NYU Langone suspends two doctors over controversial posts tied to Israel attack
Two NYU Langone doctors have been suspended after they each shared controversial social media posts tied to the raging Israel war, The Post has learned.
Dr. Zaki Masoud was removed from his resident position at NYU Langone Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, Long Island, after he praised Hamas’ slaughter of more than 1,400 Israelis as “liberation” and “revolution” in an Instagram story last week, the medical center confirmed.
Meanwhile, Dr. Benjamin Neel — head of renowned Perlmutter Cancer Center — was sidelined after he was ripped for re-posting a slew of anti-Palestinian posts on social media.
“Dr. Benjamin Neel has been suspended from his role as director of the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center; and Zaki Masoud has been removed from service as a resident at NYU Langone Hospital-Long Island,” NYU Langone said in a statement Wednesday.
“We are following our investigative and disciplinary processes in both matters.”
The hospital noted in an earlier statement posted on X that officials were in the process of terminating Masoud.
The hospital made moves to sack Masoud, who attended the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, as a consequence of his controversial Israel-related post last week.
“It’s time to be bold with you words. Don’t hesitate to openly state your support of Palestinian resistance. Be loud & proud you’re on the side of justice,” the primary care physician wrote in his post in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
“No more walking on eggshells, afraid of what people will think. Let them call it terrorism. Extremism. Barbarianism. We call it liberation. Decolonization. Resistance. Revolution,” Masoud added, alongside an image of Palestinians cheering.
The hospital was alerted to his post by the StopAntisemitism nonprofit group last Friday.
“Zaki Masoud is a physician at NYU Langone Winthrop Hospital. On October 7th, after Hamas terrorists murdered 1300+ people in Israel, raped young women, beheaded babies, and burned the elderly alive, Dr. Masoud took to Instagram and labeled this massacre a ‘liberation. Resistance. Revolution’,” the group wrote on X as it broadcast Masoud’s post.
“Jewish patients, specifically Israeli ones, must be kept away from this man @nyulangone.”
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A man who identified himself as Masoud’s uncle told The Post Wednesday it would be unfair to terminate the physician over his social media posts.
“He’s pro-Palestian,” the uncle said, “not pro-Hamas.”
A Change.org petition has since started circulating online calling for Masoud to be reinstated, arguing his private post didn’t contain any hate speech or discriminatory language.
“The decision to terminate Dr. Masoud appears to have been influenced by external pressure from social media without due consideration of the context and nature of Dr. Masoud’s peaceful actions,” the petition says.
“There were no statements made by Dr. Masoud that promoted hatred or violence. Dr. Masoud was merely exercising his right to express solidarity with those who share his ethnic background in a private capacity on social media.”
The petition, which had garnered more than 35,000 signatures as of Wednesday, described the axed physician as an “asset to the medical community” who was “dedicated to caring for others.”
The Post couldn’t immediately reach Masoud.
Neel, on his part, was removed from his top oncology job just days after his string of retweets on X started circulating online over the weekend after being condemned by the End Arab Hate account.
Among the posts Neel re-shared regarding Hamas’ slaughter of more than 1,400 Israelis included one that read: “You don’t have a ceasefire with Hitler. You wipe out Hitler. Think people.”
One post he re-shared appeared to justify locking Palestinians up in an open air prison “because of the behavior of its government”, while others praised Israel’s relentless bombing retaliation on Gaza.
When reached by The Post, the cancer doc said he was “unable to comment at this time.”
