The two NSW Health nurses have been identified after they were stood down over a shocking video where they said they wouldn’t treat Jews on their ward and threatened to ‘kill them’.
Nurses Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh from Bankstown Hospital in Sydney‘s west, were filmed by a popular Jewish influencer who released the video on social media.
‘It’s Palestine‘s country, not your country you piece of s***,’ Abu Lebdeh said.
Both Nadir and Abu Lebdeh said they ‘won’t treat’ Israeli people’.
Abu Lebdeh added: ‘I’ll kill them’.
Nadir is believed to have been born in Afghanistan and gained Australian citizenship four years ago, having immigrated at the age of 12.
In addition to his role at Bankstown Hospital, Nadir also works at Observatory Hill Medical Centre in Sydney’s CBD for one day a week.
Abu Lebdeh has reportedly been working with NSW Health for several years.
He participated in the Chester Hill Helmsman Project, a non-profit organisation that offers programs to help disadvantaged youth develop life skills.
‘Before the Helmsman Project I didn’t have great communication skills and now I know how best to talk to people and how to be a leader,’ he said at the time.
Observatory Tower Medical Centre in Sydney’s CBD refused to comment when approached by Daily Mail Australia.
Health Minister Ryan Park confirmed at a press conference on Wednesday morning that both have been stood down while NSW Health investigate.
‘This act of bastardry, this vile disgusting behaviour from two individuals will in no way diminish the value the secretary, myself as the minister, but more importantly our state has in the work that [NSW Health staff] do each and every day.’
Mr Park said he was made aware of the ‘shocking’ and ‘appalling’ video circulating social media and immediately asked senior NSW Health staff to take action.
‘They made me sick to my stomach. I have asked NSW Health to launch an urgent investigation to identify the individuals and they have also referred the matter to NSW Police.
‘If the investigation concludes that this behaviour has occurred, these individuals will never be working for NSW Health again.’
Mr Park went further at the press conference labelling the pair ‘disgusting and deranged individuals’ whose views were not representative of ‘their colleagues… NSW Health… the hospital system… [and] the community’.
‘That view is not welcome and will not be welcome ever again in New South Wales Health as an employee.’
Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel took to X on Wednesday to back calls for an investigation into the pair.
‘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.’
The woman in the video tells the Jewish influencer that ‘one day your time will come and you will die the most horrible death’.
‘You have no idea how many Israeli dogs came into this hospital and I send them to [hell],’ the man added, and made a slicing gesture over his throat.
Ms Haskel, who lived in Australia for six years and worked as a vet before entering Jewish politics, said that the ‘disease’ of antisemitism was ‘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,’ she said.
‘They have broken the Hippocratic Oath, 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, called the video ‘utterly sickening’.
‘Their unrepentant, gleeful hatred is the precursor to the violence we are experiencing in our country and it must be stamped out, he said.
‘These two medical professionals employed by NSW Health must be identified and immediately removed from any scenario in which they could give effect to their threats and their murderous intent.
‘No doubt we will see the defence that Jews have brought this hatred upon themselves through Israel’s war in Gaza.
‘That these people are merely traumatised from the images of the war. They have it backwards. It is this hatred and dehumanisation of Jews that causes wars and the carnage of October 7 and if left unchecked it will further degrade our society.
‘Time for consequences.’
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took to X to label the behaviour ‘sickening’ and ‘shameful’.
‘The comments are vile…. driven by hate, have no place in our health system and no place anywhere in Australia,’ he said.
‘These individuals have been stood down by NSW Authorities. They have rightly been referred to the NSW Police for criminal investigation. Individuals found to have committed criminal anti-Semitic acts will face the full force of our laws.’
The investigation follows flagged legislation – put forward in response to a string of anti-Semitic incidents in NSW and Victoria – getting delayed.
New offences aimed at halting the incitement of religious hatred will not be introduced in the NSW state parliament’s first sitting week, as MPs chart a narrow course through freedom-of-speech protections.
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip said the video captured deplorable rhetoric.
‘That anyone feels comfortable spewing this hatred while wearing NSW branded scrubs is sickening,’ he said.
‘No healthcare worker who holds these views should be registered in Australia,’ he added.
