A senior member of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) reportedly walked up to a fellow member opposing Israel’s genocide in Gaza and said “all Palestinians are terrorists”. And this instance of vile racism adds to other examples in the RCN of discriminatory attitudes towards people suffering war crimes in occupied Palestine.

Racist member spat bile before ‘walking off smiling’

The Canary spoke to Anna Pichierri, the healthcare worker who was on the receiving end of this disgusting comment. And she shared with us the statement she made to the independent regulator for nursing – the Nursing and Midwifery Council – about the incident.

This states that, at the 2025 RCN Conference, senior union member Karen Lesley Sanders came up to Pichierri – a participant in the Nurses for Palestine group – as she was holding a placard saying ‘Nurses against Genocide’. According to Pichierri, Sanders:

walked over to me and shouted “Nurses against terrorists”

She asked what Sanders meant by that. And Sanders:

said smiling “All Palestinians are terrorists” and as she was walking away I asked to see her name and she proudly held up her lanyard and after saying loud her name she said to me I know you and she then walked off in the building smiling.

Pichierri said this:

hit me very hard. I was in shock, and I was hurt personally and felt pain for others around it. The comments were racist, and this is not something I would expect any nurse to say let alone a senior member of the Royal College of Nursing.

Sanders is a senior lecturer and has had numerous roles within the RCN. These include a role on the union’s Trade Union Committee and even as chair of its “Ethics Forum Steering Committee“. She has also written in several union publications.

The Canary sought comment from Sanders, but had received no response by the time of publication. RCN London, meanwhile, declined to comment on the incident.

The day before, meanwhile…

That wasn’t the only concerning event at the 2025 congress, though. Because the day before, Pichierri told us:

There was a sign painting studio and the artist in charge was very supportive of the Palestinian cause and let a few of us start to write placards on the genocide. Definitely that was not what the congress leadership wanted.

She later joined a short march inside the conference hall, holding one ‘nurses against the genocide’ placard herself and handing over two more to other people. But this behaviour seemed to rattle some senior members. Because as Pichierri said:

At some point the chair of the congress quickly walked up to me and literally snatched the placard from my hand, quickly moving up the podium

RCN and Palestine

The RCN also displayed hypocrisy by donating money to Ukraine while failing to do the same for Palestine.

As the Canary reported previously, Nurses for Palestine have co-produced a report accusing the union of investing in companies complicit with Israel’s genocide, occupation and apartheid. This would be a breach of its own ethical and professional codes of conduct.

The RCN has insisted that it doesn’t invest directly in arms companies or firms committing “ethically unacceptable” acts. It has also expressed ‘grave concern’ about Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system.

Nurses for Palestine would like to see the union express similar concern about the vile anti-Palestinian racism at the 2025 congress. Because it should have no place in any trade union, let alone one that is fully aware of the genocidal devastation Israel’s war criminal leaders have submitted Palestinians to in the last three years.

Featured image via the Canary

By Ed Sykes

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