A second nurse from Australia has been arrested after a viral video appeared to show two hospital workers bragging about refusing to treat Israeli patients and threatening to kill them.
The 27-year-old nurse, Ahmad Rashad Nadir, based in Sydney, has been charged with one harassment or menace offence and one count of possession of a prohibited drug.
“There is a tremendous amount of dedication and hard work going into all these investigations”
Karen Webb
Nadir was arrested on Tuesday, 4 March by New South Wales Police after a video surfaced allegedly showing him and another nurse, 26-year-old Sarah Abu Lebdeh, confronting an Israeli social media influencer on an anonymous video chat website, Chatruletka.
Abu Lebdeh and Nadir, who worked at Sydney’s Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital, have had their nursing registration suspended.
In the footage, the influencer, Max Veifer, asked the nurses what they would do if an Israeli came into their hospital.
Abu Lebdeh said she “won’t treat them” and that she would “kill them”, while Nadir added: “You have no idea how many Israeli dogs came to this hospital and… [throat slitting motion] I sent them to Jahannam [Arabic word for Hell].”
The two health workers were asked what they would do if any Jewish person were to come to their hospital, before the video feed cut.
The video went viral on Australian social media and gained traction across the world, prompting condemnation from public figures including New South Wales health minister Ryan Park.
Mr Park described the two nurses in the video as “deranged individuals”.
Abu Lebdeh was arrested in February, and later charged with making threats to harm and kill.
Now, Nadir has also received charges and will appear at a local court in Sydney on 19 March.
Australian press reported that the hospital had launched an internal investigation due to the claims patients had been killed.
However, the BBC has since written that Australian authorities had not yet found evidence suggesting patients had been harmed by Abu Lebdeh or Nadir.
Nadir was the 15th person to be arrested by New South Wales Police’s Strike Force Pearl, a taskforce formed following a spike in antisemitic incidents in Sydney.
Karen Webb, police commissioner, said: “I must commend the work Strike Force Pearl detectives are doing to investigate, charge and put these individuals before the courts.
“There is a tremendous amount of dedication and hard work going into all these investigations.
“Detectives have overcome many challenges – including huge public expectation – to put these individuals before the court.”
