Student protesters outside of UC San Francisco’s Rutter Center call for the UC system to divest from investments in Israeli companies as the UC Board of Regents holds meetings inside the university, in San Francisco, on July 17, 2024. (AP)

A detailed report by The Intercept sheds light on the experiences of medical professionals, particularly those who have treated patients in hospitals across Gaza and Lebanon over the past year, who courageously spoke out about the atrocities committed by Israeli occupation forces and the personal cost they paid for doing so.

The report reveals that expressing concerns about the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, amid the ongoing Israeli military aggression, at UCSF — one of the US's most prestigious medical institutions — came with serious consequences. These healthcare workers faced intense pressure and significant repercussions for expressing support for victims of the genocide, highlighting the personal and professional challenges involved in advocating for human rights amid Israeli aggression.

UCSF physician faces backlash after criticizing Zionism and Israeli military

Rupa Marya, an internal medicine physician and professor at UCSF, is among the most prominent and vocal figures facing backlash, as per the report.

In a series of social media posts in January, Marya, who is also an expert in decolonial theory, raised questions regarding the impact of Zionism, describing it as “a supremacist, racist ideology” in the context of healthcare. Her comments quickly drew criticism from pro-"Israel" colleagues and Democratic state Senator Scott Wiener.

From SJP at UCLA. Free speech for some. Liberty and justice for some. This is the USA. pic.twitter.com/igGQmSONeY
— Rupa Marya, MD (@DrRupaMarya) November 20, 2024

In response, the university issued a statement on its social media platforms addressing the posts, though it did not mention Marya by name, condemning her remarks as “antisemitic attacks.” Wiener publicly expressed gratitude to UCSF for the statement. This triggered a wave of online harassment against Marya, including racist, sexist attacks, and threats of both death and sexual violence. Wiener has continued to target Marya on social media.

In September, Marya shared another social media post revealing concerns among UCSF students about a first-year student from "Israel", suspecting that the individual may have served in the Israeli military the previous year. She then raised the question, "How do we address this in our professional ranks?"

The following month, UCSF placed Marya on paid leave and suspended her medical practice while investigating her social media post. Although the university later reinstated her ability to provide clinical care, she remains banned from campus, including the hospital where she worked.

“I wanted to protect people who have lost family members,” Marya explained. “People are being murdered, doctors are being disappeared, hospitals are being bombed — you have this traumatized community in UCSF. I’ve been trying to give voice to the experience of the Muslim, Indigenous, Black, SWANA” — Southwest Asian and North African — “students who are afraid, like deeply afraid.”

As Israel likely raped a doctor to death, their agents and supporters here sink their racist teeth into those of us who speak up to try to silence us.
The manipulators of the truth are trying to keep doctors quiet while they do their killing. No--Enough. Stop the genocide. https://t.co/uSW7iJZ4cG
— Rupa Marya, MD (@DrRupaMarya) November 19, 2024

The Center for Protest Law and Litigation, a First Amendment advocacy group, is helping Marya seek public records related to her social media posts, specifically any communications between UCSF, Senator Wiener, and the Helen Diller Family Foundation, UCSF’s largest donor, which has supported pro-"Israel" advocacy groups in the past. After nine months of unsuccessful requests, the center filed a lawsuit for the records, as the university claimed they were exempt from public records laws.

Wiener claimed as quoted by The Intercept that Marya’s posts “crossed a line,” accusing her of promoting “an antisemitic conspiracy theory targeting Jewish doctors” and an Israeli medical student. He noted that UCSF faculty and students brought the posts from January and October to his attention.

“I then called out those posts as antisemitic, just as I have called out homophobic, transphobic, racist, and Islamophobic statements by various individuals,” he added.

Wiener, a member of the legislature’s Jewish Caucus, had previously targeted K-12 school districts for teaching critical lessons on "Israel", dismissing them as “bigoted, inaccurate, discriminatory, and deeply offensive anti-Jewish and anti-Israel propaganda,” according to a letter sent to state lawmakers in January. He also condemned the online threats against Marya, calling for an investigation.

UCSF faces backlash over crackdown on Pro-Palestine speech

The university’s crackdown has been sweeping, affecting professors, doctors, and medical staff, the report detailed.

Lectures by doctors that mentioned Gaza have been either removed from the internet or canceled entirely. These individuals have faced accusations of antisemitism and creating an unsafe work environment, with some even banned from lecturing altogether. Staff, nurses, and students have been suspended for acts of solidarity or even for displaying simple symbols like a watermelon pin or pro-Palestine signs in their offices. Many employees have criticized UCSF for its silence regarding the Israeli atrocities in Gaza, accusing the institution of showing favoritism toward pro-"Israel" perspectives.

Dan Siegel, a longtime Bay Area civil rights attorney representing several UCSF employees facing disciplinary action, called the situation unprecedented.

“This is really unprecedented where this university in particular has stepped in and taken such a strong stand in support of some speech and opposition to other speech,” Siegel said as quoted by The Intercept. “It’s really remarkable to me that there is so much content-based discrimination here.”

Siegel, who has represented UC system faculty and staff for 30 years, noted that he had never seen such a widespread effort to punish employees for speaking out about a particular issue prior to October 7.

He added, “Look, I don’t want to make people feel uncomfortable, but aren’t people made uncomfortable by 40,000 dead in Gaza?” Siegel, who is Jewish, also criticized what he called a manipulative effort to stifle debate.

“Among the supporters of the Israeli government, this is a cynical and manipulative effort to limit debate,” he said. “They’ve promoted an atmosphere where you’re a student at the university or a patient at the hospital, and it becomes perfectly normalized for you to say or for someone to champion your saying, ‘I feel uncomfortable as a Jew because of people saying these things.’”

Siegel emphasized the danger of censoring speech based on discomfort, asking, “Those things make me feel uncomfortable — so now we’re all going to be censoring each other’s speech because it makes us uncomfortable, and that really can’t be the criteria for limiting speech.”

In late July, a group of House Republicans, led by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), informed UCSF that they would investigate allegations of antisemitism made by employees and patients. The lawmakers also threatened to withhold federal funding, including Medicare and Medicaid payments, from the university and its healthcare system. This investigation is part of a broader partisan initiative, spearheaded by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), targeting universities whose faculty and students have been outspoken critics of "Israel".

UCSF bans physicians from lecturing after discussing Gaza's health impact

Three UCSF physicians have been banned from giving lectures after discussing the health impacts of "Israel’s" war on Gaza or the apartheid healthcare system in the Occupied Territories, as per the report.

Dr. Jess Ghannam, who has faced pushback for his scholarship in the past, recalled an incident in 2012 when an attendee at one of his lectures about Gaza called the police, claiming they didn’t feel safe with him on campus. Later that year, a student at UC Davis burst into tears during one of Ghannam’s lectures and filed a complaint alleging that Ghannam had created an unsafe learning environment. (The university conducted a formal investigation, but the complaint was ultimately dismissed.)

UCSF faculty also “felt scared” when Palestinian professor Dr Jess Ghannam gave a lecture on Medical Apartheid in Palestine to the medical students. They called the cops on him. 😳 https://t.co/ho3a6bg8HM
— Rupa Marya, MD (@DrRupaMarya) January 9, 2024

In his 25 years at UCSF, Ghannam had never had a lecture canceled. He is a prominent speaker who has presented his research on the effects of war on displaced communities, including Palestinians, at numerous venues over the years. Ghannam has also been instrumental in establishing mental health and medical clinics for Palestinians, interviewing survivors of torture who were imprisoned by Israeli occupation forces.

In September, Ghannam was scheduled to speak to first-year medical students after a group of students met with the university’s deans to request more education on Palestine.

'You can’t talk about Palestine'

Four days before his scheduled lecture, Ghannam was informed by the course instructor that his talk was being canceled. The instructor explained that there wasn't enough time to provide "wraparound services"—such as peer support or other assistance—for students who might be upset by the subject matter, according to Ghannam.

The cancellation prompted strong outrage from students. 95 medical students signed a letter to UCSF officials, condemning the decision as “an act of intentional erasure of historical harms that continue to affect our communities and our profession.” They also argued that it was part of a broader “pattern of suppression” that appeared to target any recognition or advocacy for Palestinian health, despite UCSF’s purported commitment to social justice. In response, the students organized to host Ghannam independently, where he delivered his lecture to an audience of around 100 people.

“That’s the clear message: You can’t talk about Palestine, you can’t talk about genocide,” Ghannam said. Reflecting on the perspective of his critics, he explained, “If you talk about Palestine, if you talk about the health consequences of genocide and the negative impact of genocide and settler colonialism, it’s OK to talk about it in any other people except Palestinians — and then if you do try to talk about it in the Palestinian context, we’re going to shut you down.”

Ghannam concluded, “I mean, that’s the clear message: You can’t talk about Palestine, you can’t talk about genocide.”

UCSF resident suffers from discrimination after revealing Palestinian heritage

Keith Hansen, a former chief resident of surgery at UCSF, chose to conceal his Palestinian heritage throughout much of his career. As chief resident in the fall of 2023, Hansen would send daily updates to his colleagues in the trauma surgery department at San Francisco General Hospital. However, in one email in October, as reports of Israeli airstrikes on hospitals in Gaza mounted, he decided to skip the usual updates. Instead, he urged his colleagues to “take a moment to acknowledge that doctors and surgeons and patients, just like us, were being bombed by the Israeli government.”

Although Hansen received positive feedback for this email from his peers, his performance review later that month included a comment from an attending physician who labeled him as a “polarizing figure” because of it.

In May 2023, as student activists continued their protest at UCSF’s Parnassus Heights campus, Hansen gave a lecture about his work in organ transplantation and highlighted the health inequities faced by Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank under Israeli occupation.

In this lecture, he also publicly revealed his Palestinian heritage for the first time. Born in Jordan to Palestinian refugees—his mother from Ramallah and his father from Jenin—Hansen shared data on the stark health disparities between Palestinians living under occupation and Israeli settlers, as well as the targeting of physicians in Gaza. He called on the university to take stronger action on these issues, drawing parallels to other UCSF initiatives aimed at protecting scholars in other places. He also advocated for an academic boycott of institutions “complicit in the genocide and medical apartheid.”

Following the lecture, several colleagues filed complaints, accusing him of creating an “unsafe working environment.” The chair of his department instructed Hansen and other speakers not to discuss “anything political or anything that didn’t have to do with graduation.”

At the graduation ceremony, Hansen noted that some colleagues who had previously been friendly with him now avoided him. “Everyone kind of shows their true colors once they find out your background,” he said. “There’s that term — ‘liberal except for Palestine’ or ‘humanitarian except for Palestine’ — and a lot of people, as soon as they hear you’re Palestinian, just change their entire view of you.” He went on to say that some of the people he had known for years stopped talking to him once they learned about his background.

At the same time, UCSF hosted pro-"Israel" speakers, such as Elan Carr, the CEO of the Israeli American Council, who was invited by the university’s Office of Diversity and Outreach during Jewish American Heritage Month in May. Carr, a former U.S. Army veteran, had been involved in a violent counterprotest at UCLA.

Despite objections from nearly 100 faculty, medical workers, and students who protested Carr’s talk, citing his controversial past, the speech proceeded as planned. Meanwhile, the university declined to support an official screening of Israelism, a documentary hosted by UCSF’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, which advocates for anti-Zionist Jewish perspectives.

UCSF staff face discipline over Pro-Palestinian watermelon pin

Some UCSF staff members have faced disciplinary action for something as subtle as wearing a pin. The watermelon pin, a symbol of Palestinian liberation, has been used since the 1980s by Palestinian artists to represent Resistance, using its red flesh, green rind, and black seeds to evade an Israeli ban on displaying the Palestinian flag in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Rosita, a UCSF employee, distributed the pins to colleagues and others involved in pro-Palestinian protests.

In environments like hospitals or clinics, where the work culture is often uniform, custom badge pins are a common way for medical staff to express personal beliefs. At UCSF, such pins are frequently political, with staff wearing them to advocate for different causes. In fact, UCSF has previously distributed its own pins, such as those supporting reproductive rights, said Rosita as quoted by The Intercept, who also co-founded the school’s pro-Palestinian faculty and staff group.

Rosita explained that the pins on a badge can reveal a lot about a person’s beliefs, saying, “I can tell what type of person you are by the pins that you have on your badge. So it’s a sense of pride and solidarity and acknowledgment.”

She has made and distributed 500 pins in total, and while many workers received positive feedback from colleagues and patients, those who wore the pins began to face pressure from their managers. They were told that the pins were considered antisemitic and were ordered to remove them, with the threat of suspension or termination if they refused.

In September, Rosita’s manager called her in for a "counseling" session and instructed her to remove the pin after a staff member complained that it made them feel “uncomfortable.” Rosita declined to comply and responded by sending an email, calling the request “discrimination and denial of the Palestinian people.”

UC People's Tribunal calls for accountability over UC’s ties to 'Israel'

Last week, a group of faculty, staff, and students, including Kimberg and Ghannam, gathered for the inaugural session of the UC People’s Tribunal. This group seeks to hold UC leaders accountable for their complicity in "Israel’s" actions in Gaza, including the ongoing forcible displacement of Palestinians.

The tribunal, which took place at La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley, highlighted the UC system’s long-standing pro-"Israel" stance, pointing to the violent crackdown on student encampments across UC campuses last spring and the university's continued opposition to academic boycotts of institutions with ties to "Israel". These boycotts are a key tactic of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which advocates for Palestinian statehood.

The group’s presentation focused on UC’s investments in Israeli companies and the activities of UCSF’s largest private donor, the Diller family. Sanford Diller, a Bay Area real estate billionaire who passed away in 2018, contributed a substantial $1 billion to the school between 2017 and 2018, following a prior donation of $150 million over the previous 15 years.

Support for Palestine grows despite crackdown

UCSF physician Jess Ghannam had hoped to travel to Gaza this past year to assist patients but was blocked by Israeli travel restrictions on individuals with Palestinian ancestry. Forced to watch the ongoing genocide from a distance, he has focused on organizing at UCSF while grappling with the loss of people close to him due to Israeli strikes.

“There’s this awesomeness of feeling the solidarity; people are finally understanding Palestine in ways that they never understood before,” Ghannam said as quoted by The Intercept.

“But at the same time, the amount of ........grief and pain that I feel every day with knowing that my colleagues have been killed, that all clinics that we helped build and all the programs we help build and all of the people whose kids I’ve seen grow up over the years and get married — they’re all dead, so there’s this profound sense of grief and guilt.”

Rochios, who has been outspoken about the health inequities faced by Palestinians in Gaza, began her advocacy by speaking out both at UCSF and at rallies in the Bay Area. In April, while working in Rafah, she was able to travel to Gaza and started sharing her experiences with news outlets.

“While the West seems to not give any weight or validation to Palestinian reporters on the ground, these healthcare workers have become the journalists, the storytellers, all this information, and it became very clear to me that it was my duty to try and be a voice to that,” she said.

This week, UCSF escalated its disciplinary action against Rochios, moving her from a paid suspension to three days of unpaid leave. She is scheduled to return to work on November 21 but has been ordered not to wear her Koufiyyeh or watermelon badge. If she continues to wear them, the school warned, she would be violating UCSF’s PRIDE policies and Principles of Community, which are meant to promote diversity and inclusion. Rochios expects to be fired, given the ongoing climate of repression she and her colleagues have experienced at UCSF.

Through conversations with colleagues at nearby San Francisco General Hospital, Rochios has learned that such outcomes are not typical in her field, even within the same city. Unlike UCSF, workers at San Francisco General have been able to openly express support for Palestine, with some wearing sweatshirts that say “Healthcare workers for Palestine.”

“I’ve become such a pariah in this way within UCSF,” she said as quoted by The Intercept. “Whereas it exists without issue in a sister hospital in the same city.”