EDITORIAL: Anti-Semitism disintegrates our social contract

Are the two NSW nurses caught boasting about killing Israeli patients under their care just a couple of rogue, blustering idiots?

Or is their murderous rhetoric a symptom of a deeper sickness which has taken root in our institutions — including, it would appear, our health systems?

Are hospitals a safe place to be Jewish?

These are the questions Jewish Australians are now grappling with.

There’s no evidence as yet to suggest the two Bankstown Hospital nurses, who have been stood down while authorities investigate further, have ever intentionally harmed or withheld treatment from Jewish patients, as they claimed to have done in a video chat with Israeli influencer Max Veifer.

But their vile conduct is still a betrayal of their patients, their profession, and their nation.

They’ve broken one of the core tenets of our Australian social contract — that any Australian, regardless of their race, gender, or religious affiliation, can access high quality health care in their time of need.

NSW Premier Chris Minns has described the anti-Semitic views expressed by the pair as an “aberration” among NSW health workers.

But for Jewish Australians, already on edge after months of sustained hatred and intimidation directed towards them — having watched their places of worship firebombed, homes and vehicles graffitied — are finding it difficult to take him at his word.

Already, Jewish Australians are transferring elective surgeries to hospitals they believe may be safer for them.

“These (two) people aren’t the only ones that harbour this ideology, that are consumed by this sort of hatred,” Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said.

“I’ve had many messages from members of the Jewish community asking things like, ‘should I have my Star of David removed, lest I be in the hands of a paramedic or nurse or orderly that holds these sort of views?’”

Australia cannot claim to be a successful multicultural nation if a subset of our population is afraid to seek treatment in our public hospitals.

It’s a situation we must not tolerate.

Because try as our leaders might to downplay the scale of the threat, you can be assured that these nurses aren’t alone in holding these despicable, deranged views.

The sad fact is that they are held by people working across society, in all range of professions.

Pretending otherwise, in pursuit of “social cohesion”, won’t constrain their hate. It serves only to embolden these actors, and give them the confidence to give voice to their dark beliefs.

This is a crisis that is exploding now into the public consciousness because of the reluctance, born out self-interest, of our political leaders to address it head-on.

They no longer have that luxury of inaction. Australia must have a serious conversation about the kind of nation we want to be.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by WAN Editor Christopher Dore.