A Jewish physician in Sweden has come forward with allegations that he was subjected to antisemitic harassment by a colleague at a Stockholm health center before his consulting contract was ended — an account the healthcare company disputes — intensifying concern over antisemitism and political activism within the country’s healthcare system.

According to the Swedish newspaper Expressen, Gregory-Zvi Wirschubsky, a 69-year-old consultant physician at a Meliva health center in Stockholm, said the incident occurred last year. He recounted being confronted by a colleague during a coffee break who asked whether he was Jewish and, after he said yes, accused him of “killing Palestinian children.”

Wirschubsky said he replied that he had no connection to the Israeli military and had lived in Sweden since the age of seven, but that the colleague continued, telling him, “You can go to hell, you f___ing Jew,” before he ended the conversation. He said several coworkers witnessed the exchange but did not intervene.

He reported the incident to his manager, arguing that it amounted to discrimination and noting that staff had previously agreed not to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at work. Management said the matter would be handled internally, he said, but he was later told his consulting assignment had been terminated with no explanation. Because he was placed through a staffing agency rather than employed directly, the health center could end the placement with one month’s notice and was not obliged to give a reason. Wirschubsky said he does not believe his assignment ended because he is Jewish, but rather because of tensions surrounding the war between Israel and Hamas. He said the center’s medical director supported his account and pressed management for answers, receiving only a vague reply that the episode had been exaggerated.

Meliva rejected the allegation of discrimination. The company said it had conducted a thorough investigation and found no evidence that Wirschubsky’s Jewish background influenced its decision, characterizing the episode as “a personal conflict.” It said neither Wirschubsky nor the colleague who allegedly made the remark is still employed by the company, and that “discrimination and antisemitism are incompatible with Meliva’s values.”

Wirschubsky said he decided to speak publicly after doctors and other healthcare workers took part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside Karolinska University Hospital, one of Sweden’s largest medical institutions, last week. The protest drew criticism over its location and the participation of medical staff in work attire. Swedish Health Minister Elisabet Lann said the demonstration showed “poor judgment,” arguing that a hospital entrance is not an appropriate venue for political protests.

The case has revived longstanding concerns about antisemitism in Swedish healthcare. In 2022, a Swedish court ruled that Karolinska University Hospital had wrongfully dismissed a Jewish neurosurgeon who had complained for years about antisemitic harassment, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center had previously listed the hospital among its worst antisemitism incidents of 2018 over the treatment of three Jewish physicians. Like much of the Western world, Sweden has seen a rise in antisemitic incidents since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.