SYDNEY — “I want to reassure Jewish people and Israelis that you can come to hospitals and we will provide care and you will be safe,” said Michael Whaites, acting general secretary of the New South Wales Nurses and Midwives’ Association, at a Feb. 13 rally here. The action was the union’s response to a widely publicized online video of two nurses on night shift at Bankstown Hospital saying they would kill any Israeli patients who came under their care.
The union had originally planned to picket Parliament that day over their pay dispute with the government. After the video started playing, they turned it into a solidarity action “to make a clear statement on behalf of our members that there is no hate in health care,” said Whaites. “We need to speak out against racism and bigotry.”
The majority at the 100-strong rally were nurses in uniform. Other unions represented were the Public Service Association, the United Services Union and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union. “It is important that unions stand together,” said Whaites. “Words of hatred divide workers.”
The airing of the video came after a wave of antisemitic attacks here. In January alone, two synagogues were defaced with Jew-hating slogans, and there was an attempt to set one on fire. A child care center was firebombed and graffitied. The former home of a Jewish spokesperson was covered in red paint; cars nearby were sprayed with graffiti and two set afire. An abandoned recreational vehicle was found to be loaded with explosives and a list of possible Jewish targets.
A report for the Executive Council of Australian Jewry reported a 316% increase in the overall number of anti-Jewish incidents throughout Australia in the year after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas pogrom in Israel. On Dec. 6, 2024, the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne was set on fire and destroyed.
The federal and New South Wales state governments, as well as health officials, rapidly sought to distance themselves from the two nurses’ comments, and the pair were fired from their jobs. Sky News-TV reported that authorities at Bankstown Hospital were in damage control, deleting multiple images from the hospital’s social media showing staff and visitors wearing pro-Palestine shirts.
While paying lip service to combating antisemitism, the federal government has consistently criticized Israel for its war to prevent Hamas from carrying out future pogroms, covering up Hamas’ stated goal to destroy Israel and eliminate the Jews.
Fight against Jew-hatred
Sharon Stoliar, a midwife, told the media that antisemitism “had been left to fester” in the health care system. Shortly after the Oct. 7 pogrom, she said, “When nurses and midwives were chanting ‘from the river to the sea’ while wearing NSW Health uniforms, I wrote an open letter explaining that this chant is a call for the annihilation of Jews, and that they should not be shouting this genocidal chant, let alone while wearing NSW Health uniforms.” The response of health authorities was to place her under investigation.
In the name of combating antisemitism, the NSW government moved to further restrict freedom of speech by tightening laws against “hate speech.”
Robert Aiken, Communist League candidate for the New South Wales Senate in the forthcoming federal election, commended the nurses’ union for the solidarity rally they organized. “It is only through workers and our unions taking action together that the growing attacks against the Jewish people can be combated,” Aiken said. “We need to be able to have the fullest discussion and debate about Jew-hatred and the stakes for the working class in fighting against it. And we should oppose government restrictions on our democratic rights to do this.
“The fight being waged in the Middle East to defend Israel as a refuge for Jews is where the central battle against Jew-hatred in the world is being fought today,” he told the Militant. “Israel winning this war deserves the full support of the working class and unions.”