Two healthcare nurses in an Australian hospital have been suspended from work for threatening to kill Israeli patients.
Their comments were exposed in a now viral TikTok video.
Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, who work at Bankstown Hospital in Sydney, said they would refuse to treat Israelis in a conversation with TikTok user Max Veifer.
When Veifer reveals he is from Israel, Nadir says: “I’m so upset that you’re Israeli… eventually you’re going to get killed and go to [hell].”
When asked why he would be killed, Abu Lebdeh chimes in: “It’s Palestine’s country, not your country”, before launching into a series of obscenities which are bleeped out.
Ahmad Rashad Nadir (top). Screenshot: Twitter/X
Lebdeh adds that she would not treat any Israeli patients and instead kill them. Nadir says he had already sent many “Israeli dog[s],” who visited the hospital, to “Jahannam,” the term for Islamic hell in Arabic.
The video triggered a New South Wales state police investigation with both nurses allegedly expressing regret and saying their remarks weren’t to be taken seriously.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Nadir is reported as saying: “It was a joke, a misunderstanding. I will use social media, anything, to apologise, but I need to go and see the detectives first.”
Screenshot: The Australian
New South Wales state Health Minister Ryan Park said the nurses have been “stood down immediately,” pending an investigation.
Members of Lebdah’s family have since been captured on video assaulting a journalist from The Australian newspaper and stealing his phone.
With the country reeling from an ongoing series of horrific anti-semitic attacks, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has described the duo’s comments as “sickening”, “shameful” and “driven by hate”.
