Pro-Palestinian campaigners distributed leaflets at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London, attacking Lord John Mann’s review of antisemitism in the National Health Service, The Telegraph reported on Saturday, November 7. The group, Global Health for Palestine, urged health workers and members of the public to oppose the review through unions, complaints to hospitals and a petition.
Photographs of the pamphlet published by The Telegraph showed that the group portrayed antisemitism training recommended in the review as promoting support for Israel. It also rejected the IHRA definition of antisemitism and accused the review of racism, citing a reported statement by Mann that placed antisemitism above other forms of racism in severity.
The leaflet claimed the recommendations would prevent NHS staff from displaying Palestinian colors, flags or symbols at work. Its list extended from badges, jewelry, socks and lanyards to scarves, phone covers and screensavers. It further alleged that criticism of Israel or Zionism, including references to apartheid or genocide, would be prohibited. These descriptions of the review’s implications were claims made by the campaigners.
The group argued that the NHS should address racism in a way that treats all its forms as equally harmful. The pamphlet also alleged that hundreds of NHS employees had faced threats, bullying or victimization for expressing solidarity with Palestine. It encouraged workers to raise the matter with their trade unions and asked the public to complain to local hospitals, alongside signing the petition.
Responding to the leaflets, Mann told The Telegraph that the NHS was not a venue for extremist political campaigning. He said patients and staff were entitled to access health services without hostility, warning that material of this kind could discourage people from using the NHS. He stressed that Jewish people, like everyone else, must not face barriers to receiving care.
A spokesman for the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust said the organization sought to provide a safe, welcoming environment where patients, visitors and employees were respected regardless of their background or beliefs. Campaigning was prohibited on its premises, the spokesman said. Once staff learned that leaflets were being handed out, security asked those involved to leave, and the leaflets were destroyed.
Global Health for Palestine chairman Dr. Huda Mahmoud described a ban on Palestinian symbols as cultural erasure. She questioned the consequences of delegitimizing expressions connected to identity and culture, characterizing Palestinian culture as having endured, and continuing to seek survival through, a genocide.
