A hospital in Belgium defended on Tuesday a physician who had last week identified in medical papers a patient as Jewish, but suspended him over antisemitic cartoons posted on his social-media account in 2023.
The physician was identified as Dr. Qasim Arkawazy by the Jewish Information and Documentation Center, a communal watchdog group in Antwerp.
On Aug. 29, Arkawazy included references to a patient’s nationality and ethnicity in a hospital admission form in his capacity as a radiologist at AZ Zeno Campus Knokke-Heist, the hospital wrote in a statement on Tuesday. The patient was a 9-year-old girl who came in for treatment for pain in her left arm, her medical papers stated.
The hospital initially claimed that the distinction of the patient’s ethnicity “was included for medical reasons,” then acknowledged how it “could be seen as offensive.”
“We have changed the digital patient file,” the hospital stated.
JID’s investigation into that incident led them to find two cartoons that Arkawazy had made on social media in October 2023 following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct.7.
One cartoon showed Haredi men with vampire teeth approaching a baby menacingly. Another showed a Haredi Jew branding an Arab with a Star of David symbol as the Arab bows before Uncle Sam, seemingly to represent the United States.
“AZ Zeno immediately launched an internal investigation to carefully map out all the elements; an external investigation is also underway,” the hospital stated. “The doctor involved was suspended with immediate effect so that the investigation can proceed calmly and thoroughly.”
Knokke-Heist is a coastal municipality bordering the Netherlands, where many Belgian Jews have vacation homes.
