Canadian Pro-Palestinian influencer Dr. Nahla Al-Sarraj fired following Zionist smear campaign

Dr. Nahla Al-Sarraj gained hundreds of thousands of social media followers by discussing the Gaza genocide. She was fired after a pressure campaign from Israel lobby groups that she believes aimed to silence her. Despite this, she remains unbowed.

By Asma Barakat 

 December 13, 2025 
MONDOWEISS

Dr. Nahla Al-Sarraj


For Syrian-Canadian psychiatry resident, Dr. Nahla Al-Sarraj, November 13 started off as any other day. That was, until the afternoon rolled around and she sat down for a Zoom meeting with one of her employers. The call was framed as a contract review, but ended up in Dr. Al-Sarraj’s termination due to the year-and-a-half-long digital smear campaign run against her by Israel supporters.

Dr. Al-Sarraj, who is in her last year of residency in Ontario, Canada, is also a content creator with over half a million followers on TikTok and Instagram. She made her social media debut back in 2020-2021, where she began creating and sharing content about mental health, therapy, and healing. Eventually, Dr. Al-Sarraj went on to use the platform she had built to fiercely advocate for Palestinian rights when Israel’s genocide in Gaza began in October 2023.

Since beginning her pro-Palestinian activism, Dr. Al-Sarraj has been a target of a brutal Zionist hate campaign. From that moment on, she has faced a barrage of constant harassment, including a mass campaign to report her to her medical college, which triggered the university to open an investigation against her.

That case was eventually dropped due to the illegitimate nature of the claims. Yet, the damage was already done. Dr. Al-Sarraj was subject to an investigation by police because of false accusations of committing a hate crime, which Zionists claimed she was perpetuating in standing up for the mass slaughter of Palestinians. In an interview with Mondoweiss, Dr. Al-Sarraj describes the unjust probes against her as “numerous attempts at silencing [her].”

Dr. Al-Sarraj explained that the root of this most recent injustice can be traced back to the summer of 2024, when Canadian Zionist, Dahlia Kurtz, doxxed the medical resident, endangering her safety and livelihood. Kurtz shared personal details of Dr. Al-Sarraj’s workplace, program, and entire legal name, prompting thousands of her followers to submit complaints to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, the regulatory body for medical doctors in Ontario, Canada.

Kurtz’s campaign was further fueled by the pro-Israel media site Honest Reporting Canada. The character assassination that spiraled out of this calculated social media attack, according to Dr. Al-Sarraj, is what led to her online presence being wiped out. “I don’t even exist when you search me anymore. All you see is [social media content] written by Zionists. My name, my identity, my voice is gone.”

Dr. Al-Sarraj says she felt trepidation about obtaining jobs due to the continued harassment of Zionists, and always made it a point to alert new employers about her social media content during the hiring process.

She said, “I did kind of worry about this happening. … So in this job, at the very beginning, I was transparent. I said, “Hey, look, I’m under investigation by the [medical] college. I do social media. I do talk about Palestine, is that okay?” They said, “Yes,” they greenlit me, and continued hiring me.”

Dr. Al-Sarraj explained that even after signing her contract, having completed the onboarding process, and the necessary checks required for the position, she still had worries. When news of the termination came, it confirmed all of her suspicions and fears. “I had that possibility in my mind, like, I might lose this. And then I did. That day was really, really rough.”

Still, she explains the defamation of character was not the toughest aspect to deal with. Dr. Al-Sarraj shares what the most difficult part of this entire ordeal was, “What hurt wasn’t from the attacks, I knew that was going to happen. And it was, certainly, very, very disturbing. The hurt that is the most painful is the one of being told by numerous organizations, law firms, and even Palestinian organizations that ‘We can’t help you.’ That was really hard.”

“I knew about the risk, but I didn’t know how little people could actually help me when it came to this. I think that was the scariest part for me. It’s like, okay, this happened. Here’s who I’m going to contact, and I’m going to reach out for the support. I’m going to have people cushion my fall and help me. But there was no one there.”

Regardless of the lack of support and the seemingly never-ending hate, Dr. Al-Sarraj is unwaivering in her support for Palestinian liberation as it is an integral part of her identity, “I’m Muslim. So my belief system is that I’m not doing it for people, right? It’s my part of my faith and my belief about justice,” she affirmed.

When asked what she would say to the individuals who decided to terminate her, Dr. Al-Sarraj challenged the concept of power versus justice. “Power does not equal correctness or rightness or justice. You can have all the power in the world and you’re still wrong. You are wrong. You are wrong for what you did to me. You are wrong for what you do to anyone like me, anyone in a position like me.”

Dr. Al-Sarraj brought attention to the current anti-Palestinian bias in the medical field, a topic that remains largely overlooked. “I got fired because of Zionism, and I’m not afraid to admit that.”

She continues, “[They] are essentially robbing a community of a physician that would be exceptional and that would be loved and be a gift and a treasure for that community.”

The wrongful termination of Dr. Al-Sarraj is just one example in a disturbing trend.

Earlier this year, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a special report titled “Terminated: Employment Discrimination at the Core of Islamophobia and Anti-Palestinian Racism,” which reveals a surging crisis in employment discrimination across the country, largely sparked by efforts to prevent employees from displaying signs of Palestinian culture or sympathy with Palestinians.”

Throughout 2024, “CAIR received 1,329 complaints of employment discrimination, making it not only higher than education-related concerns but also the highest reported category to CAIR offices for the first time in the organization’s 30-year history.”

In Canada, where Dr. Al-Sarraj is based, the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association (ACLA) released a report in 2022 on anti-Palestinian racism (APR). The document cites that, “The ACLA is aware of situations, for example, where job candidates or employees are questioned about their views on Palestine; have been denied opportunities or declined opportunities because of their views.”

A significant detail presented by the ACLA’s report is the high-level targeting of racialized women. Their findings state, “It is important to note that racialized advocates, especially racialized women, bear the brunt of the targeting of advocates. … The precarious nature of the positions of employments held by racialized advocates are exploited to instill fear over their job security or advancement. This leaves them feeling further isolated, vulnerable and unsupported.”

After everything, Dr. Al-Sarraj is adamant that she does not want people “to feel discouraged in showing up [for Palestine].” “I just hope that activists don’t read my story and feel discouraged in their activism, especially those in medicine like me,” she says.

“I think for activists, I want you to know that … your heart and your loyalty is to the movement. It’s not to people. It’s not to an individual. It’s to liberation. It’s to justice. It’s to those core values.”

For Dr. Al-Sarraj, this job was meant to serve as a “moonlighting job,” a common stepping stone for resident doctors to gain more experience and advance their careers. However, she has not allowed this momentary setback to dim her budding career in medicine. “I will always be successful. I will always have the career that I worked hard for.”

Still, she remains positive and undefeatable in times of hardship, “I think even though we can be a little bit sad and we can feel all these emotions and feel devastated and frustrated, the sun is going to shine. It will always shine.”