The inaugural ARC APAC Summit, hosted by the Victorian Government, is being held at the Melbourne Convention Centre on March 12-13, 2025. ‘ARC Innovation’ is the innovation arm of Sheba Medical Centre, Israel’s largest hospital.

The Victorian government is partnering with Israeli institutions and a government that stands accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and breaching international law and the Geneva Conventions.

As Victorians we are appalled that the state government is hosting the Summit and platforming the Israeli Director of Public Health, Sharon Alroy-Preisis (*1/3/25 no longer on program). This partnership is indefensible; Gaza’s healthcare system has been decimated by Israel, over 1000 health and medical professionals have been murdered by the IDF (1) and many more, including paediatrician Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, have been illegally detained.

We condemn the Victorian government for spending Victorian tax dollars on hosting the ARC APAC Summit; in doing so it is complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people and war crimes.

In December 2024, Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, urged “medical professionals worldwide to pursue the severance of all ties with Israel as a concrete way to forcefully denounce Israel’s full destruction of the Palestinian healthcare system”.

The ARC APEC Summit preliminary program includes the following presenters and panellists:

3/3/2025 Victorian Minister for Health Mary-Anne Thomas added to program to open conference

• Dominic Wall,ED Business Ventures, PETER MACCALLUM CANCER CENTRE*
• Prof. Shelley Dolan, CEO, ROYAL MELBOURNE HOSPITAL
• Prof. Stephen Nicholls, CEO, VICTORIAN HEART HOSPITAL*
• Katharine See, Chief Health Outcomes Officer, NORTHERN HEALTH
• Dr Tam Nguyen, Deputy Director of Research, ST VINCENT’S HEALTH
• Prof Eugine Yafele, CEO, MONASH HEALTH*
• Georgie Harmann, CEO, BEYOND BLUE
• Dale Fisher, CEO, SILVERCHAIN*
• Bronwyn Le Grice, CEO, ANDHEALTH
• Prof. Euan Wallace, Secretary, VICTORIAN DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH - *1/3/25 no longer on program
  (*MOU with Sheba Medical Centre)

We, the undersigned, call for all Victorian public healthcare services to withdraw from the 2025 ARC APAC Summit and for the Victorian State Government to sever all ties with Sheba Medical Centre.