A nurse was dismissed from a New York City hospital after referring to Israel's actions in Gaza as "genocide".

 Nurse fired for calling Gaza war "genocide" while accepting compassion award

A nurse was dismissed from a New York City hospital after referring to Israel's actions in Gaza as "genocide" during an award acceptance speech.

Hesen Jabr, a Palestinian American labor and delivery nurse, was honored by NYU Langone Health for her compassionate care for mothers who had lost babies. During her speech, Jabr connected her work to the suffering of mothers in Gaza.

"It pains me to see the women from my country going through unimaginable losses themselves during the current genocide in Gaza," Jabr stated in her May 7 speech, which she posted on social media. "This award is deeply personal to me for those reasons."

Jabr shared on Instagram that on May 22, her first shift back after receiving the award, she was called to a meeting with the hospital's president and vice president of nursing. She was told she had "put others at risk," "ruined the ceremony," and "offended people" with her speech's tribute to grieving mothers in Gaza.

After working most of her shift, Jabr was summoned again, read her termination letter, and escorted out.

NYU Langone spokesperson Steve Ritea confirmed Jabr's firing, citing a previous incident. "Hesen Jabr was warned in December, following a previous incident, not to bring her views on this divisive and charged issue into the workplace," Ritea stated. "She chose not to heed that at a recent employee recognition event attended by her colleagues, some of whom were upset after her comments. As a result, Jabr is no longer an NYU Langone employee."

Details of the prior incident were not provided.

Jabr defended her speech in an interview with The New York Times, saying it was relevant given the award for bereavement and grieving mothers.

According to Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Health, over 36,000 people have been killed in the territory since the war began with the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Approximately 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million residents have been displaced, and U.N. officials report parts of the territory are experiencing famine.

Critics label Israel's military campaign as genocide, and in January, South Africa's government formally accused Israel of genocide, requesting the U.N.'s top court to halt Israeli military operations in Gaza.

Israel denies the genocide charges, asserting it is protecting Gaza's civilian population.

Jabr's dismissal is not the first related to comments about the Mideast conflict at the hospital, renamed after a major donation from Republican donor Kenneth Langone. Previously, cancer center director Benjamin Neel was fired for posting anti-Hamas political cartoons, and he has since sued the hospital.

Jabr, who was involved in a lawsuit by the ACLU at age 11 over religious freedom issues in Louisiana, told the Times, "This is not my first rodeo."