Footage appears to show NSW nurses bragging about killing Israeli patients

The NSW Health Department has called in police and launched an urgent investigation into social media footage allegedly showing two nurses at Bankstown Hospital bragging about killing and refusing to treat Israeli patients.

Premier Chris Minns said the pair were identified on Wednesday morning and had been stood down pending a full investigation.

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

Israeli social media personality Max Veifer posted a video on Instagram and TikTok showing him talking to the two nurses.

Asked what would happen if an Israeli patient came into the hospital, the woman says: “I won’t treat them, I will kill them.”

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said the footage, which has been shared widely on Instagram, made him feel “sick to my stomach”.

“The comments are vile, dehumanising and unacceptable,” Park said.

Park said police were en route to Bankstown Hospital, and both the NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb and the Health Care Complaints Commission had been informed immediately.

The pair are expected to be fired.

“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,” he said.

Park said he had spoken to staff at the hospital, who were “upset, embarrassed and felt ashamed”.

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

NSW Health secretary Susan Pearce has undertaken a “rapid examination” of patient incidents at the hospital to investigate the nurses’ claims that Israeli patients weren’t treated. So far, the government has found no evidence that this is the case. In the video, the man identifies himself as a doctor despite wearing nurses’ scrubs.

In Australia, it is an offence to misrepresent yourself as a medical professional.

In the video, the woman allegedly says to Veifer: “One day, your time will come, and you will die the most horrible death.”

The man adds: “You have no idea how many [Israelis] came to this hospital, and I sent them to Jehannam” – the Islamic equivalent of the underworld.

The man in the video appears to pledge to send Israeli patients to the Islamic equivalent of hell.

Veifer uses the social media platform Chatruletka – which allows users to speak to randomly chosen strangers around the world – to expose antisemitism.

Veifer was contacted for comment.

A NSW Police spokesperson said officers attached to Strike Force Pearl, which investigates acts of antisemitism, had taken over the investigation.

“NSW Health believe they have identified the individuals involved and are currently assisting detectives. A thorough investigation is under way,” the spokesperson said.

Albanese condemns ‘sickening’ footage

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the video as a “vile” act of antisemitism.

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

In a joint statement, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and Health Minister Mark Butler said they “utterly condemned” the video.

“This video is as chilling as it is vile. The comments made in this video are sickening and totally unacceptable,” they 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.”

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.

“The Declaration of Geneva states doctors will not permit considerations of age, disease or disability, creed, ethnic origin, gender, nationality, political affiliation, race, sexual orientation, social standing or any other factor to intervene between their duty and their patient.”

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.”

‘Criminal intent’

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.

Ryvchin said this incident was the “tip of the iceberg” and said Jewish people have reported feeling unsafe in public hospitals.

“This sort of hatred has no place here, and to have doctors and medical professions expressing themselves in this way, wishing death upon other people. It’s a heinous act, and hopefully, this is the end of it.”

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip said if the people in the video were found to be employed by NSW Health, they should be immediately sacked.

“That anyone feels comfortable spewing this hatred while wearing NSW-branded scrubs is sickening.”

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