A senior surgeon at Aintree Hospital has been suspended for nine months after a series of “objectively antisemitic” Instagram posts were uncovered. Muhammad Khalil posted “Death to Israel” on his public social media account across an image of the Star of David in 2023.
Background and complaints
Dr Khalil qualified in Egypt in 2001 and worked as a vascular surgery trainee before moving to the UK in 2015. At the time of the posts, he was practising as a senior clinical fellow of Vascular surgery at Aintree University Hospital, a part of the Royal Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Concerns were raised about Dr Khalil’s social media conduct by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLI) in October 2023, just days after the Hamas attacks on Israel and subsequent conflict in which some of his close friends were killed. UKLI made a complaint about the behaviour of Dr Khalil in that he had been posting antisemitic and hateful posts on Instagram which brought the profession of doctors into disrepute, brought himself into disrepute and that no Jewish or Israeli patient would feel safe under his care.
A police investigation was also started but no further action was taken. In one of the posts, Dr Khalil said: “The Israeli and western fabrication of news that started on 7/10 is shameless and unprecedented.” Another referred to Jewish people as “thieves.” The experienced surgeon also posted images online that said “the real victory” would be “the complete annihilation and eradication of Israel” while another said: “You can shove your Torah, your Talmud, your Moses and all your prophets up your stinky ass.”
Surgeon's response and tribunal findings
A Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) panel found these to be objectively antisemitic, falling outside legitimate debate and/or criticism of Israel and supporting of violence. In December 2023 the notes of an interview involving Liverpool University Hospitals and Dr Khalil records Dr Khalil saying he would not post images like that again.
An MPTS report said he replied: “I never done anything like this even when I was younger. I was an activist in Egypt. I have never done anything like this is my life, I was emotional, and I made a mistake.” The surgeon said someone had taken a screenshot of the posts and “sent it to an organisation called stop Anti-Semitics.” Dr Khalil said he had got “very emotional beyond rationalism” when he posted the pictures.
The report said he went on to write: “I wish to unreservedly apologise for my actions and for any damage that may have been caused to the Trust. At the time, I did apologise for my actions and immediately removed the photo that came out of an extremely unprecedented emotional situation. I fully regret my actions and I recognise the error of my ways. I will learn from this and moving forward, I will not be engaging in any further social media posts.”
GMC submissions and suspension
In April 2024 there was a telephone call between Dr Khalil and the General Medical Council (GMC) in which the note of the call records that Dr Khalil expressed remorse for the social media posts and advised that they had been made in the heat of the moment, following the death of some close friends. He advised that he had in fact deleted them before the Trust or Police contacted him about them.
Colette Renton, on behalf of the GMC, said each of the allegations are “not merely trivial or inconsequential and that they were not a temporary lapse or something excusable or forgivable.” She highlighted that all of the posts are at a minimum within the same month and were seen by the general public with Dr Khalil clearly identifiable as a surgeon.
Ms Renton submitted that Dr Khalil’s insight had been extremely limited, in that he has always maintained that his online conduct was not antisemitic, nor supportive of violence. She said the surgeon did not engage with regulatory proceedings and has instead alleged he is being persecuted by the nature of the GMC investigation. The GMC counsel said apologies had been qualified “with the intention of securing a new work post.”
In reaching its conclusion to suspend the surgeon for a period of nine months, the MPTS said Dr Khalil’s posts were antisemitic and seriously offensive posts and in one post supportive of violence. His first post clearly identified him as a doctor and was seen by members of the public. The panel concluded any Jewish patients and reasonably minded non-Jewish patients who read or whose attention was drawn to Dr Khalil’s posts would have found them seriously offensive.
