A UK doctor has been handed a four-month suspension from medical practice after a medical tribunal found her guilty of serious professional misconduct for making explicitly Islamophobic comments toward a Muslim colleague who criticized the British government’s pro-Israel stance, a case that has reignited debate over political speech and regulatory bias within the UK’s national healthcare system.
The incident dates back to the days immediately following the October 7, 2023 attacks led by Hamas in Israel. Roghieh Dehghan, a Muslim doctor, shared a petition in a private WhatsApp group for medical colleagues, asking peers to consider opposing the UK Department of Health and Social Care’s decision to display the Israeli flag in government health facilities in solidarity with Israel.
Cinderella Nonoo-Cohen, a London-based locum general practitioner who also holds a seat in the European Jewish Parliament, launched a hostile verbal attack against Dehghan in response to the shared petition. “Typical of you Muslims to gaslight,” Nonoo-Cohen wrote, adding that Dehghan should not bring political discussion to the professional group and that she was “disappointed” in Dehghan as a physician.
After Dehghan reported the comments to group administrators and labeled them Islamophobic, Nonoo-Cohen escalated her attack. She accused Dehghan of being antisemitic, claimed the Muslim doctor supported “barbaric acts of beheading, murdering, and burning of civilians” in Israel, and repeated the false conspiracy theory that Hamas intentionally bombed Gaza’s al-Ahli hospital to frame Israel – despite widespread confirmation that an Israeli strike on the facility killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians in October 2023.
The case was referred to the General Medical Council (GMC), the UK’s national medical regulator, and ultimately heard by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS). The tribunal ruled that Nonoo-Cohen’s messages were “objectively Islamophobic” and described the remarks as “seriously offensive.” It further found that her false claims painting Dehghan as an antisemite and Hamas sympathizer significantly compounded the severity of her professional misconduct. The panel also separately reviewed another social media post Nonoo-Cohen shared on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that “minorities had precedence over the Whites,” finding the remark demonstrated racial hostility, though it did not rule it was driven by explicit racial or religious prejudice.
During cross-examination, Nonoo-Cohen claimed her use of the collective term “Muslims” was an accidental mistake, and argued her comments were sent in the early morning hours, when she was acting defensively out of emotional distress. While the tribunal acknowledged that Nonoo-Cohen had issued an apology and completed diversity training, and found she posed a low risk of repeating the behavior, it ruled she had failed to demonstrate full insight into how her harmful remarks impacted her colleague and the wider medical community. The panel ultimately handed down a four-month suspension from medical practice.
The British Islamic Medical Association (BIMA) has welcomed the tribunal’s ruling holding Nonoo-Cohen accountable, but raised sharp criticism over both the investigation process and the broader regulatory landscape for doctors in the UK. In a statement following the decision, BIMA noted that healthcare workers around the world have openly condemned what multiple UN experts, leading human rights organizations and genocide scholars have classified as genocide in Gaza. “Speaking out in that context, calling for a ceasefire, or attending a demonstration, is not provocation, but a human act of conscience,” the organization added.
The case comes amid controversial sweeping changes to UK medical regulation that many critics warn will target doctors who express pro-Palestine views. Last month, UK Health Secretary Wesstreeting backed the largest overhaul of medical regulation in 40 years, granting top regulators extraordinary new powers to suspend doctors more quickly. The proposed legislative changes would allow the GMC and the Professional Standards Authority, the body that oversees medical regulators, to override independent decisions made by MPTS panels – which previously served as a check against overreach by regulatory bodies.