Professor Philip Banfield

Chair of the British Medical Association

BMA House, Tavistock Square

London WC1H 9JP

cc:  philbanfield@doctors.org.uk, feedback@bma.org.uk,

       rtucker@bma.org.uk, info.students@bma.org.uk

 

12th April 2025

 

Dear Professor Banfield

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Please back up your member, Dr Swee Ang

 

It is with deep concern that we write to express our dismay at your decision to disinvite Dr Swee Ang from speaking at your Medical Students Conference held on Friday 4th April 2025. Your justification – that you withdrew the invitation upon discovering that Dr Ang had once shared a video made by an individual with antisemitic views – is not only deeply flawed in reasoning but reflects a wider and troubling trend in public life: the abandonment of rational standards of judgement in favour of moral cowardice, guilt by association, and political expediency.

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Let us be clear about the facts. Over a decade ago, Dr Swee Ang shared a video with a closed group whose content, she later realised, was steeped in antisemitic conspiracy theories. At the time, she was unaware of its origin or the background of its author, David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan. Her stated reason for sharing the video was concern about the claims it made – not endorsement, but alarm – and as soon as she was made aware of Duke’s identity and the nature of his views, she issued a full and unreserved apology.

 

There has never been a pattern of antisemitic statements or behaviour on her part. Quite the contrary: her life has been one of dedicated medical service and humanitarian advocacy. Her biographical account from Beirut to Jerusalem shows that she started her career with a wholeheartedly pro-Israel attitude, which only changed when she witnessed Israel’s 1982 atrocities in Lebanon.

 

The question the BMA must answer is whether it believes it is reasonable, in light of these facts, to conclude that Dr Ang’s decades-long humanitarian work is merely a cover for a sinister antisemitic agenda. This is what those calling for Dr Swee’s cancellation are suggesting and your decision to disinvite her implies that you consider this a legitimate point of view. And yet it is absurd for any thinking and rational person to believe that her compassionate concern for Palestinians is not genuine, but rather a proxy for hatred of Jews. Worse still, it reflects a form of anti-Palestinian racism as the implication is that Palestinians are so undeserving of compassion and basic human concern that anyone who defends their rights must be motivated by bigotry. By disinviting Dr Ang, the BMA has, perhaps unwittingly, endorsed this deeply racist logic.

 

It should be noted that this is precisely the accusation that defenders of Israel routinely make of supporters of Palestinian rights. The fact that Dr Ang shared this video over a decade ago is not the fundamental reason she is being accused of antisemitism. Rather, it is a useful pretext. Had Dr Ang never shared that video, those intent on defaming her would be looking for something else – some other statement, association, or moment to twist and misrepresent – because it is her principled and unwavering support for Palestinian rights and the role she has played in humanising Palestinians that is the real source of offence.

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We have seen the same defamation tactic used against many prominent advocates of Palestinian rights, including successive UN Special Rapporteurs on the occupied Palestinian territories. As a trade union, the BMA has a duty not merely to avoid reputational harm but to stand up for its members – particularly when they are subject to disproportionate professional or reputational sanctions. Your decision constitutes precisely such a sanction. It punishes a long-standing member of the medical profession for a single acknowledged error committed in ignorance over a decade ago.

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We understand that BMA legal representatives wrote to Dr Swee Ang on behalf of the Chair of Council on 11th February making it clear that the BMA had not made any allegations of antisemitism against her. It is therefore hard to resist the conclusion that far from acting out of conviction, the BMA disinvited her simply to avoid being attacked or smeared by those lobbying for Israel and their media allies.

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In choosing to prioritise reputational self-protection over fairness and solidarity, we feel you are failing in your most basic responsibility: to defend your members against unjust treatment. Moreover, by disinviting Swee Ang, the BMA is aligning itself with those excusing or ignoring the ongoing mass murder of Palestinians and will share in the dishonour of all those who failed to speak out against it.

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Of course, this is not occurring in a vacuum. We suspect that you are responding to the threat of being smeared, and, on a certain level, we empathise with the BMA’s position. But it is precisely in such moments that true leadership is required – in not capitulating to smear campaigns, but instead taking a firm stance in defence of principles of fairness, truth, and proportionality.

 

There is still time for you to correct course. We urge you to recognise your mistake, and commit to treating Dr Swee with fairness and respect moving forwards. To do otherwise is to remain complicit in a deeply unjust campaign that undermines both the values which the medical profession claims to uphold and the principles of solidarity, justice, and moral courage upon which any true trade union must stand.

Yours sincerely

 

Jonathan Coulter

Secretary, on behalf of the Executive Committee of CAMPAIN Ltd. and Dr Swee Ang.

Mob 07843 383259

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Cosignatories:

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Dr. Amanda Howe, OBE, FRCGP, FMedSci, former President of Royal College of General Practioners (2019-2021) and President of the World Organisation of Family Doctors (2016-2018) 

Prof. Anita Berlin, FRCGP, GP , Professor Emerita QMUL, BMA member

Dr David Goldberg, MRCP, MRCPsych. MSc, Retired Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

Professor John Moxham. Emeritus Professor of Respiratory Medicine, King’s College London.

Dr Asad Khan FRCP(Edin) FRACP(NZ) PGCertClinEd(Auckland), Consultant (retired) in Respiratory & General Medicine

Dr Derek Summerfield, hon. senior lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry (research background on effects of war and atrocities. Prominent critic of alleged Israeli physicians’ violations of medical ethics)

Dr John Launer, medical practitioner and BMA member

Dr Stephen Burke, retired after 32 years service to the NHS and former BMA member

Dr Iyesha Nadim. MB BS (Lond) MRCGP BA (Oxon) MSc (Manc), GP /Specialty Dr Genetics

Dr Fareed Bashir, Consultant Psychiatrist and BMA LNC Chair North Staffordshire Combined NHS Trust

Edward Hulme, until retirement in 2012 was a programme leader at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill. Now MAP contact for St Albans Friends of Palestine.

Dr Mursheda Chowdhury, BSc(Hons) MB BS MRCP PGCert Medical Education MAcadMEd

Dr Paquita de Zulueta, Honorary Senior Lecturer Imperial College, Senior Tutor Medical Ethics 

Dr Brian Fisher MBBCh MSC MBE

Dr Gene Feder  Professor of primary health care, Univ of Bristol

Dr Brian Robinson, retired NHS psychiatrist, member, BMA

Dr Malcolm Segall, BMA member

David Carter, worked for 18 years as an industrial relations officer for the BMA

Dr Penny Ballinger, former doctor (and nurse)

Hilary Price, retired nurse and MAP supporter

Ellie Kavner, consultant family therapist

Alan Cooklin, MBChB, FRCPsych

Hilary Klonin, BMA member

Dr Jack Czauderna, Retired Family Doctor (GP)

Dr Mike Tomson, GP (clinically retired), medical educator  and coach 

Dr Reinhard Huss, medical doctor and retired public health teacher from the University of Leeds

​Dr Raymond Brown, FRCP

​

Avi Shlaim, Emeritus Professor, St Antony’s College, Oxford University

Prof Hanna Kienzler

Prof Hans Husum, Norway

Prof Jonathan Rosenhead, Chair, British Committee for the Universities of Palestine

Abe Hayeem, RIBA, Chair of Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine

Jewish Network for Palestine

Dr Jon Fluxman

Prof James Dickens, Emeritus Professor of Arabic, University of Leeds, retired 2023

Dr Brian Kelly, Palestine

Dr Mehmet Ali Dickerdem

Prof Sami Timimi

Dr Carlo Morelli, Senior Lecturer, Economics, Univ. of Dundee

Dr Ian McDonald

Dr Mike Cushman

Prof Penny Green

Dr Nicola Pratt, political scientist specializing in the International Relations of the Middle East and feminist international relations theory

Dr Tom Hickey

Dr Robert Boyce

Prof Harriet Evans

Dr Ghada Karmi, Palestinian-born academic, physician and author living in London

​Richard Kuper, co-founder of Jews for Justice for Palestinians

Haim Bresheeth, JNP

David Cannon, JNP

​Donald Sassoon, Emeritus Professor of Comparative European History, Queen Mary, University of London​

Malcolm Bradstock BA, MA, PGCE, Nottingham

Professor Diana Kornbrot, University of Hertfordshire

Myles Hickey . Former lawyer in Hackney for 40 years, “where her (Swee Ang's) orthopaedic skills were employed at Homerton Hospital”

Eva Turner, retired Jewish university lecturer – add as subscriber

Daniel Vulliamy, son of a Holocaust Survivor from Vienna

Tim Gorringe, Professor Emeritus, University of Exeter

Stephen Branscombe – referred to cowardice

Ruth Appleton, central committee member of the Socialist Health Association

Roy Dunnett

Derek Taylor

Alexander Gavin

Matthew Sharp

Eve Turner

Pete Firmin

Ruth Randall, Loughborough

Helen Abeles

Deborah Knight

Ben Cosin

Professor Anna Pollert, member of JVL

Kat Bunting, Personal Trainer  

Dr. Felicity Lawrence 

Janet Crosley, supporter of MAP 

Anthony Whitston

Andrew McNee

Barry Hughes

Stephen Williams, member of CAMPAIN

Helen Marks

Lucy Toynbee

Robin de Brea, Lowestoft

David Shaw, Oxford, JVL Member

Dr. Ruth Gould

David Plank 

John Cagan, JVL member from Herne Hill

Pam Laurance, from London

Myra Sands

Brian Holland, Artist

Dr. Charlotte Burck

Jean Fitzpatrick, Ealing

Stephen Solley, KC

Nick Jenkins

Ann Louise Kinmonth CBE

Linda Walker, Co-ordinator High Peak Against Racism

Patricia Banke

Linda Whitten

Mike Layward

Caroline Raine, Oxford

Jeremy Fox MA. (Oxon), M.A (London), MBA (Cranfield), FRSA. Writer, journalist

Elizabeth Cowie, Professor Emeritus, University of Kent

Dr Laura Miller, retired lecturer, teacher and teacher trainer 

Jenny Kassman, JVL

Judy Dickinson, from Hull

Carolyn Gelenter, of Jewish Peaceniks

Steve Kinneavy, Associate member, JVL

Ms. Roshan Pedder

C.E.M. Newland

Helen Martins

Ron Cohen, London

Sarah Sheriff, SE London Lewisham Friends of Palestine

Caroline Rooney, Professor Emeritus of African and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Kent

Simon Goodman

Dr Agnes Kory, PhD, musicology

Eileen Rowbotham

Dr Zohar Dina Glouberman, Psychotherapist, Author, Skyros Co-Founder

Sue Shaw

David Hawkins – visual artist resident in Germany

Nilofer Alauddin

Tony Whelan, guest teacher, LSE maths department

Sol Picciotto, Emeritus Professor of Law

Hilary De Santos, Jewish retired teacher

Jennifer Runham, Cambridge

Tony Graham

Jane Connor, East London Unite Communities 

Dr Hilary Wise

Glenn Bowman, Emeritus Professor of Socio-Historical Anthropology, University of Kent

Isobel McMillan

Michael Wright, JVL

Dr Ian Saville 

Diana Neslen, JVL

Reba Johnson, JVL

Monash Kessler, Jewish member of JVL

Dorothy Macedo

Dr Dori Yusef 

Edward Hatfield

Tinka Gordon

Colin Lomas, member of CAMPAIN

Abraham Thomas Yusef

Nancy Frankel, JVL member

Judy Dickinson

Sue Bonner

Marsha Sanders

Pauline Fraser

Dr Victoria Nunn

Huda Mahmoud

Sahar Awadallah

Adhm Alshami

​​Jan Shearer

​Sharen Green, CAMPAIN

David Mond, CAMPAIN

Bernard Spiegal, CAMPAIN

Miranda Pinch, CAMPAIN

Rev Stephen Sizer, Peacemakers Trust, Convivencia Alliance, CAMPAIN

Alan Mackie, CAMPAIN

Dr Ann Smalldridge

Sandi Beecher, a Jewish woman who supports MAP

Susan Clark

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