JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Dr. Mobeen Rathore is known as one of the top doctors in Jacksonville. He is employed at UF Health as the Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and serves the same role at Wolfson Children’s Hospital.
Now, Rathore’s name has been taken off the Wolfson website and directory. They say it is because of more than hundreds of Rathore’s social media posts on Israel, Palestinians, and Gaza.
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Those posts range from videos on conditions in Gaza, to posts that call Israeli military actions “war crimes” and “ethnic cleansing.” Another video criticizes “Zionism.”
None of the posts Action News Jax reviewed made reference to the Jewish religion. However, the posts did lead to an article last week from the website “Jewish Insider” that called him antisemitic.
On Thursday, Baptist Health told Action News Jax they removed Rathore from the website, but he still has the same privileges as before, at least for now.
Baptist Health said Rathore’s opinions were not reflective of Baptist, saying, “Baptist Health is steadfast in our commitment to respect all individuals, regardless of race, religion, or nationality, and ensuring our organization remains a place of healing and well-being. Personal opinions or beliefs of community providers who practice at our hospitals are not reflective of those of our organization.”
UF Health sent a similar message in a statement:
“While UF Health supports the right to free speech, the comments reposted on social media do not reflect the core values of our organization. Language that is intolerant or inflammatory, against any person or group, is unacceptable, and we condemn all messages that may be considered threatening to any members of our staff or the community. UF Health’s social media policy is clear and prohibits the use of the organization’s accounts for this type of language, but the comments posted were done so on a private account.”
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Action News Jax showed the posts to Rabbi Shmuli Novack, the Co-Director of Chabad at Town Center and the University of North Florida, who said the posts could scare off Jewish patients.
“This can have a very detrimental effect on the confidence and the comfort that patients can have with their medical professionals,” Novack said.
Action News Jax also learned Thursday that Rathore resigned his position on the Board of Directors of OneJax, a multi-faith organization that promotes diversity in Jacksonville. The board includes faith and community leaders.
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OneJax told Action News Jax in part, “Following the claims made against him in a recent article published by the Jewish Insider, Dr. Mobeen Rathore has agreed to step down from the OneJax Board of Directors, effective immediately.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to creating safe spaces of belonging and building bridges among people of all beliefs, faiths, and backgrounds—especially in times of global and national conflict. We stand firmly against hate, antisemitism, bigotry and discrimination in all forms.”
READ ONEJAX’S FULL LETTER BELOW:
Rathore-OneJax Resignation Statement by ActionNewsJax on Scribd
Action News Jax reached out to Rathore but did not receive a response. Soon after we reached out, he made his X account private with a cover photo that says “Diversity & Inclusion.”
We also reached out to the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida. They declined to comment.
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