’Strict bail conditions’ female nurse must now follow after allegedly threatening to kill Jewish patients
A Sydney nurse involved in a sickening anti-Semitic rant has been charged.
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A Sydney nurse involved in a sickening anti-Semitic rant has been charged with the state’s top cop revealing strict new conditions she must live under as she awaits her day in court.
Officers charged the second nurse involved in the video filmed at a Sydney hospital that sparked global condemnation.
Former New South Wales Health employees Ahmad ‘Rashad’ Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh were in a staffroom at Bankstown Hospital when they began chatting with Israeli social media creator Max Veifer.
The pair’s shocking remarks, including allegedly vowing not to treat Jewish patients and “kill them” instead, were recorded and uploaded by Mr Veifer in a bid to identify them.
Nadir and Abu Lebdeh were swiftly stood down by health authorities and detectives commenced an investigation.
Following extensive inquiries, investigators arrested a 26-year-old woman after she attended Sutherland Police Station about 7.30pm yesterday (Tuesday 25 February 2025).
She was charged with three commonwealth offences including threaten violence to group, use carriage service to threaten to kill and use carriage service to menace/harass/offend.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb, during a Wednesday press conference, described the Commonwealth charges laid against Ms Lebdeh as of a “very serious” nature, adding that strict conditions had been placed on the nurse.
“The Commonwealth charges were placed as while it was alleged the individuals were in NSW, it was widely reported that the influencer they were in the video with was elsewhere overseas with Commonwealth charges the best fit for that situation,” she said.
“The individual will be facing court but in the meantime, she is on strict bail conditions, including restricting her from leaving the country and from using social media.”
Commissioner Webb, speaking from Hobart where she is reportedly assisting local police on a separate matter, said the difficulty of working with individuals overseas led to the 13-day delay in initial charges.
“This is a complex matter, we are dealing with a global issue,” she said.
“13 days is an incredible amount of time, especially when this is a global issue.
“The influencer who we took a statement from speaks Hebrew and so that had to be translated for court proceedings.”
Commissioner Webb said charges for Mr Nadir would be placed in the future, but did not comment on the man’s employment at another hospital.
“Matters are ongoing for the man, and charges will be laid in the future,” she said.
It was earlier revealed he had not been spoken to as he had been “receiving ongoing medical treatment” in hospital.
The Condell Park woman was granted conditional bail to appear at the Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday 19 March. Investigations continue.
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But police have yet to speak to Nadir or lay charges against him.
On Wednesday morning, NSW Police said he was ‘receiving ongoing medical treatment’.
Speaking to 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Wednesday morning, Comm Webb described the charges against Lebdeh as “very serious”, though it would “ultimately” be a decision for the court whether she spent time behind bars.
The investigation into Nadir remains ongoing as detectives “work around his personal circumstances”.
Comm Webb said Strike Force Pearl detectives “have been working around the clock”, wrapping up the matter within a fortnight.
“We started this investigation on February 12 and here we are today and we have a person before the court,” she told Fordham.
“The Strike Force have been working around the clock, and to put 14 matters, 14 people before the court is great work. They’ve been working very hard and I know that they’re getting results. And they will continue to work on these matters and continue to get results.”
The emergence of the video prompted the state’s Health Minister Ryan Park to denounce the “appalling” conduct of the nurses.
“The comments are vile, dehumanising and unacceptable,” Mr Park said in an interview on 2GB. “They made me sick to my stomach.
“We cannot afford to have people like that in a health system. Everyone is entitled to access NSW health and hospital services without featuring for their life and without having that sort of hate-filled attitude come through some of our health care workers.”
At a media conference later in the day, Mr Park sent a clear message to NSW Health employees.
“This act of bastardry, this act of vile disgusting behaviour, from two individuals, will in no way diminish the value the secretary, myself as the minister, but more importantly our state, values the work that you do each and every day.”
Premier Chris Minns repeated the promise that Nadir and Abu Lebdeh would not work for NSW Health again.
“We are taking this incredibly seriously, and we will ensure that these individuals do not return to public health in NSW,” Mr Minns told parliament.
“Ultimately, at the end of the day, we all have an obligation to stand up against this vile anti Semitic racism.”
The contents of the video rocked Sydney’s Jewish community, already reeling from months of escalating anti-Semitic attacks that have prompted the establishment of a special task force.
That investigative unit, Strike Force Pearl, took charge of the probe into the video.
Jewish leaders had demanded the pair be charged over their alarming remarks.
“You have no idea how many (Israelis) came to this hospital, and I sent them to Jahannam (hell),” Nadir said in the vision. He also made a throat-slitting gesture.
Chiming in, Abu Lebdeh said: “I won’t treat them, I will kill them.”
She then threatened Mr Veifer, saying: “When your time comes, I want you to remember my face … you will die the most disgusting death”.
Nadir told the content creator that he was “so upset that you’re Israeli” because “eventually you’re going to get killed”.
When Mr Veifer asked why he was going to get killed, Abu Lebdeh appeared on the screen and said: “It’s Palestine’s country, not your country, you piece of s***.”
The two nurses went to ground in the wake of the scandal, although Nadir was taken to hospital late in the week following concerns for his mental health and wellbeing.
Meanwhile, Abu Lebdeh’s family members were involved in a heated scuffle with a journalist from The Australian on Wednesday outside her home in Sydney’s west.
They insisted she was “sorry” for the comments and a man identifying himself as her uncle told the newspaper she was experiencing extreme panic attacks since being unmasked.
“I’m trying to calm her down to see what the f*** happened,” he said. “She’s been a nurse for God knows how long. She’s never done anything to hurt anyone.”
She graduated with a diploma of nursing five years ago and has worked for NSW Health since early 2021.
Her brother Mohamed Abu Lebdeh told The Daily Mail she had been “set up”, claiming she was “baited” into making the remarks.
“That video was a set up. You can see that it’s edited. You can see the jump cuts. Sarah said those things but she was pushed. She was baited.”
Nadir was born in Afghanistan and became an Australian citizen four years ago, after emigrating when he was 12.
He told The Daily Telegraph: “It was a joke, a misunderstanding … I will use social media, anything, to apologise but I need to go and see the detectives first.”
His lawyer Mohamad Sakr on Wednesday told reporters Nadir wanted to offer a “sincere apology” to Mr Veifer and the wider Jewish community.
“He understands what has happened,” Mr Sakr said. “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.
“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.”
The scandal has made waves across the world, especially in Israel where the country’s largest newspaper Israel Hayom characterised the pair as trying to “play down” the furore, and pushing the line that it was merely a “misunderstanding”.
It asked, in a headline, if the nurses were “sorry, not sorry?”
News website Ynet said Israeli’s ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon had spoken to the premier and called for Nadir and Abu Lebdeh to be fired.
Israel’s deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel said anti-Semitism was a “disease spreading in Australia”.
“This behaviour must be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law and at the very least, they should be fired,” Ynet reported Ms Haskel as saying.
“They violated the Hippocratic oath, spoke of murdering Jews and exposed the real racism and hatred that the Jewish community in Australia faces today”.
Originally published as ’Strict bail conditions’ female nurse must now follow after allegedly threatening to kill Jewish patients
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