Regulator urged to intervene as doctors post increasingly extreme comments online over Gaza

Australia’s medical regulator is under pressure to crack down on anti-Semitic comments by doctors comparing Jews to Nazis and Gaza to concentration camps.

Members of the Australian Jewish community participate in a gathering in Sydney called ‘Balloons of Hope’, which represents Israeli hostages being held by the Palestinian group Hamas. Australia’s medical regulator is under pressure to take immediate action to crack down on anti-­Semitic comments being published on social media by doctors. Picture: AFP

Australia’s medical regulator is under pressure to take immediate action to crack down on anti-­Semitic comments being published on social media by doctors who are comparing Jews to Nazis and comparing Gaza to Nazi concentration camps.

One doctor taunted a Jewish colleague that Israel might as well “gas them all” – referring to Palestinians in Gaza – and likened the situation in Gaza to Buchenwald and the Solovki prison camp during World War II.

Doctors who questioned the offensive remarks on medical chat groups were branded “overlords” as clinicians who accused Israel of “genocide” against Palestinians protested against comments being removed from online groups.

“There is clearly a gag order on anything that would upset our Zionist colleagues,” one doctor complained.

“Due to Israelis calling for the unfettered genocide of Palestinians,” another replied.

Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has been asked in a letter signed by hundreds of concerned medical practitioners to instruct the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency to investigate and address online anti-Semitic remarks.

“It is entirely unacceptable for any medical professional to use their platform to spread discriminatory or hateful remarks, especially in a divisive manner,” the letter said. “A tolerant medical workforce is crucial to ensure the mental and physical wellbeing of all Australians.

“The medical community should exemplify tolerance and understanding, rather than unjustly accusing a community, particularly one that is acutely grieving, of heinous acts.

“We are particularly concerned about the negative sentiments ­directed towards vulnerable Jewish doctors and patients.

“This is not an attack on individual practitioners but a call to address a systemic problem.

“Discrimination in any form is corrosive, but in the medical field, it’s downright dangerous. There should be no room for politics in the delivery of healthcare. Hate speech has no place in healthcare.”

Opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston tabled the letter and examples of the posts at Senate estimates this week and demanded AHPRA provide ­details of its urgent response.

Medical insurers have begun instructing activist doctors against posting controversial comments concerning events in the Middle East online.

Meanwhile, deep splits have emerged in medical colleges over the immediate response to the slaughter of 1400 Jewish people in Israel on October 7 at the hands of terrorist group Hamas.

Opposition Health spokeswoman Anne Ruston.

Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists president Elizabeth Moore. Picture: LinkedIn

Some Jewish psychiatrists expressed their deep concern over the official response of the Royal Australian & New Zealand College of Psychiatrists in the immediate wake of the atrocities, when college president Elizabeth Moore issued a statement that failed to mention the slaughter of Israeli citizens.

“The College condemns all forms of violence and human rights abuses and remains deeply concerned about the ongoing conflict in Gaza,” the statement said.

Jewish psychiatrists were flabbergasted that the statement said “not a word about Jews, Israel or terrorism”.

The controversy was followed by extreme language being published online, notably by doctor Sara Marzouk, who questioned accounts of pack rape at the music festival near the Israel-Gaza border and referred to becoming ­“irritated” at Jewish colleagues who spoke of being retraumatised by events in the light of the ­attempted extermination of the Jewish race during the Holocaust.