The British Medical Association is investigating its own president over complaints she reposted messages from anti-Semitic social media accounts.
The body representing 190,000 doctors has asked external investigators to probe Dr Mary McCarthy, who has posted hundreds of tweets on the Gaza conflict since Hamas attacked Israel last year.
The investigation was ordered after Labour Against Anti-Semitism (LAAS) complained to the BMA earlier this month.
In a letter seen by the MoS, the group’s co-director Alex Hearn said: ‘The function of the BMA is to represent British doctors, but instead your president appears more interested in a conflict thousands of miles away.’
He said Dr McCarthy ‘quoted an anti-Semitic account’ and also posted ‘someone’s description of the war as a “Holocaust”.’
Analysis of her X account reveals that she reposted a tweet by Susan Abulhawa which said: ‘We need teams of lawyers now to go after complicit world leaders and… corporations and “non-profits” profiting from this Holocaust.’
The LAAS complaint alleged that Dr McCarthy also retweeted ‘incendiary’ posts by Sarah Wilkinson, an activist for the hardline group Palestine Action.
The BMA has launched an investigation into tweets sent by its own president on the Gaza conflict
Dr Mary McCarthy reposted a tweet describing the war as a Holocaust. Pictured: Pro-Palestinian protesters at Parliament Square on Saturday
Earlier this month, Shropshire-based GP Dr McCarthy, above, compared the alleged food blockade of Gaza by Israel to apartheid in South Africa.
The BMA last night confirmed it was investigating the complaints and said it ‘stands firmly against all forms of discrimination and prejudice’.