Indian-origin professor suspended in California for supporting Gaza, sues university

An Indian-American professor of medicine at the University of California, Rupa Marya, was suspended for her social media posts about Israel’s war in Gaza. The professor filed a lawsuit last week alleging that the varsity violated her freedom of speech by suspending her.

Rupa Marya’s social media posts included "expressing solidarity with the hospitals and healthcare workers that Israel was attacking in Gaza", NBC reported, citing court documents. Marya also alleged that she received rape threats for her comments on Gaza.

The complaint stated that Marya "felt an obligation to speak out and did so using her X account".

Marya, identified as an expert in decolonial theory, was placed on leave in September 2024 and had her clinical privileges briefly suspended by the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) executive medical board following comments she made on X that questioned the impact of Zionism as "a supremacist, racist ideology" on healthcare, according to a report in The Guardian.

Without naming Marya directly, the university subsequently issued a statement stating such comments were a "tired and racist conspiracy theory" that "Zionist doctors were a threat to Arab, Palestinian, South Asian, Muslim and Black patients, as well as the US healthcare system" and should be condemned, The Guardian reported.

"UCSF’s January 6 statement accused Marya of promoting a "racist" and "antisemitic" "conspiracy theory".

The board called her a "possible imminent danger" and cited social media posts, according to court documents. Her privileges were reinstated on October 15, NBC reported.

According to her attorney, Mark Kleiman, Marya was fired last month. Kleiman said she was fired "despite requesting a hearing, which she was entitled to".

RUPA MARYA RECEIVED RAPE THREATS: COURT DOCUMENTS

"Firing Dr Marya doesn’t only violate her right to free speech, it threatens all of us (sic)," NBC quoted Kleiman as saying.

"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 (sic)," Kleiman added.

According to court documents, Marya received "rape and death threats" as well as "repeated harassment and threats" owing to her posts.

In November 2023, the dean of UCSF's School of Medicine informed Marya that her social media activity would be reviewed to determine if it breached university policies.

According to the court documents, "Her posts take aim at state policy and supremacist political ideologies, not at any religious or ethnic group."

The varsity's spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit, citing privacy laws.

Marya completed her residency in internal medicine at the University of California at San Francisco in 2007, was subsequently offered employment and joined the faculty.

Marya was appointed by California Governor Gavin Newsom to the Healthy California for All Commission, to advance a model for universal healthcare in California, according to the University of California, San Francisco website.