From ‘Politically motivated’: Australian Muslim groups slam outrage over nurses who said they would kill Israeli patients
Zev Stub is the Times of Israel's Diaspora Affairs correspondent.
After two Australian nurses were suspended from work last week for threatening to kill Israeli patients and saying they would refuse to treat them, some Muslim leaders are claiming that public outrage over the incident was unjustified.
A statement signed by dozens of Australian Muslim organizations and leaders says the uproar over the video interview that spanned the country’s political echelons was “calculated and politically motivated outrage.” It charges that the labeling of the incident as antisemitism “weaponized” the term to silence dissent.
Last week, a viral video from Israeli TikTok user Max Veifer showed two Australian medical professionals from a Sydney hospital threatening Israelis and claiming to have already killed some who had sought medical treatment.
“Eventually you’re going to get killed and go to [hell],” said a man identified as Ahmad Rashad Nadir before unleashing a torrent of obscenities. He said said he had already sent many “Israeli dog[s],” who visited the hospital, to “Jahannam,” the term for Islamic hell in Arabic.
Another, Sarah Abu Lebdeh, said in the video that she would not treat any Israeli patients and instead kill them.
Two NSW healthcare nurses from Bankstown Hospital were stood down and are under investigation by police after claiming on camera they killed Israeli patients. This horrific incident raises urgent concerns: How many individuals like this work in other Australian hospitals?… pic.twitter.com/F0ywNhQdtK
— Piazza Victoria (@Piazza_VIC) February 11, 2025
The two were suspended after the video was shared and banned from ever working in Australia’s medical profession. Authorities continue to investigate the incident.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, and Health Ministry officials were among many who expressed shock and repulsion at the video.
However, the statement by Australia’s Muslim community argues that the response was a “deliberate engineering of public morality.”
“This is more than hypocrisy. It is calculated, politically motivated outrage,” it says.
Albanese tells ABC Radio Perth the nurses do not deserve any sympathy for their widespread condemnation.
“What they deserve is the condemnation that they’ve gotten,” he says.
