Phoenix Children’s Hospital fires doctor who accused Israel of ‘cannibalism’

JTA — A Palestinian-American pediatric radiologist has been fired from her position at Phoenix Children’s Hospital after her social media post accusing Israel of “cannibalism” was called out by an antisemitism watchdog.

On Monday, the Twitter account @StopAntisemites shared a screenshot of a May 26 Facebook post by Dr. Fidaa Wishah, in which Wishah wrote “We will expose the #massacre and #genocide you Zionists are proud of.”

“We will uncover your thirst to kill our Palestinian children… A state based on atrocity, inhumanity, racism and cannibalism never lasts long!” she wrote. “Hey #israel… your end is coming sooner than you think.”

The message was retweeted hundreds of times. Two days later, Phoenix Children’s replied to the tweet that Wishah had been fired.

“After a thorough review of the facts related to this matter, this individual is no longer providing care at Phoenix Children’s,” the hospital’s tweet said.

The post in question is no longer visible on Wishah’s Facebook profile, and her Instagram account is private, but in a video apparently from her Instagram account that was posted to Twitter, she says she is being censored and that any allegations that she would treat “Zionist” or Israeli patients differently are “false claims.”

“I want to thank everyone who’s standing by me and who’s standing with the cause,” she said in the video. “In a country that claims freedom of speech, when it comes to Palestine-Israel, we are definitely censored.”