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UCSF said it has taken “immediate action” following a social media post published by one of its professors raising “concern” about a first-year Israeli student.

The professor at the center of the controversy, Dr. Rupa Marya, published a post on X that referenced an unnamed medical student, alleging that his classmates were worried about his presence because he is Israeli. The university, without naming Marya, described the post as a “serious matter” that “involved the targeting of students” based on their country of origin.

UCSF did not elaborate on what action it had taken.

Marya is a clinical professor of internal medicine at the University of California San Francisco’s highly ranked medical school and an outspoken activist, who since Oct. 7 has championed strident pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist activism at the university. In May, Marya voiced support for UCSF’s short-lived tent encampment and protesters’ calls for the university to divest from Israel. According to her biography on UCSF’s website, she founded the Deep Medicine Circle, a group led by women of color and “committed to healing the wounds of colonialism.”

Marya began to draw attention for the post on Saturday. It has since been deleted, along with the rest of her X and Instagram accounts, which had tens of thousands of followers.

“Med students at UCSF are concerned that a first year student from Israel is in their class,” the deleted X post said. “They’re asking if he participated in the genocide of Palestinians in the IDF before matriculating into medical school in CA. How do we address this in our professional ranks?”

The tweet came as the university continues to battle allegations of a hostile climate for pro-Israel students, faculty and patients. A J. report last month showed widespread support for the Palestinian cause on medical floors, with political messaging that some Jewish doctors and patients, including Israelis, said made them uncomfortable. Earlier in August, congressional Republicans announced an investigation into allegations of antisemitism at the university.

It was not immediately clear to whom Marya was referring in her X post, according to Dr. Gil Rabinovici, a neurologist and UCSF faculty member who spoke with J. In Israel, all Jewish adults are required to serve in the military, with some exceptions.

The statement quickly garnered sharp pushback on X, including from people who accused Marya of engaging in bigotry. Earlier this year she drew accusations of antisemitism when she posted on X that the “presence of Zionism” in medicine “should be examined as a structural impediment to health equity.” Then, as now, UCSF condemned the post without naming Marya.

Marya did not respond to requests for comment for this article. 

The Israeli Consulate in San Francisco responded to Marya’s latest anti-Israel post in a statement on X, saying that she had “regularly engaged in deceitful anti-Israel propaganda” in the past and was now “harassing and potentially inciting against a first year medical student.”

State Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco, a Jewish progressive who has been an outspoken critic of extreme forms of anti-Israel activism and the demonization of Zionists particularly since Oct. 7, also sharply criticized Marya’s post.

“The same UCSF professor who promoted the ‘doctors’ plot’ — an age old antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jewish doctors are harming patients — is now targeting a 1st year med student for harassment b/c he’s Israeli,” Wiener wrote, referring to a Soviet-era conspiracy theory that Jewish doctors plotted against Soviet leadership. “This professor is creating a toxic, hostile environment at UCSF.”

UCSF spoke out sharply against Marya’s post in its statement from chancellor Sam Hawgood, originally sent as an email addressed to the “UCSF community” that the university later published on X.

“I am writing to inform you of a serious matter involving the targeting of students on social media based on their national origins,” the letter said. “Targeting any member of our UCSF community — especially in a way that fosters hostility or discrimination — will not be tolerated.”

Hawgood’s letter went on to say, “I have taken immediate action to address this situation.” UCSF did not immediately respond to an email seeking clarification on what action the chancellor took.

Marya has fought back against her treatment by UCSF since the first controversial social media post earlier this year. In February, on her behalf, the advocacy group Palestine Legal announced it was mounting a campaign to defend Marya, accusing the university of a “discriminatory campaign of intimidating and silencing students” and faculty who “have spoken out against Israel’s genocidal attacks on Palestinians.” 

“Dr. Rupa Marya, a professor of medicine who has spent decades documenting the impact of structural racism on health and medicine and advocating for health equity, is one of the latest targets of the institution,” the statement said.

Rabinovici said he is a member of a group of “about 200” Jewish faculty, students and non-Jewish allies who are raising concerns about a climate of anti-Israel activism on campus and are pressing UCSF to do more to combat it. While members of the group said they were grateful that the university addressed the post, Rabinovici said, some felt considerable frustration at the vagueness of the response. The subject line of Hawgood’s statement was “upholding our values of respect and inclusion.”

“Our community is disappointed, because they didn’t actually name what happened,” Rabinovici said. “Their failure to name anti-Israeli bias and anti-Jewish hate feels to us like ‘All Lives Matter.’”