Antisemitic doctor fired for saying she’d ‘give all Jews wrong medicines’
Dr Lara Kollab, 27, said she “sincerely and unequivocally” apologised for tweets sent in 2012 and 2013, but it wasn't enough to save her job
An antisemitic doctor in the United States has been fired after old tweets were unearthed showing her threatening to give Jewish patients the wrong medication.
An apology from Dr Lara Kollab, 27, didn’t save her job at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, which confirmed that she no longer worked there on Monday morning, but Jewish groups said the state should now strip her of her medical licence.
The recent graduate caused outrage after tweets from 2012 and 2013 were published showing her threatening to “purposely give all the yahood the wrong meds”. She also said Jews were “dogs” and hoped “Allah will kill the Jews”.
In a belated attempt to rectify the situation, the medic, who is of Palestinian heritage, issued a public statement saying she “sincerely and unequivocally” apologised, saying she had been motivated by Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
“I visited Israel and the Palestinian Territories every summer throughout my adolescent years. I became incensed at the suffering of the Palestinians under the Israeli occupation,” she wrote.
“The injustice and brutality of the occupation continues to concern me… Like many young people lacking life experience, I expressed myself by making insensitive remarks and statements of passion devoid of thought, not realizing the harm and offense these words would cause.”
She added that her comments, unearthed by online antisemitism monitor Canary Mission, “were made years before I was accepted into medical school, when I was a naïve and impressionable girl barely out of high school,” adding: “Those words do not represent who I am today.”
All physicians take the 2,500-year old Hippocratic Oath, in which they swear to treat the ill to the best of their ability and to uphold professional ethical standards.
A letter has been lodged with the Ohio State Board of Medical Examiners calling for Kollab’s licence to be withdrawn before it expires in 2021, with support from organisations such as the Zionist Organisation of America.
Dr. Arthur Caplan, director of the Medical Ethics Division at the NYU School of Medicine, said: “You can probably be online with all kinds of political views, even hateful views, but the line you can’t cross is threatening to mistreat or commit malpractice against a patient. That should cost her license.”
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
