Muslim community statement on nurses excuses the intolerable

Fatima Payman claims a “double standard” is in play. Picture: Martin Ollman

Last week two nurses in Sydney said on social media they would kill patients. They were in uniform and at work at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital and the people they would kill were Israelis.

They now have been banned from practising nursing in Australia as no healthcare facility can face the risk of them treating patients.

One would think this was appropriate. However, Senator Fatima Payman says they have been treated harshly for a “terrible comment”.

Now, a collective of Hizb ut-Tahrir, The Muslim Vote, Muslim Votes Matter, pro-Palestine independent candidates, fire-breathing Islamic centres and mainstream groups such as the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils and umbrella Muslim organisations in Victoria and Western Australia are weighing in.

Their United Muslim Community Statement claims the two nurses were victims of “weaponised anti-Semitism” and “manufactured political outrage”.

Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh were filmed declaring they refuse to treat Israeli people and would "kill them" if they present to their ward.

The statement put together by Stand 4 Palestine says the public and political reaction has been a “co-ordinated outrage” and the response to the nurses’ comments was “manufactured” to serve a “political narrative”.

In a video released last weekend, The Muslim Vote convener Wesam Charkawi said the nurses’ comments “were never meant to be (taken) literally or be a threat to patient care”.

What has the world come to if we can’t believe the word of nurses in our hospitals? Why has the federal government passed legislation against hate crimes if people can wriggle out of their social responsibilities by simply saying they didn’t mean what they said?

Payman says there is a double standard at play. She claims there was a “deafening silence” when a Sydney woman attempted to hit passer-by Charkawi with her car in December. This is a cheap debating trick on Payman’s part. It ignores that this one-off incident is nothing like the violence, intimidation and hate our Jewish community is experiencing.

It is shocking that a group such as The Muslim Vote, which is trying to attract mainstream votes, would choose to align itself with hate preachers and Hizb ut-Tahrir, a proscribed terror organisation in other countries that has a history of celebrating attacks against Israel and Jews. By doing so The Muslim Vote is normalising one of the worst examples of anti-Semitism we’ve seen here.

Then there are people suggesting the video is some Zionist plot. How absurd; the Israeli influencer had no idea these two nurses would show up, so how could he have prearranged it?

These nurses have eroded trust in our healthcare workers. Patients declare their religion when they are admitted. They trust that those looking after them are caring, ethical and will work to save their lives.

What these nurses have done will reflect on every Muslim healthcare professional here. How does that advance the interests of our community?

The suggestion that these nurses should be forgiven because of the emotional impact that Gaza has had on them doesn’t hold up. It would be like a Jewish doctor here saying he was so upset by the October 7 massacre that he would not treat Muslim patients.

Until they were struck off, the Bankstown nurses were professionals who were subject to a code of conduct that required them to provide high-quality patient care.

It is worth noting that in Israel’s healthcare system Jews and Arabs typically share hospital rooms. During the Syrian civil war many victims were treated in northern Israeli hospitals without cost. Before and even on October 7, 2023, many Gazans received world-class treatment in Israeli hospitals.

Let’s not forget the surgeons at the Soroka hospital in Beersheba who removed Yahya Sinwar’s brain tumour when he was a prisoner of the Israelis and who saved his life. Sinwar was the mastermind of the October 7 massacre.

The signatories to the Muslim statement are defending the indefensible.

Anthony Bergin is a senior fellow at Strategic Analysis Australia and an expert associate at the National Security College.