More than 2,000 public servants faced sanctions in the second year after signing an open letter criticizing the federal government's response to the war in Gaza, demanding an end to military exports to Israel. This state crackdown on dissent emerged during the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, which has been sitting since May.
The open letter, circulated in early 2024, called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to cease all military exports to Israel, citing a UN Human Rights Council finding that genocide was occurring in Gaza. Australian Public Service (APS) acting deputy commissioner Joanne Talbot stated that circulating such a letter, identifying as public servants, was "highly concerning" and "does border on being apolitical." She believed some signatories were sanctioned, though she didn't know the specifics.
NSW Public Service Commissioner Kathrina Lo deemed the conduct "inappropriate," asserting that public servants "crossed the line." She stated their actions were inconsistent with legislated core values requiring impartiality and apolitical conduct. Ms. Lo and the secretary of the NSW premier's office issued a joint message to all state public servants, reinforcing these obligations.
The State's Hand
This official response to public servants' collective action underscores the state's role in suppressing challenges to its foreign policy, which often serves capital accumulation through securing resources and markets. The commission also heard that Jewish patients requested their religion be removed from hospital admission forms. This followed allegations in February 2025 that two former nurses at Bankstown Hospital made menacing comments about Israeli patients, refusing treatment.
Both former nurses have pleaded not guilty to charges, including using a carriage service to menace, harass, or offend, with one also denying a charge of threatening violence. Rabbi Mendel Kastel, a chaplain with NSW Health, reported "real fear" among Jewish Australians, with St Vincent's Hospital Sydney receiving calls from patients asking to remove their religion from records. He even discussed creating alternative healthcare access due to this fear.
Managing Contradictions
The Royal Commission's focus on education and training in schools, workplaces, and healthcare aims to manage these social contradictions without addressing their structural roots. Rabbi Kastel, while filming a video with a Muslim colleague to reassure patients at Bankstown Hospital, supported prohibiting hospital staff from wearing Palestinian and Israeli flag pins. This approach seeks to control outward expressions rather than confronting underlying geopolitical and economic drivers of conflict.
Rabbi Kastel also spoke of the "One Mitzvah for Bondi" campaign, established after his brother-in-law, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, died in the Bondi Beach terror attack on December 14, 2025. This initiative encourages good deeds and interfaith collaboration, framing "kindness" as a universal message of unity. Such efforts, while well-intentioned, often serve to depoliticize systemic issues, offering individual solutions to collective problems.
Melbourne Holocaust Museum CEO Breann Fallon, whose center has engaged over 800,000 students in education programs since 1984, described a "weighty pause" when people learn of her work. She noted a "conflation" of the museum's work with the "current geopolitical context," leading to assumptions about her political views and even loss of friendships. Dr. Fallon and her staff manage safety risks, with some individuals stating, "Be careful, I know where you work."
Suppression and Control
The Department of Home Affairs further demonstrated the state's mechanisms of control. Its head of immigration, Clare Sharp, detailed "levers" to prevent individuals deemed disruptive or harmful from entering the country. She cited cases like conservative speaker Candace Owens, denied a temporary visa for downplaying the Holocaust, and musician Kanye West, blocked over antisemitic song lyrics. These actions illustrate the state's power to police thought and expression at its borders, protecting the established order from perceived ideological threats. The entire apparatus, from commissions to border control, functions to manage social unrest and maintain the conditions for capital's continued accumulation, often at the expense of free expression and collective action.