Nurses get national ban over anti-Israel ‘kill’ rant
Two nurses will be barred from working anywhere in Australia after allegedly threatening to kill Israeli patients in a video.
Australia’s health practitioner watchdog on Thursday updated its public record to show Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh were forbidden from working as nurses “in any context”.
The pair earlier had their registrations suspended by the NSW Nursing and Midwifery Council.
“Their sickening comments – and the hatred that underpins them – have no place in our health system and no place anywhere in Australia,” Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said in a statement.
Australians had a right to feel safe in hospitals, Mr Butler added.
“Health workers have a solemn duty to treat and heal everyone who comes before them needing help. The overwhelming majority hold to that oath,” he said.
“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.”
Police will examine an unedited version of the video as they determine whether to lay charges over what is being treated as a possible hate crime.
The anti-Israeli comments by the nurses in a widely-shared online chat with Israeli influencer Max Veifer were labelled an “aberration” as leaders looked to rebuild confidence in the public health system.
Investigators have spoken to Veifer and were awaiting a statement from him and raw footage of his conversation with the Bankstown Hospital staff, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said.
You might like
An initial examination by NSW Health found no evidence the care of any patients had been affected but a more thorough investigation would follow.
The vision, recorded from a website that pairs people for random video chats, has been removed from social media after sparking urgent investigations to identify the pair.
CCTV footage has been seized from the hospital in Sydney’s southwest, while staff there have also been interviewed by police.
“It’s important that we put all these pieces together for a complete picture of what has occurred,” Webb told ABC radio on Thursday, adding it will inform the direction of the investigation and determine what charges could be laid.
The unfolding scandal has broken trust in the public health system, NSW Premier Chris Minns conceded.
“We cannot have examples of naked racism from public servants exhibited on social media or anywhere,” he said.
The male nurse, identified as an Australian citizen and former Afghan refugee with six years of nursing experience, falsely claimed in the video chat with Veifer that he was a doctor before telling him he was “going to go to” hell.
“You have no idea how many Israeli (sic) … came to this hospital and … I send them to (hell),” the nurse said.
The female nurse also said she would refuse treatment to and instead kill Israeli patients who attended the hospital.
The comments have been condemned by political, medical and community leaders and sparked urgent audits of patient care.
The male nurse appearing in the video issued an apology through a lawyer after being stood down.
Stay informed, daily
The nurse separately told reporters the incident was a misunderstanding and a mistake.
Police were still waiting to speak to the pair, but investigators have been in contact with solicitors representing them and charges could follow, Webb said.
“What people have seen so far is definitely a hate crime,” she said.
“This is a racial hatred on a level that I haven’t seen before.”
Minns said he believed the “abject racism” displayed in the video would fall under existing laws as politicians debate an overhaul of that legislation.
Dutton wants citizenship debate
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the case highlighted the need for debate on the “inadequacies” of Australia’s migration system, noting the government was heavily restricted in its ability to strip people of their citizenship.
“When we have somebody like this who gets through the net, obviously has breached his obligation about a loyalty to our country when he became an Australian citizen, and yet he has the ability to stay in our country, it should be of deep concern to every Australian,” Dutton told 2GB radio on Thursday.
“(It’s) about how we can say to these people, ‘if you don’t share our values, if you’re here and you’re enjoying the welfare system and you’re enjoying free health and free education, then at the same time you hate our country, well, I don’t think you’ve got a place here’.”
Labor cabinet minister Anne Aly accused Dutton of “hijacking” a conversation about anti-Semitic hatred.
“I’m a bit angry that this conversation about anti-Semitism has been conveniently turned into a conversation about immigration. As if somehow, the two are connected,” Dr Aly told ABC TV.
“I think that’s a very deliberate political ploy by Peter Dutton.”
There was a need to look at whether dual citizens should be stripped of their Australian citizenship if they “breached” the nation’s trust, Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan said.
As home affairs minister in the former coalition government, Mr Dutton drafted laws seeking to strip the citizenship of dual nationals suspected of engaging in terror activity overseas.
They were later ruled by the High Court to be unlawful.
