Peta Credlin: Latest Jew-hatred must finally start conversation about the type of migrant we allow to come to our country

The casual declaration by two Muslim health care workers that they’d try to kill Israeli patients should lead to a more serious process for anyone seeking to become an Australian citizen, writes Peta Credlin.

The casual declaration late last week by two Muslim health care workers that they’d try to kill Israeli or Jewish patients might finally have shattered our complacent assumption that immigration is always beneficial. And that “diversity” should always be celebrated even where that diversity clashes with our values.

One, a male Afghan immigrant, and the other a female Muslim, born and raised in Australia from a Middle Eastern background, told an Israeli influencer that they would deliberately kill Israeli or Jewish patients, and even implied that they had.

This is so contrary to the ethos of Australia, let alone the ethics of the health professions, that it might finally start the conversation we need to have about the type of migrant we allow to come to our country and what we expect of them when they arrive.

For far too long immigration has been a taboo subject among policy makers. Immigration, it’s said, has made us economically stronger and culturally richer. And it’s true that modern Australia is the product of immigration, starting with the forced immigrants, or convicts, who came on the First Fleet and the many millions who have since followed them from all corners of the earth.

NSW government officials are investigating after nurses at Bankstown Hospital, Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, were filmed declaring they would refuse to treat Israeli people and would “kill them” if they presented to their ward. Picture: NewsWire

In recent times, there’s no doubt that the post-war immigrants who built the Snowy Mountain Scheme, manned the factories and worked the mines that have underpinned our prosperity have been a massive asset. The arts, the sciences, culture and not least of all our cuisine have all benefited from the presence of migrants.

But these migrants, by and large, have always willing to join Australia and leave old prejudices behind. Not so anymore Which then begs the question: “Does our traditional support for migration really mean that anyone from anywhere should be welcome in Australia, especially if they’re bringing with them the hatreds of their homeland rather than the skills and work ethic that our country needs?”

Recent record levels of migration, importing the equivalent of the population of Canberra every single year, far from increasing our productivity and prosperity, have put downward pressure on wages, upward pressure on housing costs, and massive pressure on infrastructure. A rapidly growing population has masked decreasing living standards, with GDP per person now declining for seven successive quarters.

But it’s the impact of immigration on social cohesion which last week’s chilling exchange has really highlighted. Sure, Australia has witnessed tension between the English and the Irish; there has been historic discrimination against Aboriginal people; and – notoriously – for the first 50 years or so of our national existence, we maintained a “White Australia” immigration policy.

But lingering embarrassment about our former desire to maintain cultural homogeneity (a desire, incidentally, that countries like Japan still practice and are not normally criticised for) should not lead us into policies of self harm.

A ‘Free Palestine’ protest at the Opera House in 2023. Picture: Jeremy Piper

There is something seriously wrong with immigration arrangements that bring people to our country who believe, quite literally, in “death to the infidels” and allow communities to develop that are often widely out of step with Australian attitudes about the role of women, the place of religion, and the value of democracy.

I think most Australians were shocked when, on October 9, 2023, an angry mob gathered outside the Opera House chanting “F--k the Jews” and what sounded very much like “Gas the Jews”. Then there were the Muslim “community leaders” celebrating the October 7 atrocity as a “day of pride” and “day of victory”. Then there were the incessant protest marches and sit-ins that claimed merely to be “anti-Zionist” but that were plainly “anti-Semitic”. Finally there were the fire bombings of synagogues and widespread vandalism of Jewish Australians’ property. And now this appalling assertion – delivered as if it were the most natural thing in the world – that Israelis or Jews seeking medical treatment in an Australian hospital should be killed.

To me, almost as shocking has been officialdom’s slow, hesitant and half-hearted response. The police have facilitated anti-Semitic protests, more often arresting people with Israeli flags than Hamas ones. University authorities tolerated for weeks anti-Semitic encampments that should have been immediately cleared as a public nuisance and trespass. Show me a hate preacher who has been prosecuted or deported. I can’t recall a single protester that has had their visa revoked. Few state and federal ministers have managed to condemn rampant anti-Semitism without mentioning in their next breath an all but non-existent Islamophobia. It’s been a pathetic contrast with the absolute zeal of officialdom to crack down on freedom protesters during the pandemic.

But at last, it seems, this latest manifestation of Jew-hatred has shocked people out of making excuses. While the nursing union couldn’t help denouncing the exchange without also mentioning an equally abhorrent Islamophobia, NSW health officials from the minister down instantly sacked the two health workers and said they’d never again be employed in NSW hospitals. The police have questioned both of them and are considering criminal charges.

But how could there be, in the first place, people in our midst for whom such attitudes are apparently commonplace? Especially in what Australian leaders have long insisted is “the world’s most successful multicultural society”. Surely, this online exchange between the Israeli influencer and his two Muslim interlocutors must finally spotlight the dark side of multiculturalism and the dangers of a “non-discriminatory” immigration policy that admits people who don’t share Australian values.

Nurses rally outside of Parliament House in Sydney against hate speech in NSW hospitals following an anti-Semitic incident with two nurses at Bankstown Hospital. Picture: NewsWire/Nikki Short

Of course, it has to be noted that the recent anti-Semitic protests have not just involved poorly integrated Muslim Australians but also local neo-Marxists who think Israel is a manifestation of settler colonialism and that Jews exemplify white privilege. But the fact that we have a group of local fanatics hardly justifies reinforcing existing tensions via immigration. In fact it highlights just how dangerous the Albanese government’s decision to admit 3000 Gazans, indoctrinated from birth into Jew-hatred, really was.

The questions that have to be asked are: how could health care workers who insist that it’s right to kill Israeli or Jewish patients have become Australian citizens; and why is Australia running an immigration policy that brings such people to our country? After all, don’t all new citizens have to pass a test on Australian values and don’t they all have to pledge allegiance “to Australia and its people, whose democratic beliefs I share, whose values I respect, and whose laws I will uphold and obey”? How could anyone who thinks it’s okay for health care personnel to kill Israeli or Jewish people have sincerely made the citizenship pledge or indeed graduated from nursing school?

It should no longer be considered wrong to discriminate on the basis of values because if someone rejects Australian values, they should have no expectation of being admitted to live in Australia.

Of course it’s wrong to discriminate against anyone on the basis of race and religion. But surely it should no longer be considered wrong to discriminate on the basis of values because if someone rejects Australian values, they should have no expectation of being admitted to live in Australia.

It sounds simple, doesn’t it, but rarely is this the case in practice?

At the very least, this grotesque incident should lead to a much more serious and thorough process for anyone seeking to become an Australian citizen. Our almost laughably simple citizenship test (which a third of applicants still reportedly fail) needs to be made much more searching. It needs to be reinforced with questions that are much better at eliciting applicants’ real beliefs.

Otherwise, the cohesive, ethnically-diverse nation we’ve always imagined ourselves to be will steadily become a house divided … that cannot stand.

THUMBS UP

Peter Dutton for demanding an investigation into how the former Afghan refugee who claimed he’d killed Israeli patients ever gained citizenship.

THUMBS DOWN

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin carving up Ukraine on a phone call without the Ukranian people getting a say in their future, despite putting their lives on the line.

Watch Peta on Credlin on Sky News, weeknights at 6pm

Originally published as Peta Credlin: Latest Jew-hatred must finally start conversation about the type of migrant we allow to come to our country