A renowned Manhattan cancer doctor says he was “unceremoniously dumped” from a prestigious director position at NYU Langone for supporting Israel on social media in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack, according to a lawsuit filed against the hospital Thursday.
Benjamin Neel, a Jewish doctor, was first suspended on Oct. 31 and then fired on Nov. 10 as the director of the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center at NYU Langone after he posted five tweets about the war in Israel.
Neel — who’d held the director role for nine years — is still a tenured professor at the university but he no longer sees patients.
The 67-year-old oncologist says the termination breached his contract that was set to run through the end of 2024 — and which he was also verbally assured would be extended through 2025, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
The sacking was religious discrimination since “Jews who speak out in support of their ancestral connection to Israel and care about the survival of the Jewish people are expressing a religious and ethnic component of their Jewish identity,” the suit alleges.
He is seeking at least $500,000 in damages claiming that his “previously immaculate reputation” is now in “tatters.”
Neel says he’s already lost a consulting position and a board seat, and several of his other consulting roles are in “imminent peril” along with future job prospects, according to the suit.
He is also worried a zero-interest $1 million loan the hospital gave him to help him secure housing will become immediately due if he parts ways with the institution, the court papers say.
His posts on X were merely reposts of other people’s tweets on his personal and private account, and they were “objectively tepid and muted” compared to the vitriol that has been circling over the conflict, the suit claims.
Among the retweets were three satiric cartoons including one that took aim at Greta Thunberg for giving her opinion on the war in Israel. Another showed a group of protesters holding signs including one that says “BEHEADING IS RESISTANCE” and “I HEART HAMAS.”
A third retweet is a cartoon of negotiations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a member of Hamas who is holding a piece of paper saying: “DEMANDS– DEATH TO ALL JEWS.”
Another repost included a list of the names of people who died in Gaza, according to the Gaza health ministry, with the caption “Hamas wrote names on a piece of paper so it’s definitely accurate.”
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And finally, the last retweet was of a Brooklyn protest with a demonstrator flying a flag representing Palestine and LGBTQ+, which Neel commented was “an oxymoron.”
Neel says that his posts were “far more temperate” than messages coming from the hospital executives including an email from Kenneth Langone and Dr. Robert Grossman condemning Hamas for slaughtering 1,200 Israelis on Oct. 7.
At the same time that Neel was suspended, Dr. Zaki Masoud, a resident at NYU Langone Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, Long Island, was also put on the chopping block before he was also fired for making antisemitic statements.
In fact, Neel was a “sacrificial lamb” because the hospital needed to justify Masoud’s termination, the suit claims.
“Dr. Neel became a political casualty of NYULH’s effort to terminate Dr. Masoud and other physicians: Dr. Neel was offered up as sacrificial lamb so that NYULH could feign impartiality in its effort to curb political and religious expression,” the filing claims.
Neel’s lawyer Milt Williams called the firing a “travesty.”
“We believe Dr. Neel is the first person to lose their job and have their reputation besmirched for re-posting content on his private social media account that challenged those individuals who are seemingly celebrating the death of innocent people in Israel,” Williams said in a statement.
“Moreover, a careful review of Dr. Neel’s social media account would reveal that he has taken balanced positions on Israel-related issues.”
Steve Ritea, a spokesman with the hospital, said the institution “stands by its decision.”
“Several times since last month, we reminded all employees of our high standards, as well as our Code of Conduct and Social Media Policy,” Ritea said. “Nonetheless, Dr. Ben Neel, as a leader at our institution, disregarded these standards in a series of public social media posts and later locked his Twitter/X account. NYU Langone stands by our decision and looks forward to defending our decision in court.”
Ritea says that Neel is making emails among colleagues public “in an effort to pressure” the hospital.
NYU Langone is “dedicated to healing” and “providing a safe and inclusive environment,” the rep said.
