NSW nurse who allegedly threatened Israeli patients fled Afghanistan

A Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital nurse who was allegedly filmed in a video threatening to kill Israeli patients can be identified as a recent Australian citizen who fled Afghanistan.

Ahmad Rashad Nadir appeared in the video with a female colleague allegedly while the pair were working the night shift.

The woman who allegedly threatens to kill Israeli patients and refuse them medical care is Bankstown Hospital nurse Sarah Abu Lebdeh.

In the video, she allegedly says to Israeli social media personality Max Veifer: “One day, your time will come, and you will die the most horrible death.”

Rashad Nadir was allegedly filmed making threats to Israeli patients.

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

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

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 masters and continue helping his adopted country after fleeing Afghanistan,” the post, from 2021, said.

The post quotes Nadir as saying: “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.”

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”.

Nadir told News Corp he was planning a public apology to the Jewish community about the video, but would speak with police first.

“It was a joke, a misunderstanding … I will use social media, anything, to apologise but I need to go and see the detectives first,” he said.

Nurses stood down, expected to be fired

Nadir and Abu Lebdeh have both been stood down by NSW Health and were expected to be fired from their positions at the hospital pending an investigation.

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said hardworking staff at Bankstown Hospital were embarrassed and upset by the video. The minister did not personally speak to Abu Lebdeh or Nadir.

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

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

“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 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, Nadir identifies himself as a doctor despite wearing nurses’ scrubs.

In Australia, it is an offence to misrepresent yourself as a medical professional. He has not been charged with any offence.

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

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.

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

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.”

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 is 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.

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.”

‘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.

With Riley Walter and Nick Newling

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