Stoush over anti-Israel ‘kill’ rant video stalls probe
Two NSW Health workers have been stood down after a "sickening" anti-Semitic video went viral. Photo: TIkTok/AAP
The western Sydney home of a nurse from the anti-Israel ‘kill’ rant video that shocked Australia has reportedly been searched by police.
Strike Force Pearl officers executed a warrant on the Bankstown property of Ahmad Rashad Nadir about 6pm Friday, multiple media outlets report.
It came as an investigation into the clip in which two nurses allegedly threaten Israeli patients has stalled over a dispute about the footage.
No charges have been laid yet.
Police on Friday said they had still not received the unedited clip from Israeli influencer Max Veifer who filmed the nurses in an online chat room.
Veifer posted a longer 21/2-minute version online on Friday morning with the comment: “Here it is and if they [police] tell me where to send it, I will send it to them.”
NSW Police responded late Friday that they had “provided the correct contact details to the influencer at the centre of this inquiry”.
“Investigators have requested a full and unedited version of the video as part of this investigation,” said a statement.
“Police are aware an extended version has been posted online, however nothing has been directly provided to NSW Police.
“Discussions between NSW Police and the influencer remain open and ongoing.”
The night before his home was searched, the male nurse, Nadir, was treated by emergency services following a “concern for welfare”.
Paramedics were called to the pediatric nurse’s home in western Sydney on Thursday night and he was taken to hospital for an assessment, NSW Police said.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb earlier said an unedited version of the video had been requested to inform investigators considering potential criminal charges.
The video, in which the nurses appear to claim they won’t treat Israeli people and boast of sending them to hell, sparked shock and outrage from other nurses, government officials and the wider community.
In comments not aired in the shorter, edited version of the video, Veifer asked if his service as an Israeli soldier was why Nadir thought he would go to hell.
“Um, that’s definitely the answer, correct,” the nurse replied.
The trio then began speaking over the top of each other as they addressed his military service, Hamas and the occupied Palestinian Territories.
“One day, your time will come and you will die the most horrible death,” Lebdeh says.
Veifer replied: “You spread hate, we spread positivity, we spread protection, we spread peace and you spread death.”
Australia’s health practitioner watchdog has updated its public records to show both nurses, who worked at Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in Sydney’s southwest, had been forbidden from working in the profession nationwide “in any context”.
The pair have also 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.
An initial examination by NSW Health found no evidence that the care of any patients had been affected, but a more thorough investigation is in train.
CCTV footage has been seized from the hospital and other staff have been interviewed by police.
The unfolding scandal has broken trust in the public health system, NSW Premier Chris Minns has conceded, and nurses have also expressed devastation and outrage at the comments.
“We cannot have examples of naked racism from public servants exhibited on social media or anywhere,” he said.
Minns said he strongly believed the video and the views expressed in it by the nurses were an “aberration” among health workers.
Nadir has issued an apology through a lawyer after being stood down from the hospital and separately told reporters the incident was a misunderstanding and a mistake before he was admitted to hospital.
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-with AAP
