APAN calls on AHPRA to revoke IHRA adoption that risks silencing healthcare workers on Gaza.
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) has raised serious concerns regarding AHPRA’s announcement of new measures, including adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism in Australia’s healthcare system, questioning the apparent lack of meaningful consultation with Palestinian, Arab and Muslim healthcare workers.
APAN supports efforts to address all forms of racism within healthcare settings. Every healthcare worker has the right to a safe workplace free from discrimination, vilification and harassment, and every patient has a right to receive healthcare without encountering racism
Meaningful engagement with affected communities is fundamental to developing effective responses to racism. That principle applies whether the communities concerned are First Nations, Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, Jewish, LGBTQ+ or any other group experiencing racism and exclusion.
A change to how complaints are assessed across more than 900,000 registered practitioners is a profession-wide regulatory decision. AHPRA ordinarily consults publicly on changes of this significance. Here it appears to have acted through a joint statement with a political office-holder, without the transparent consultation such a change demands, of the practitioners it governs, the professional bodies that represent them, or the communities affected.
Those affected are not a single group. They include Jewish organisations and practitioners who themselves reject the IHRA definition as harmful to the fight against antisemitism, human rights and civil liberties bodies, First Nations health leaders, and Palestinian, Arab and Muslim health workers who have reported sustained discrimination over the past 20 months. That prominent Jewish voices oppose this measure is itself evidence that the consultation was inadequate even on its own terms.
The joint statement issued by AHPRA and Antisemitism Envoy, Jillian Segal, is highly controversial and places healthcare workers at risk of facing suspension or even being banned from practice due to egregious and vexatious complaints that prohibit political expression and concern over Israeli government policy to destroy healthcare systems in Gaza and Lebanon.
Since October 2023, healthcare workers across Australia have reported experiences including workplace discrimination, suppression of political expression, complaints processes being used against advocates, and fear of professional consequences for speaking publicly about Gaza and Palestine.
At the same time, Palestinian healthcare workers have witnessed the destruction of Gaza’s health system, the killing of thousands of healthcare workers and patients, and growing hostility towards those advocating for Palestinian human rights in Australia.
Efforts to eliminate racism in healthcare must be comprehensive, transparent and informed by those directly affected.
Jordana Silverstein APAN Executive Member
“We must all be deeply concerned that APHRA has decided to work with the Special Envoy and to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism. This embeds anti-Palestinian racism in our healthcare system and threatens all medical professionals and patients. As a Jewish person I know that dealing with antisemitism in this way isn’t an anti-racist approach, it is a way of pitting groups against each other and benefits only those who seek to shut down and exclude Palestinians and their allies. This decision needs to be quickly repealed and proper anti-racist work, particularly that guided by Indigenous colleagues and experts, furthered in its place.”
Dr. Mohamad Assoum APAN Executive Member
“Antisemitism and all forms of discrimination have no place in healthcare, which is why I’m concerned that AHPRA has embedded the IHRA definition into its regulatory work without the transparency, consultation or evidence base a change of this significance demands, in a way that risks treating legitimate criticism of the Israeli government as racism and discouraging health workers from speaking out on humanitarian crises”
Nurse Matt ANMF Nurses and Midwives for Palestine (Vic Branch)
“Healthcare workers have a moral, professional and democratic right to criticise any state or government that commits human rights abuses, and any attempt to intimidate, censor or silence them for doing so must be met with righteous condemnation.”
“Healthcare workers care for physical, mental and social health. Now, as ever, we must also care for the political health of our world. It is within our professional and moral scope to condemn and criticise states and governments that destroy human life, violate human rights, and undermine the conditions necessary for human survival. To remain silent in the face of such destruction is not neutrality; it is an abandonment of our responsibilities as healers.”
Addressing one form of racism while overlooking others risks creating a hierarchy of harm and undermining confidence among healthcare workers who already feel marginalised or excluded from decision-making processes.
APAN calls on AHPRA CEO Justin Untersteiner, the Medical Board of Australia and Australia’s Health Ministers to publicly clarify:
• Suspend implementation of the IHRA definition within its regulatory framework pending transparent, profession-wide consultation, and to guarantee practitioner representation, including voices critical of the definition, on its new advisory panel.
• Which Palestinian healthcare organisations were consulted in the development of these measures;
• Which Palestinian, Arab and Muslim healthcare workers were engaged throughout the process;
• What consideration was given to anti-Palestinian racism, anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia; and
• How AHPRA intends to ensure affected communities are meaningfully involved in future policy development.