London pharmacist gets second FtP warning for anti-Semitic remarks made at 2017 rally

The General Pharmaceutical Council’s Fitness-to-Practise (FtP) committee has reversed its earlier decision ruling that a London pharmacist’s statement,
attributing the Grenfell tragedy to “Zionist supporters of the Tory party,” amounted to the propagation of anti-Semitic tropes.

In an initial 2020 hearing, the FtP committee found that a set of remarks delivered by Nazim Hussain Ali, Managing Partner of Chelsea Pharmacy Medical Clinic,
through a megaphone to a crowd assembled at a Palestinian rights rally in central London in 2017 were deemed “grossly offensive,” but not classified as anti-Semitic.

Ali admitted his comments were offensive, but he was cleared of accusations of antisemitism and received a first warning on November 5, 2020.

However, the High Court overturned this decision in June 2021 following an appeal by the Professional Standards Authority as the Judge found evidence of
a “serious procedural or other irregularity” in the FtP committee’s decision and instructed the GPhC to reopen the case.