Protest At Granville Boys High After Staff Member Reprimanded For Political Post

Students at a Granville Boys High School spent Wednesday morning protesting, after a staff member shared a post to social media about the pair of Bankstown Hospital nurses, and was consequentially told to work from home.

Sheikh Wesam Charkawi, a student support officer at Granville Boys High, and a convener of Muslim Vote, was “counselled about his obligations” by the NSW Education Department after posting a video on TikTok they claimed his post breached the department’s social media policy and code of ethics.

Charkawi accused political leaders of “selective moral outrage” after footage emerged of nurses from Bankstown Hospital allegedly saying they would refuse to treat Israeli patients, even if it meant killing them.

“The most revealing aspect of the political outrage is the speed, intensity, and coordination of the response from figures who have ben otherwise largely indifferent, weak, or outright complicit in enabling on mass atrocities,” he said in the video, which has since been taken deleted.

“This isn’t just hypocrisy, and it isn’t just a double standard… it’s an orchestrated moral framework where outrage is not dictated by the severity of an action but by the one who commits it.”

One of the nurses, 26-year-old Sarah Abu Lebdeh, was charged with three offences on Tuesday night, including threatening violence, using a carriage service to threaten to kill and using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend.

Charkwai was told by senior education department officials to “temporarily work from an alternate location”.

He has been a member of staff at Granville Boys High for more than a decade, is a prayer group leader at the school, and is a member of the Australian National Imams Council.

At 9am on Wednesday morning, students gathered at the front of the school alongside parents, where they listened to speeches in support of Charwiki. A video was recorded of the students chanting “Free Palestine” and “Allahu Akbar” (God is great).

Public sector staff reminded of duty to impartiality

NSW Education Minister Prue Car said school was not a place of protest.

“The best place for students in school is in class learning. That was not the case here and that is not acceptable.

“I am advised that there will be a full school assembly tomorrow morning where those expectations will be reinforced to the entire student body. Any student who does not comply with these expectations will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action from the school.

“It is my expectation that anyone who works in a NSW public school performs their duties impartially, apolitically and professionally as set out in the department’s code of conduct.”

Advocacy group Teachers for Palestine, who also attended the protest in support of Chakawi, said on Wednesday night that the attack on him was “outrageous”, and that his comments did not break the social media policy.

“There was no similar level of outrage, or move to charge Alan Jones when he publicly said Prime Minister Julia Gillard ‘should be thrown out to sea in a chaff bag’ or when a conservative commentator Pru MacSween said on Sydney’s 2GB radio station that she wanted to ‘run over’ Muslim, Sudanese-Australian writer Yassmin Abdel-Magied,” they said in an Instagram post.

“There is no similar level of outrage, or any outrage, when Palestinian health workers are routinely tortured or executed by Israel. Nor was there any when senior Israeli ministers called for Gaza to be ethnically cleansed, or even nuked.”

NSW Premier’s department secretary Simon Draper and NSW Public Service Commissioner Kathrina Lo wrote a joint letter to public sector staff last week, saying they have “a duty to uphold the reputation of your department and the government sector as apolitical, impartial and professional”.

“This includes also in a private capacity in public forums, on social media, or when engaging in political or social issues. You have a right to express your views and support causes, but always with a mind to how it might impact on your role as a public servant and trust in our institutions by all members of the community,” the letter said.

When asked at NSW budget estimates what the Department of Education would do, Premier Chris Minns said “disciplinary matters have already been taken in relation to this individual by the department.”