohamied, who resigned from her position after her anti-Israel social media posts were exposed, has now filed a claim against Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, alleging a violation of her rights.
In her posts, Mohamied both defended and celebrated the Oct. 7 atrocities and made other antisemitic remarks.
In other Western countries, hostility toward Israel among health-care providers has at times escalated into violent threats.
In the Netherlands, police opened an investigation into nurse Batisma Chayat Sa’id, who allegedly made antisemitic comments and threatened to administer lethal injections to Israeli patients.
The nurse’s alleged threat mirrors a similar incident in Australia, in which video showed two nurses — Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh — posing as doctors and making inflammatory statements.
The widely circulated footage showed Abu Lebdeh declaring she would refuse to treat Israeli patients and instead kill them, while Nadir made a throat-slitting gesture and claimed he had already killed many.
Following the incident, New South Wales authorities in Australia suspended their nursing registrations and banned them from working as nurses nationwide.
They were also charged with federal offenses, including threatening violence against a group and using a carriage service to threaten, menace, and harass.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.