A midwife who was reported to her regulator and the counter-terrorism group Prevent by her former employer is taking her case to the employment tribunal.
Fatimah Mohamied is bringing a tribunal claim against Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (CWHT) after it referred her to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and Prevent a year after she left her post.
The hospital made the referrals following a direct complaint about her online activity from UK Lawyers for Israel.
There had been earlier complaints about social media posts Mohamied made in the wake of the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel, voicing her support for the Palestinian people in Gaza.
Belief discrimination
Barts nurse told to remove watermelon image claims discrimination
Mohamied declined to remove social posts she had made and, in March 2024, left the trust where she had worked since 2019.
In March 2025, she was informed that CWHT had referred her to the NMC and lodged a Prevent referral with the Metropolitan Police. Both referrals were dismissed.
Supported by law firm Leigh Day, Mohamied is now bringing a tribunal claim as she feels the referrals breached her rights under the Equality Act, and that they constituted post-employment harassment.
The claim outlines a number of events, including a request by her line manager on 8 October 2023 to either delete her posts about the attacks or to delete the account the posts had been made from.
She refused, stating that the account was a personal one and that deleting posts would impinge on her freedom of expression.
After three further complaints about her social media posts, in December 2023 CWHT received a letter from UK Lawyers for Israel accusing Mohamied of expressing support for Hamas.
Shortly after, CWHT’s director of maternity wrote to her explaining that if the Trust received any more emails or letters of concern, her actions could be considered misconduct, particularly if they were found to bring her or the Trust into disrepute, and/or to constitute harassment or discrimination.
Mohamied left her post in March 2024. Almost a year later, UK Lawyers for Israel complained to the Trust again, accusing Mohamied of anti-semitism and claiming she was unable to separate conflict in the Middle East from the work of Jewish midwives on cultural safety.
The referrals to the NMC and Prevent followed. The NMC stated that its role was not to police the lawful expression of personal belief by midwives. Mohamied said contact from Prevent left her in “severe distress and alarm”, even though the referral was closed soon after.
She is now crowdfunding for her legal action, which centres on belief as a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, and Section 108 of the Act, which protects against harassment and discrimination where it arises from a previous relationship between those parties.
Liana Wood, a partner at Leigh Day, said the referrals were “an entirely disproportionate response to her lawful expressions of belief on her personal blog and social media accounts”.
“Fatimah’s case highlights the need for employers to resist pressure from lobby groups in such cases, and to carefully consider any potential infringement on an individual’s rights before taking action against them.”
Mohamied added: “I have been subjected to a concerted and targeted effort to intimidate, harass and punish me into silence for my Palestinian advocacy and criticism of Zionism.
“I am taking legal action against my former employer to finally seek accountability for a campaign of harassment against me in the midst of a live genocide perpetrated by the Israeli state – I will not accept the attempts to silence me and those like me.
“Healthcare workers in the NHS have the right to critique a colonial political ideology that has upheld an illegal occupation for decades and is responsible for violating universal values of health.”
Her case follows a legal action launched in June by three NHS workers against Barts Health NHS Trust. They argued that a new dress code requiring them to remove a watermelon image constituted discrimination because of their pro-Palestinian beliefs.
And last year, a sociology professor won a discrimination claim against the University of Bristol over his right to hold anti-Zionist beliefs.
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