Hawaii Dr. Ryan Rao calls for Zionists to be "Deleted"

A medical doctor in Hawaii has come under fire after posting dozens of shocking comments about wanting Zionists to die last week, as well as praising the deaths of Israelis on his public social media over the past week.

Ryan Christopher Rao — a internal medicine specialist and hospitalist at the Queen’s Medical Center Punchbowl, in Honolulu, Hawaii — has posted numerous missives against Zionists on his public Facebook page, making statements such as “I Hope All The Zionists Are Deleted” on Monday, June 16.

The doctor has not responded to requests for comment. His employer, the Queens Medical System, has chosen not to reply or release a statement for the past nine days while this situation has unfolded.

This is not a one-off post — it reflects sentiments Dr. Rao has expressed for months, as he has also posted: “Hope Tel Aviv is leveled. There’s no wrong way to delete Zionists” and “Zionism must be destroyed, [I’m] grateful for all the resistance fighters.”

He has also said it’s “refreshing to watch missiles landing” on people responsible for the war against Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023, after Hamas militants invaded Israel, killed and injured hundreds of Israelis, and took over 100 people hostage.

Many of those hostages are still in captivity. It has been 621 days since the war began, and Israel is still fighting to rescue the remaining hostages, with about 50 remaining in Gaza, according to the Times of Israel.

These posts were exposed by the top watchdog group for Jew hate and antisemitism in healthcare, Physicians Against Antisemitism (PAA), in a post they made Monday morning about the doctor’s extramural conduct.

“Dr. Ryan Rao thinks he’s clever, but it’s obvious what ‘delete Zionists’ means. Openly calling for torture and death of human beings is not compatible with the oath we take as physicians,” said the PAA spokesperson Wednesday morning.Subscribed

In an interview with the PAA, the spokesperson expressed concern over this doctor’s ability to take care of Jewish and Zionist patients. To be clear, it is not only Jews who are Zionists; many Christians and Catholics also support Zionism, partly a religiously-rooted ideology.

“It is obvious to us that the term ‘deleted’ is a very thinly veiled way of saying killed, murdered, or erased from existence.”

They argued that this doctor should no longer be allowed to practice medicine.

“Any person who could make such remarks cannot be considered a safe practitioner for Jewish patients. Or for any patients really. To hold views that there are some people who do not deserve to live is incompatible with the practice of medicine.”

“Sharing these views publicly and repeatedly projects arrogance, poor judgement, and an undue sense of infallibility,” said the PAA spokesperson.

“Making these statements without consequences empowers Dr. Rao and others like him continue practicing medicine without a clear moral and ethical foundation, which is dangerous to all patients,” the PAA added.

We reached out to Dr. Rao through email and social media, but he did not reply despite actively continuing to post on his social media accounts. His employer and him have had 72 hours to respond to a request for comment, but have remained silent after multiple attempts to contact them.

Dr. Rao is certified in Psychiatry and Internal Medicine. Before he moved to Hawaii, he worked in Rhode Island, where he trained at the Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence. He has been practicing medicine for 17 years.

Earlier in the year, he speaks on Facebook of a patient who was wounded by a fish, and avowed that he indeed works for the Queens Health System in Honolulu.

“I have worked as a physician in Honolulu (hospitalist at Queens) for over 10 years & can tell you from experience that travel nurses are a poor substitute for the nurses from our community,” he once wrote, making it clear that this Facebook page is truly Dr. Rao’s and not a sock-puppet account.

After publication, when Israel supporters and Jews confronted him on Facebook under his posts, Dr. Rao doubled down. He said: “Zionism is not Judaism. Conflating the two is deeply antisemitic.”

He does not appear to be Jewish, nor understand how many religious Jews, as well as other religious groups, interpret Zionism as simply the ‘right of Israel to exist and protect her own people.’

Ryan Rao is still practicing medicine. This article will be updated upon any new information from the Queens Health System.