Detectives seize CCTV, interview hospital staff after nurses stood down over antisemitic video

Two NSW nurses are expected to be fired over an antisemitic video that has rocked Sydney after a summer of anti-Jewish violence, embarrassing the state’s health system after they were captured bragging about killing and refusing to treat Israeli patients.

Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh were on Wednesday stood down from their roles at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in south-west Sydney pending an investigation into the video, posted to social media by Israeli influencer Max Veifer. NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb labelled the incident “appalling” and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described it as “sickening and shameful”.

The video, which has since been removed from Veifer’s social media, appears to show the trio talking on chat room website Chatruletka while Nadir and Abu Lebdeh were allegedly working a night shift at the hospital.

In the video, Abu Lebdeh threatens to kill Israeli patients and refuse them medical care, allegedly telling Veifer: “One day, your time will come, and you will die the most horrible death.”

“I won’t treat them, I will kill them,” Abu Lebdeh says when asked what would happen if an Israeli patient came into the hospital.

Rashad Nadir was allegedly filmed making threats to Israeli patients.

“You have no idea how many [Israelis] came to this hospital, and I sent them to Jahannam [the Islamic equivalent of the underworld],” Nadir says in the video.

Nadir and Abu Lebdeh have both been stood down by NSW Health pending an internal investigation, but were expected to be fired from their positions at the hospital. Neither has been charged with a criminal offence over the video.

Nadir’s lawyer, Mohamad Sakr, said his client had issued a “sincere apology” to Veifer and the wider Jewish community.

“He understands what has happened. He is trying to make amends with what has happened. He has never appeared before the court in relation to any criminal matters. He is a person of prior good character,” Sakr said.

“He’s apologised for the action, he’s apologised for his words, whether he had the mental capacity at the time of an alleged offence, to commit an offence, that is a matter for the courts.”

Lawyers arrive at the Bankstown home of Ahmad Rashad Nadir.Credit: Janie Barrett

Sakr said Nadir, who was in an “emotional state”, was expected to attend Bankstown police station to speak with detectives on Thursday.

NSW Police’s Strike Force Pearl, established last year to investigate a spate of antisemitic attacks in Sydney, is investigating the video.

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

Webb said detectives had interviewed hospital staff and identified areas within the hospital where the video was believed to have been filmed. CCTV footage from the hospital has been seized and is being reviewed.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb described the video as “appalling”.Credit: Rhett Wyman

“The speed in which this incident was reported by NSW Health significantly assisted detectives in what is a very serious investigation,” she said.

Webb said it was crucial police were given time to conduct further interviews and “navigate this high-level investigation”.

Webb is expected to provide an update on the investigation on Thursday after further investigations on Wednesday night.

Nadir fled Afghanistan when he was a child, according to a social media post from not-for-profit group The Helmsman Project.

“Rashad Nadir is making a difference in our public hospitals working as a nurse while studying part-time to get a master’s and continue helping his adopted country after fleeing Afghanistan,” the 2021 post said.

“They used to tell me ‘why you here for, go back to Afghanistan’ or ‘shut up you don’t know how to speak English’. At that time I could understand what they say but I wasn’t able to answer them back or stand up for myself,” Nadir is quoted as saying.

As a high school student in 2015, Nadir was interviewed by SBS for a piece on a University of Technology Sydney summer program.

His mother told SBS she was proud that her son was able to study in a “good school, in a peaceful country”.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park addresses the media on Wednesday.Credit: Sam Mooy

Albanese described the video as a “vile” act of antisemitism, and said the footage was “sickening and shameful”.

“These antisemitic comments, driven by hate, have no place in our health system and no place anywhere in Australia,” he said.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said hard-working staff at Bankstown Hospital were embarrassed and upset by the video.

“I don’t know what explanation any of these individuals could possibly give that in any way would justify this disgusting, vile behaviour,” Park said.

Police depart Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital on Wednesday.Credit: Sam Mooy

“Those people subject to that investigation will not ever be working for NSW Health again. There is no place, no place in our hospital and health system for this sort of view to ever, ever take place.”

NSW Health Secretary Susan Pearce said a “rapid examination” had been undertaken of patient incidents at the hospital to investigate the nurses’ claims that Israeli patients were not treated. So far, the government has found no evidence that this is the case.

NSW Premier Chris Minns told parliament on Wednesday an investigation would be launched into the publication of a New Bankstown Hospital newsletter featuring an image of a woman wearing a pro-Palestinian T-shirt.

Minns said such “political messaging” could “undermine public confidence”.

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman said there was “no place for that sort of political expression in a publicly funded newsletter”.

The newsletter, published in August last year, has been removed from the hospital’s Facebook page but is still available on its website.

Between October 2023 and February 23, 2024, the medical practitioners’ watchdog received 63 notifications involving 43 health practitioners alleging inappropriate use of social media related to the Gaza conflict (33 medical practitioners and 10 other registered health practitioners).

Complaints received are split between those supporting Israel and criticising Palestine (25 notifications), and those supporting Palestine and criticising Israel (38 notifications), according to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.

Dr Kathryn Austin, president of the Australian Medical Association NSW, said there was no place for this type of “hatred or division” in the health system.

“Hospitals should be a place of safety. When people threaten to use healthcare as a weapon, that is incredibly dangerous,” she said.

The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association said: “As a union representing the professions of nursing and midwifery, we stand for peace, we stand for love, and we defend the global human right to healthcare.”

Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel said: “There needs to be an investigation immediately into these two Australian medical professionals who are saying they will kill Israeli patients – and suggesting that they already have.

“They are expressing criminal intent towards Jewish people – this must be stopped.”

Haskel, who previously worked as a vet in Australia, said: “Antisemitism is a disease that is spreading in Australia. This behaviour has to be treated with the highest consequences under the law, and they should, at the very least, be fired.

“They have talked about killing Jews; they show the true racism and hate that the Australian Jewish community is currently enduring.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the video was “sickening” to watch.

“Their unrepentant, gleeful hatred is the precursor to the violence we are experiencing in our country, and it must be stamped out,” he said.

With Nick Newling and Kayla Olaya

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