Healthcare workers condemn Australian Red Cross chair for meeting Israeli president
Chair attended Herzog reception despite Israel killing dozens of Palestine Red Crescent workers
Healthcare workers have condemned the Australian Red Cross Society (ARCS) after its chair attended a welcome reception for Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
ARCS chair Claire Rogers was photographed at a Sydney reception held for Herzog by NSW governor Margaret Beazley on February 9. Photos of Rogers and Herzog together were later published on Herzog’s official Twitter/X account.
In a media statement provided to Deepcut, ARCS said the photograph “was taken at an event hosted by the Governor of NSW, Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, to recognise the various organisations, including Australian Red Cross, who supported victims of the Bondi terror attack”.
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“Ms Claire Rogers attended this event alongside our volunteers and staff involved in the response in this capacity only,” the statement said.
Herzog’s presence in Sydney that day was the trigger for a large protest at Sydney Town Hall that was violently broken up by NSW Police. In September, a UN Commission of Inquiry found that Herzog incited genocide in October 2023 when he claimed that “an entire nation out there [in Gaza]... is responsible” for the October 7 attack on Israel.
Nurses and Midwives for Palestine, a grassroots organisation of healthcare workers, said Rogers’ participation in the event “compromises the humanitarian mission of the Red Cross”.
“As healthcare workers, we take an oath to protect human life and its sanctity,” a Nurses and Midwives for Palestine representative said.
“It is reprehensible that Rogers, on behalf of the Red Cross – or any healthcare or aid organisation – would participate in welcoming or assisting a mass murderer.”
On February 5 – four days before Rogers attended the reception for Herzog – ARCS published a press release on its website in which the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) condemned the killing of Hussein Hassan Hussein Al-Samiri, a Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) paramedic. According to the press release, Al-Samiri “was killed while performing life-saving humanitarian duties in Khan Younis during an attack in the Al-Mawasi area, on 4 February 2026”.
In its own press release on February 4, the PRCS said Al-Samiri “was directly targeted by Israeli occupation aircraft while performing his humanitarian duty transporting casualties in the city of Khan Younis”, and that “despite the fact [Al-Samiri] clearly displayed the internationally protected Red Crescent emblem, the occupation forces deliberately targeted him”.
The PRCS states that Israel has killed 58 of its staff and volunteers since October 2023, and has detailed numerous instances of its operations being targeted and its staff and volunteers being killed and injured by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), including:
The massacre of eight PRCS medics – Mustafa Khafaja, Ezz El-Din Shaat, Saleh Muammar, Refaat Radwan, Muhammad Bahloul, Ashraf Abu Libda, Muhammad Al-Hila, and Raed Al-Sharif – by the IDF and the deliberate burial of their bodies and emergency vehicles outside Tel al-Sultan in March 2025
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) bombing of a PRCS ambulance in Deir el-Balah in January 2024, killing four PRCS EMS crew members – Yusuf Abu Ma’mar, Fadi Fuad Al-Maani, Islam Abu Riyala, and Fuad Abu Khamash
IDF snipers opening fire on PRCS’ Khan Younis branch office in February 2024, killing PRCS Youth and Volunteers Department director Hedaya Hamad
The IDF’s month-long siege of the PRCS-run Al-Amal Hospital in early 2024, resulting in the hospital’s forced evacuation and closure
The IDF’s week-long siege of the PRCS-run Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City in November 2023, rendering the hospital inoperative
An IDF double-tap artillery strike on the PRCS’ Khan Younis headquarters in August 2025, killing a staff member
The IAF bombing of a PRCS ambulance in Tel Sultan in May 2024, killing PRCS paramedics Haitham Tubasi and Suhail Hasouna
IDF soldiers firing upon and arresting two PRCS volunteer EMTs providing first aid to an injured person in Tulkarm refugee camp in September 2024.
ARCS did not directly respond to questions from Deepcut as to whether Rogers raised any of these incidents with Herzog at the welcome reception, saying in its statement that “the International Red Cross Red Crecent [sic] Movement, of which Australian Red Cross belongs, is guided in its approach by its Fundamental Principles - Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence, Voluntary Service, Unity, and Universality.”
“We continue to call on all parties to uphold international humanitarian law in conflict,” the statement concluded. “We condemn the killing of humanitarian workers and reiterate our call for the protection of civilians, medical personnel and aid workers.”
The week in freedom of speech
Welcome to our new weekly wrap-up of efforts to undermine democratic rights and silence critics of the genocide in Gaza – and the people who are pushing back.
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Liberal politicians, News Corp outlets and Zionist lobby groups have begun attacking ABC News Americas editor John Lyons, demanding the broadcaster sack or discipline the reporter over supposed “bias”. Speaking on ABC News 24 on Sunday, Lyons characterised the Australian government’s support for US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran as “political propaganda” and described Trump’s rationale for the attacks as “Israel’s words in the US President’s mouth”. Shadow communications minister Sarah Henderson, Liberal senator James Paterson and Sky News commentator Sharri Markson, who have led the attack on Lyons, are among the hundreds of Australian politicians and media figures who have accepted tours of Israel organised and paid for, partly or in full, by pro-Israel lobby groups.
NSW Premier Chris Minns has cancelled the state government’s annual iftar dinner for the second time in three years amid ongoing anger at police violence against Muslim worshippers outside Sydney Town Hall in February. Minns has repeatedly refused to apologise for the violence, with Liverpool Mayor Ned Mannoun telling the Daily Telegraph Minns has a “fetish” for attacking the Muslim community.
A Sydney high school student who was barred from his Year 12 formal for refusing to remove his keffiyeh at his graduation ceremony in 2024 has settled with the NSW Department of Education. Jad Salamah took the state government to court over the incident, alleging that he had been racially discriminated against. In its statement announcing the confidential settlement, the Department clarified that keffiyehs were among the “cultural garments” public school students are allowed to wear on Harmony Day. The statement is a significant shift in policy, given the Department’s history of disciplinary action against staff and students for wearing keffiyeh and other Palestinian national and cultural symbols since October 2023.
An alternative to the cancelled Adelaide Writers’ Week wraps up today. Constellations: Not Writers’ Week was organised by Writers SA after a widespread boycott of Adelaide Writers’ Week caused the festival’s collapse in January. Australian and international authors pulled out of Writers’ Week en masse after the Festival board abruptly uninvited Palestinian-Australian author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah on the grounds that “it would be culturally insensitive to allow her to participate”. The Festival has since apologised to Abdel-Fattah and invited her to next year’s festival over the objections of South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas, whom Abdel-Fattah has accused of defamation.
Totally unacceptable.
They meet him and then send donated aid to ease their guilty conscience