NSW Police investigate two nurses stood down after allegedly bragging about killing Israeli patients in video

The two nurses who allegedly bragged about the prospect of killing Israeli patients at a western Sydney hospital will never work for New South Wales Health again as police probe “disgusting” and “vile” anti-Semitic claims they made on video.

On Wednesday NSW Health “stood down” nurses Ahmad ‘Rashad’ Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh after the pair declared they would not treat Israelis who presented at the Bankstown Hospital and would “kill them” instead.

The nurses made the shocking claims during a video call, believed to have been recorded on Tuesday night, with popular Jewish influencer Max Viefer on chat site Chatruletka.

On Wednesday morning Mr Viefer shared the recorded call on Instagram and it quickly went viral, sparking fierce condemnation across the country and around the world.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese quickly denounced the video as “disgusting” and “vile” and said the individuals involved would face the full force of our laws.”

“The footage is sickening and shameful,” he said. “These anti-Semitic comments, driven by hate, have no place in our health system and no place anywhere in Australia.”

Home Minister Tony Burke and Health Minister Mark Butler issued a separate joint statement to utterly condemn the “appalling” and “chilling” video.

“The comments made in this video are sickening and totally unacceptable,” they said.

The statement sought to reassure Australians of their right to feel safe in hospitals.

“Health workers have a solemn duty to treat and heal everyone who comes before them needing help. The vast majority hold to that oath,” it said.

“The idea that you would single out a particular group in our community and indicate you wouldn’t care for them runs against every single principle in our health care system.

The emergence of the explosive footage has stoked further alarm among an already fearful Jewish Australian community facing rising anti-Semitism that has seen synagogues, a childcare centre and cars torched and vandalised.

Melbourne Rabbi Isaac Riesenberg, a speaker at the Australia-Israel Allies Caucus in the Federal parliament on Wednesday, called the video “horrific and illustrative of what’s happening.”

The son of Holocaust survivors, he said he now accompanied his grandchildren to school in Sydney under the close watch of voluntary security guards.

“In my synagogue in Melbourne, there are 25 bollards, multiple security cameras,” he said.

“Now we have a special remote button that will lock us all inside the synagogue to protect us from a mob. This is very reminiscent of the ghettos of Europe where Jews were locked in their ghettos at night for their own protection.”

Security was not the answer, he told The Nightly.

“I think it’s about educating people about the evils of anti-Semitism, about good people speaking up that this is not just a Jewish issue,” he said. “I believe there is a silent majority of Australia horrified by what is going on.”

Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said the video was “just the tip of the iceberg” of extreme online content within the medical community.

“It always seems to take an extreme incident like this to bring some sort of clarity and action,” he said.

NSW Police have launched a “very serious investigation” into the video, where the nurses — wearing hospital scrubs — spoke to popular Jewish influencer Max Veifer during their night shift on the ward.

NSW Police Force Commissioner Karen Webb said detectives from the anti-Semitism taskforce Strike Force Pearl had interviewed staff and established areas within Bankstown Hospital where the footage was allegedly filmed and were reviewing CCTV footage.

Updates will be given on Thursday.

“This is a sad day for our country, it is unthinkable that we are confronted with, and forced to, investigate such an appalling incident,” she said in a statement.

As no charges have been laid, NSW Police refused to comment on potential charges or penalties the pair could face.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said standing the health workers down would “set a clear and unambiguous message that if you go to an emergency department, if you’re on a ward, anywhere in NSW, you will be treated by people who are highly trained, who are highly skilled, who care about you”.

He added, “I can understand right now members of the Jewish community . . . would be appalled at this latest revelation. We just can’t stand for it.”

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park vowed they would not be working for NSW Health again, citing the need for an “iron-clad investigation” so there was “not a glimmer of hope of some kind of administrative turnback”.

Mr Veifer — an influencer and Hebrew-speaking English teacher from Ashdod, Israel — recorded the conversation with the Bankstown Hospital workers on Chatruletka, an app that randomly pairs users for chats around the world.

The conversation started with Mr Nadir identifying himself as a doctor and Mr Veifer sharing that he is from “the holy land” of Israel.

“You actually got really really beautiful eyes but I’m so upset you’re Israeli,” Mr Nadir said.

“You’re going to get killed and you’re going to go to jahannam (hell), inshallah (God willing).

Mr Veifer asked, “Why do you think I’m gonna get killed?” before Ms Abu Lebdeh appeared on the call.

“It’s Palestine’s country, not your country you piece of s...,” she said.

“Listen to me, when your time comes I want you to remember my face so you can understand that you will die the most disgusting death.”

A gobsmacked Mr Veifer asked, “How are you doctors?”

He continued, “So if an Israeli in Australia, and God forbid something happens to him, and he comes to your hospital, would you kill him?” he persisted.

Before he could finish, Ms Abu Lebdeh retorted: “I won’t treat them, I won’t treat them, I’ll kill them.”

Mr Nadir then said he would send Israeli patients at the western Sydney hospital to hell.

“You have no idea how many (Israeli people) come to this hospital . . . I send to Jahannam”, he said before making a throat-slitting gesture.

After the viral video triggered outrage in the top echelons of the Federal and State Governments, Mr Nadir, an Afghan refugee who became an Australian citizen in 2020, claimed to the Daily Telegraph that his comments were “a joke, a misunderstanding”.

In addition to his work at Bankstown Hospital, Mr Nadir also worked at a medical centre in Sydney’s CBD.

He said he didn’t mean to offend anyone and he was planning to apologise to the Jewish community.

“I will use social media, anything, to apologise but I need to go and see the detectives first,” he said.

The family of Sarah Abu Lebdeh, a nurse for NSW Health for about four years, said she was “in a bad way”.

A man who identified himself to The Australian as her uncle said she was having a panic attack and they “may need to call an ambulance”.

NSW health chief Mr Park said there was no indication Jewish patients had been hurt or killed by the concerned individual but that the authorities would now look back over the pair’s interactions with Jewish members of the public.

Federal LNP MP Andrew Wallace, chairman of the Australia-Israel Allies Caucus, praised the NSW’s strong response under Chris Minns but criticised the Federal Government’s response to the anti-Semitism crisis.

“What’s been clear is that our law enforcement agencies across the country need to get some very clear political leadership as, quite frankly, we are now starting to see in New South Wales,” he said.