Australia must confront this extremism head-on
We cannot ignore the rise of extremism within a significant portion of our population that threatens our nation’s values.
As the son of an Israeli trauma surgeon in Jerusalem who treated Palestinian terrorists, the sickening video of two NSW Health nurses struck home.
Growing up in Jerusalem, terrorism was a daily reality. Between 1994 and 2008, suicide bombers targeted buses, markets, and cafes, killing hundreds, including women and children. My mother survived an explosion just 50 meters away in central Jerusalem. At 14, I was in a market when a bomber blew himself up. My childhood friend, Lior Azulay, was murdered at 18 years old in a bus bombing on his way to school.
To them, we weren’t human. How could we be? Boarding a bus full of schoolchildren, mothers with infants, and the elderly, then detonating a bomb packed with nails and poison-laced shrapnel, requires monstrous intent beyond comprehension.
My father treated countless terror victims; some he saved, many he couldn’t. He also treated those who had committed these atrocities. Failed suicide bombers, knife attackers, and car-rammers landed in Israeli hospital beds. I remember as a child asking him how he could bring himself to save them. He told me that the moment they entered his care, they were simply human lives he was committed to saving. Race and religion disappeared at the hospital doors.
Now contrast that with the two Sydney nurses who vowed to deny care to Jews, one even boasting she had already killed Israelis under her care. This is more than professional misconduct or vile antisemitism. It reveals a deeper rot. The dehumanisation of Jews within significant segments of Australian society.
It is not unsurprising that such views are held in this country; these nurses are not an anomaly. They are the TikTok manifestation of the same hatred that has fuelled antisemitic attacks, terror plots, firebombings, graffiti, and harassment for the past 16 months. It follows weekly false accusations on our streets that Jews and Israelis are genocidal child-killers and illegitimate colonialists, as well as the proud display of flags of listed terrorist organisations and calls for the destruction of Israel.
We cannot ignore the rise of extremism within a significant portion of our population that threatens our nation’s values. This extremism is not born of marginalisation. The two nurses were tertiary-educated professionals working at a government hospital. They lived lives of opportunity, thanks to this country. And yet, within this privilege, hatred still festers, and has been emboldened enough over the past 16 months that they felt comfortable to spew their antisemitism in their uniforms at their workplace.
The rot of antisemitism has not been removed with the suspension of these two individuals. It remains embedded in the healthcare system, academia, the arts, and within parts of our society that have so thoroughly dehumanised Jews that they can spend their days saving lives, until a Jewish one appears before them.
Australia must confront this extremism head-on. How is it that two university-educated, government-employed healthcare workers felt emboldened to express such vile views? How is it that those responsible for the Adass Synagogue firebombing remain at large? How many vile antisemitic views are expressed every day across Australia without being turned into viral sensations and headlines?
Australia is at a crossroads. For too long, naivety and political cowardice has let this hatred fester. Now, we are at a crisis point. If we want to protect what makes this country great, we must confront this extremism. Not just for Jews, but for the future of all Australians.
Alon Cassuto is the CEO of the Zionist Federation of Australia.
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