Israel Foreign Ministry: Probe ‘paints a deeply troubling picture’

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has called on the Australian government to confront antisemitism “forcefully”, following an investigation into antisemitism in Australian healthcare.

In a statement posted to X on Saturday, the ministry said the investigation “paints a deeply troubling picture and should serve as a wake-up call”.

“We call upon the Australian government to confront antisemitism forcefully,” it said. “Every reluctance, every excuse, and every failure to act sends extremists the same message: they can keep pushing the boundaries.”

The ministry added: “No Jew should ever feel compelled to hide their identity to receive medical care in an Australian hospital.”

The report, published in The Australian and written by former Middle East correspondent Megan Goldin, documented widespread anti-Israel activism by healthcare workers since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, drawing on interviews with more than 30 doctors, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals.

It described how, in the aftermath of October 7, doctors and nurses wore “From the river to the sea” symbols to work and placed stickers depicting a crossed-out Star of David in hospital corridors and toilets. At Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital, such a sticker was reportedly affixed to the bedside wall of an elderly Jewish patient in the hours before he died.

The investigation detailed allegations that Jewish patients had concealed their religion from doctors and hospital forms, and that some had endured repeated painful attempts to insert cannulas — in several cases breaching the hospital protocol of a maximum of two attempts by the same practitioner. It reported that hospitals had become hostile environments for Jewish staff and patients, with some Jewish healthcare workers resigning after management declined to act on online hate speech by colleagues.

The report also examined an orchestrated campaign by pro-Palestinian healthcare worker groups and activist organisations pressuring the national regulator, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, to withdraw its recently announced adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. AHPRA adopted the definition after almost three years of complaints about antisemitism in the sector.

According to the report, AHPRA received 124 complaints related to antisemitism and 97 relating to Islamophobia between July 2023 and the end of February this year.

Dossiers of antisemitic social media posts by doctors have been submitted to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, which this week has been examining antisemitism at Australian universities.