The writer, a Los Angeles freelancer and former Detroit News business reporter. He blogs at StarkmanApproved.com.
By Eric Starkman
Dr. Majd Aburabia
October 7 was a glorious day for Majd Abuarabia, a surgeon who at the time was the medical director of the Karen Wilson Smithbauer Comprehensive Center for Breast Care at Corewell’s Dearborn Hospital. That was the day Hamas terrorists murdered and mutilated more than 1,400 Israeli residents and visitors, including 34 Americans.
Abuarabia couldn’t contain her pleasure. Under the alias Majd Majjoda, she posted on her Facebook page characters from the musical “Oklahoma!” with a note: "Oh what a beautiful morningggg, oh what a beautiful dayyyy!" #IFKYK” (if you know, you know).
The posting was first publicly called out by a group called StopAntisemitism.
“This is abhorrent @Corewelll Health -- your Jewish patients deserve to be treated by someone that does not support terrorists butchering babies, women, and the elderly!” StopAntisemitism tweeted on X.
Corewell sources tell me that Abuarabia has been quietly terminated. While her bio was still posted on Corewell’s Beaumont website Tuesday, it has since been removed. Corewell was understood to have been conducting an investigation and that Abuarabia insisted her Facebook celebratory posting referred to being listed among Hour Detroit’s Top Doc’s list a week earlier.
Corewell spokesman Mark Geary ignored a request for comment, as did Rob Zeiger, Corewell’s VP of communications and community relations.
It’s not clear what prompted Corewell to terminate Abuarabia three weeks after her Facebook posting. Many of Corewell’s Jewish physicians were incensed by Abuarabia’s posting, and I’ve learned some physicians who aren’t Jewish also protested.
There have been instances of other Arab American physicians and dentists celebrating the Hamas massacres across the country, but every instance I’m aware of involved their immediate termination, along with a public apology by their employers. Corewell hasn’t displayed the same revulsion.
Protest outside Corewell in Royal Oak
Two weeks ago, the Michigan branch of the Arab American Medical Association (AAMA) held a protest in front of Corewell Royal Oak with dozens of healthcare workers, many wearing white coats and scrubs, chanting, “Intifada, Intifada! Long live the Intifada,” which is a Palestinian war cry for the violent overthrow of Israel. One protester, wearing a Henry Ford Health sweatshirt, carried a placard saying, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.”
“From the River to the Sea,” is a war cry for a Palestinian state extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, meaning that Israel would no longer exist.
'Tina and Darryl'
Jewish community leaders and others were horrified by the AAMA protest, particularly as it took place in front of a hospital that has many Jewish patients and doctors. Those who protested to Corewell CEO Tina Freese Decker received a disingenuous PRspeak response saying the hospital didn’t sanction the protest. It was signed Darryl and Tina. Darryl Elmouchi is Corewell’s COO who is temporarily overseeing the hospital system formerly known as Beaumont Health.
Grand Rapids-based Spectrum Health took over Beaumont’s troubled operations more than a year ago and rebranded the merged operations Corewell.
Henry Ford Health has yet to comment about the protestor carrying the “From the River to the Sea” placard, suggesting that the hospital system is comfortable with its brand being associated with a message calling for the murder of Jews. Henry Ford, among the most influential antisemites in the world who Hitler awarded the Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle, would be pleased by the silence of the hospital he founded.
The local Detroit newspapers have so far been silent about Abuarabia’s Facebook posting and the AAMA’s protest in front of Corewell Royal Oak, despite Metro Detroit’s Jewish population exceeding 70,000. It’s a safe bet that many Detroit area Jews are among the dwindling subscribers of the Detroit Free Press and News.
I note that the Free Press a year ago featured a lengthy feature by restaurant critic Lyndsay Green who said she was uncomfortable going into certain downtown Detroit restaurants because there were too many white people. The Free Press might want to ponder what it’s like for Detroit area Jews to go to two major hospitals that seemingly tolerate calls for their eradication.
Dearborn is home to Rep. Rashida Tlaib, one of the most notorious antisemites in the world, and unabashed Jew hating has reared its head in Hamtramck. Here’s what city council candidate Nasr Hussain posted on Facebook:
“Was the holocaust God's advance punishment of the "Chosen People" for the savagery they're committing today against the innocent Palestinians children and civilians, an act proving that they're as savage and cruel as the Nazis themselves, or even worse. (Take into consideration that God isn't confined by space or time and that they believe in reincarnation)”
To the Detroit News’ credit, the publication thought Hussain’s post was worthy of a story.
Reach the writer at eric@starkmanapproved.com. Confidentiality is assured.
