According to court filings, a medical professor at the University of California, San Francisco filed a complaint on Wednesday, claiming that the university had infringed her right to free expression by suspending her for her online remarks against Israel’s conflict in Gaza.
According to court documents, Rupa Marya expressed “solidarity with the hospitals and healthcare workers that Israel was attacking in Gaza” in her social media posts.
Marya “felt an obligation to speak out and did so using her X account,” according to the complaint.
Since Hamas militants killed 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 captive on October 7, 2023, Israel’s war in Gaza has claimed the lives of almost 52,000 people.
The United Nations is among the several international organizations that have harshly criticized Israel for its conduct in Gaza.
“Firing Dr. Marya doesn’t only violate her right to free speech, it threatens all of us,” attorney Mark Kleiman stated. “We all need to urgently speak up against these kinds of attacks on our basic rights to advocate for justice, and we expect the Court will agree with us that Dr. Marya’s rights have been violated and must be remedied.”
On October 1, the UCSF Executive Medical Board terminated Marya’s clinical privileges and put her on leave until September 2024. According to court records, the board referred to her as a “possible imminent danger” and referenced posts on social media. On October 15, her privileges were restored.
Court filings state that Marya was subjected to “repeated harassment and threats” and “rape and death threats” as a result of her posts.
Marya had multiple contacts with the institution about her internet behavior prior to her suspension.
The dean of UCSF’s School of Medicine informed Marya in November 2023 that the institution would be investigating if her use of social media was against university rules.
In January 2024, UCSF released a statement on a ‘conspiracy theory’ that was spreading in response to one of Marya’s social media posts that went viral.
“Although the statement did not name Dr. Marya, Dr. Robert Wachter acknowledged in an email that it was in direct response referring to Dr. Marya’s social media thread from January 2,” according to the complaint. “UCSF’s January 6 statement accused Dr. Marya of promoting a ‘racist’ and ‘antisemitic’ ‘conspiracy theory.’”
Marya’s posts “never impeded the performance of her duties as a physician or faculty member, or the regular operation of the University,” according to court records.
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“As a medical doctor, American citizen and as a person of South Asian descent raised in the Sikh religious tradition, Dr. Marya has long been concerned about American foreign policy, including in the Middle East and the issues surrounding the conflict between Israel and Palestine,” according to the complaint. “Her posts take aim at state policy and supremacist political ideologies, not at any religious or ethnic group.”
According to a University of California, San Francisco representative, the school is unable to comment on the case due to privacy restrictions.
After completing her internal medicine residency at the University of California at San Francisco in 2007, Marya received a job offer and became a faculty member. However, according to court documents, Marya has been solely engaged on patient care in the non-teaching hospital medicine services for the last five years, with no teaching responsibilities.
In 2021, Marya was also named by California Governor Gavin Newsom to the Healthy California for All Commission, which aims to develop a state-wide healthcare system.
