Nationwide ban for ‘kill Israeli’ nurses as police probe, patient analysis continue
Authorities have banned two nurses who vowed to ‘kill’ Israeli patients from practising again in Australia’s healthcare system as police continued their criminal probe amid a ‘full analysis’ of hospital patient records.
Health authorities are trawling through thousands of hospital patient records in a bid to establish whether two Sydney nurses ever acted on threats to kill or harm Israeli patients, as police weigh possible “hate crime” charges against the pair.
Suspended nurses Ahmad “Rashad” Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh went underground on Thursday after their shocking anti-Semitic tirade – filmed while wearing scrubs in Bankstown Hospital – went viral.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said detectives would examine the full, unedited recording of the nurses’ conversation before considering what – if any – charges could be laid.
The nurses had bragged on a chat forum to Israeli influencer Max Veifer how they would send Israeli patients at the hospital to “hell”, vowing “not to treat them but kill them”.
Calling it “critical” to Strike Force Pearl’s investigation into the two nurses’ comments, Commissioner Webb said the diatribe appeared to be a “hate crime”, but neither Mr Nadir nor Ms Abu Lebdeh had been charged at the time of publication.
The scandal sparked calls from Peter Dutton for a “national debate” on the “inadequacies” of the citizenship system, following revelations Mr Nadir became an Australian citizen in 2020 after fleeing Afghanistan as a 12-year-old boy.
“It’s an outrage and we’ve got big problems in this country when somebody like that can become an Australian citizen,” Mr Dutton said.
“There needs to be a proper process in place to understand how this individual became an Australian citizen and where the failing in the system originated, and how we can make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Mr Dutton suggested the video showed there may have been earlier failures in the NSW healthcare system, doubting it had been the “first rant” by the pair at their workplace.
Mr Nadir and his family fled to Iran when he was seven, before arriving in Australia five years later on a boat from Indonesia, plucked from the sea by the Australian Navy.
On Thursday, vision emerged from 2020 of Mr Nadir leading a Sydney mosque in a common prayer about the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali, a “noha”, which in Shia Islam is an elegy about the Battle of Karbala.
It is a common and often-used elegy at Shia mosques and ceremonies, and is rooted in Islamic history, as opposed to eulogising martyrdom in a contemporary sense.
NSW Health is continuing a thorough analysis of all patient records at the hospital to ascertain if the nurses’ comments had any truth, reporting “nothing stood out” in early assessments.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler confirmed the pair had been banned from practising nursing “anywhere in Australia, in any context”.
“Their sickening comments – and the hatred that underpins them – have no place in our health system and no place anywhere in Australia,” he said
Mr Nadir and Ms Abu Lebdeh on Thursday were deregistered by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of NSW, and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency automatically updated its record immediately after.
“As a result, this means the two nurses are unable to practise nursing anywhere in Australia, in any context,” Mr Butler said.
“Health workers have a solemn duty to treat and heal everyone who comes before them needing help. The overwhelming majority hold to that oath. The idea that you would single out a particular group in our community and indicate you wouldn’t care for them, let alone actively threaten their lives, runs against every single principle in our healthcare system.”
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park, who visited the hospital with NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip, conceded the Jewish community had a “right to be angry and disappointed”.
Mr Park said he could not accept the apologies of Mr Nadir or Ms Abu Lebdeh.
“I don’t think yet they understand how shaken to the core the Jewish community, but also the broader community, are (given) their actions,” he said.
“Those comments sent a shockwave through the Jewish but also wider community. An apology on this occasion is not going to cut it.”
Outside NSW parliament, nurses and midwives said they were “devastated and appalled” by Mr Rashad’s and Ms Abu Lebdeh’s comments.
About 100 medical professionals held a “solidarity action” against hate speech on Thursday, turning a planned protest about wages into an emotional display of unity.
NSW Nurses and Midwives Association president Obray Smith held back tears as she pleaded with the community to not take out their anger on healthcare workers, saying the anti-Semitic rant did not represent the vast majority.
However, it comes as midwife and nurse Sharon Stoliar claimed she warned health bosses in 2023 about medical staff chanting “from the river to the sea”, but which – she alleged – was ignored.
That chant, frequently used by pro-Palestine activists, has been labelled by Anthony Albanese as a “violent statement”, with imagery emerging of NSW Health staff wearing Palestinian flag pins and union officers donning bags with the chant at public hospitals.
Sydney doctor and Lebanese Muslim community leader Jamal Rifi slammed the two nurses’ comments, backing authorities to investigate and throw the book at the pair.
“(Those views and comments) should not be held in any health system, let alone Australia’s,” Dr Rifi said.
“(The Muslim community) does not agree with their view … these people have made it hard for our community and caused fear within the Jewish community.”
Dr Rifi said the vast majority of Muslim Australians wanted to be part of “nation-building”, and that the “safety and security” of everyone – regardless of race or religion – was paramount.
Lebanese Muslim Association secretary Gamel Kheir said he condemned the pair’s “hate speech” but urged due process and for the investigation to run its course.
“My reaction is – as any fair, decent Australian’s would be – that we condemn such hate speech, but I will not condemn the individuals,” Mr Kheir said.
“Has anyone checked on their mental health? Has anyone checked on their welfare?”
Mr Kheir said the political class was focusing only on one form of racism, Jewish hatred, while Islamophobia continued to rise in his community.
It comes as a pavement in Sefton, southwest Sydney, was vandalised on Thursday with Islamophobic graffiti that referred to the prophet Muhammad with a deeply offensive slur.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said Mr Nadir’s and Ms Abu Lebdeh’s comments were “abject racism” but were an “aberration” compared with the vast majority of state health staff.
State Liberal leader Mark Speakman, however, slammed comments made by ALP backbencher Anthony D’Adam, who claimed allegations of anti-Semitism were being “weaponised”, particularly those who sought to silence comparisons between the Holocaust and what was happening in Gaza.
The Upper House member later said he condemned the nurses’ comments and video.
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