Nurse ‘sorry’ for anti-Semitic diatribe, now having panic attack

The female nurse who threatened to kill Israeli patients at Bankstown Hospital has apologised, as family members confront and abuse a journalist from The Australian outside their home | WATCH

Sarah Abu Lebdeh, the female nurse accused of threatening to kill Israeli patients at Sydney’s Bankstown Hospital in a shocking video, is “sorry” for her anti-­Semitic ­diatribe and now is ­suffering “an extreme panic attack”, a man who identified ­himself as her uncle revealed on ­Wednesday.

“I’m trying to calm her down to see what the f..k happened”, the uncle said, speaking outside the young woman’s house.

“She’s been a nurse for God knows how long. She’s never done anything to hurt anyone.”

Ms Lebdeh and another nurse, Ahmad “Rashad” Nadir were stood down on Wednesday after the anti-Semitic video filmed ­during a night shift on the ward went viral.

Ms Lebdeh is believed to have graduated with a Diploma of Nursing five years ago and to have begun nursing at NSW Health in February 2021.

Sarah Abu Lebdeh and Ahmad ‘Rashad’ Nadir in an anti-Semitic video threatening to kill Israeli patients where they work at Bankstown Hospital.

Ms Lebdeh was not a threat to Israelis, the uncle said. “No, she would never be a threat,” he added.

Asked whether she was sorry, the uncle said: “Of course she is, of course she is. She will come out and make a statement when she’s ready, but you can’t talk to her now because she’s having a panic ­attack, an anxiety attack. We might be calling the ambulance for her.”

He said he did not know if Ms Lebdeh had spoken to police.

Earlier, members of Ms Lebdeh’s family abused a reporter from The Australian who approached the house and snatched his phone.

As the journalist approached a middle-aged woman confronted him yelling: “Get the f..k off my property.”

The journalist was on the footpath and at no stage on the property. She continued yelling at the reporter to “get the f..k off my property” until a young man ­approached the reporter and tried to take his phone as he was asking questions.

The young man then snatched the reporter’s phone from his hands and walked back to the house with it, ignoring requests for it to be returned. An older man then came out of the house as the pair demanded that everything on the phone be deleted.

“I don’t give you permission to record me” the older man said, ­before the reporter pointed out that he didn’t need permission to record in a public space.

Relatives outside the home of Sarah Abu Lebdeh, the female nurse accused of threatening to kill Israeli patients at Bankstown Hospital.

After several minutes the ­younger man eventually returned the phone.

Ms Lebdeh’s co-worker, Mr Nadir has also apologised “to the Jewish community and anyone I’ve offended” for the incident, which he claimed was a joke gone wrong.

“Whatever happened, it was just a misunderstanding and a big mistake … just entirely mistaken, do you know what I mean?” Mr Nadir said when approached by The Australian at his Bankstown home.

Mr Nadir was born in Afghanistan and became an Australian citizen four years ago. He declined to go into any detail about his ­comments, saying he needed to speak to police first.

“This is very serious for me, it’s all over the news – it’s not a small thing,” he said.

In 2015, Mr Nadir appeared in an SBS segment spruiking the “next generation of doctors”, telling the broadcaster he was nervous about university.

The segment focused on how the then 17-year-old had been ­selected for a two-week summer program at the University of Technology Sydney.

His inspiration to venture into medicine he said was his mother, who was a trained midwife, who told the program she was proud that her son was able to study in a “good school, in a peaceful ­country”.

In 2022, Mr Nadir featured in a LinkedIn post by education not-for-profit organisation The Helmsman Project, which congratulated the nurse for “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.”

“His journey from Afghanistan to Auburn and the challenges he has faced and the support he received from The Helmsman Program along the way has shaped him into the young man he is today,” the post said.