Hundreds of public servants from across Australia and across state and federal agencies have signed an open letter calling for the federal government to “immediately cease all military exports to Israel”.
The letter, signed by more than 300 people, notes a warning from UN experts in February that the transport of weapons or ammunition to Israel to be used in Gaza is likely to violate international humanitarian law.
The warning named Australia as an exporter of weapons to Israel, a claim the government denies. In February the defence minister, Richard Marles, said there had been “no exports of weapons from Australia to Israel and there haven’t been for many, many years”. In November, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, said Australia “has not supplied weapons to Israel since the start of the Hamas-Israeli conflict”.
A majority of those who signed the letter work for federal and state government departments, with others working in local government.
“As public servants whose work is to serve our communities, it is our obligation to voice our deep concern that you are leading Australia to be complicit in an additional genocide, an additional colonial project, staining this nation with more war crimes – even more than it lays claim to already – and, in negligence of the public we serve, these war crimes are again in the service of foreign powers,” the letter states.
“We call on the Australian government to take swift and decisive action to end its support of the genocide, ethnic cleansing and illegal occupation of Palestine by immediately ceasing all military exports to Israel.”
The signees make four demands of the Australian government:
cease supplying all military parts and weapons to Israel
cease providing reconnaissance support from the Pine Gap facility
cancel all contracts and cooperation with Israeli weapons suppliers
disclose all information relating to the sale of military export licences to Australian companies supplying weapons and weapons components to Israel directly and/or indirectly
The letter refers to reports that civil servants in the UK have requested to stop work over fears they may be “complicit in war crimes in Gaza”.
It also cites a report in November that revealed Australian arms and ammunition exports to Israel totalled $13m over the past five years, and data published by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade that shows Australia directly exported over $1.5m in “arms and ammunition” to Israel in February 2024 alone.
At the time, the defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, told the ABC that Australia was “not exporting military weapons, things like bombs, to Israel”.
The letter is endorsed by a range of organisations, including the Australia Palestine Advocacy network, Unionists for Palestine and the Palestine Justice Movement Sydney.
Israel has denied genocide accusations, having argued in the International Court of Justice it is waging a war in self-defence.
Israel stirred fresh global condemnation this week after it launched airstrikes in Rafah that hit tents housing displaced people, killing at least 45 people. Its war in the enclave has resulted in more that 36,000 Palestinian deaths since the Hamas attack on 7 October, including an estimated 15,000 children.
One of the signees, Merah Hashmi, who works in the environment sector of the Australian public service, told the Guardian it was the “steady rise in horrors” that motivated her to sign the letter.
“It’s harrowing to watch, and harrowing to go into work everyday and act like nothing is happening.
“Our major concern is that as public servants we have a responsibility to the Australian people to reflect and serve their interests, and an overwhelming majority of them do not want this to be happening.
“I don’t think anyone becomes a public servant to want to be involved in something like this,” she said.
The Australian Public Service Act requires employees of the APS “to behave in a way that upholds the APS values”, including that “the APS is apolitical and provides the government with advice that is frank, honest, timely and based on the best available evidence”.
The social media guidelines for the APS say that any statements made by APS employees on social media must be “balanced with the obligations of APS employment, and the need to be seen as trusted and impartial public servants”.
“An apolitical and professional public service is a core feature of our system of representative and responsible government,” it says.
In 2019, the high court unanimously upheld a decision to sack a public servant for anonymous social media posts that criticised the government’s immigration policy.
But public sector worker and fellow signee Sousan Ghecham said signing the open letter is the “right and moral thing to do”.
“Like most people we’re horrified at what we’re seeing, not just the last week but with everything that’s unfolded over the last eight months,” she said.
“It just became really hard to ignore and really difficult to justify not taking this stance publicly, not trying to use our position or our voices in a way that we might be able to effect some sort of change or put some sort of pressure on our governments to take steps that they need to take.”
