Sydney nurses plead not guilty for viral video threatening to kill Israeli patients
The trial of the two, who were caught on video last February saying they sent ‘Israeli dogs’ to hell, is scheduled for August 31
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Two Sydney nurses accused of threatening to kill Israeli patients in a viral video last year pleaded not guilty on Monday, Australian media reported.
Sarah Abu Lebdeh, 27, and Ahmad Rashad Nadir, 28, were seen in a viral video last February, allegedly showing them making threats against Israeli patients during a chat with Israeli influencer Max Veifer.
The video sparked outrage across Australia and the Jewish world after it was released. The pair were later barred from working as nurses nationwide.
At the Downing Centre District Court, both entered not-guilty pleas on Monday when asked by Judge Stephen Hanley to respond to charges of using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend. Abu Lebdeh also faces a charge of threatening violence against a group.
Their trial is scheduled to begin on August 31, and is expected to run for five days. A pretrial hearing on the issue is scheduled for June 1. The pair remain on bail.
Nadir’s lawyer said he will challenge whether the video can legally be used in court as evidence. He did not elaborate.
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 video showed TikTok influencer Veifer talking to the two nurses at the Bankstown Hospital.
“I’m so upset that you’re Israeli… eventually you’re going to get killed and go to [hell],” Nadir said after Veifer mentioned he is from Israel in their video chat.
When asked why he would be killed, Abu Lebdeh said: “It’s Palestine’s country, not your country,” and then unleashed a torrent of obscenity.
Abu Lebdeh said she would not treat any Israeli patients and instead would kill them. Nadir, with a threatening gesture, said he had already sent many “Israeli dog[s],” who visited the hospital, to “Jahannam,” the term for Islamic hell in Arabic.
The video caused outrage throughout Australia and the global Jewish community.
“The comments are vile, the footage is sickening and it is shameful,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in parliament after the video went public.
“I do not want to leave a sliver of light to allow any of them to be able to think that they will ever work for New South Wales Health again,” the state’s Health Minister Ryan Park said at the time.
Since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, sparking the Gaza war and setting off a tidal wave of antisemitism across the globe, Australia’s Jewish community has been among the hardest hit, with attacks and incitement that culminated in December with the Hanukkah terror attack on Bondi Beach that killed 15 and injured dozens.
A report published in December by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) said the country saw 1,654 incidents during the 12-month period from October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025 — about five times the annual average recorded in the decade prior to the Hamas assault.
Last week, it was revealed that one of the survivors of the Hanukkah terror attack on Bondi Beach was given a non-Jewish-sounding pseudonym when she was admitted to the hospital following the attack. Staff at the Liverpool Hospital in western Sydney changed the name of Rosalia Shikhverg to the alias “Karen Jones” in the medical records, possibly in order to “disguise” her identity from antisemitic staff members, an investigation by Sky News found.
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