Two nurses who apparently threatened to kill Israeli patients will be sacked from Bankstown Hospital after allegedly making the shocking statements while on shift.
Two nurses who apparently threatened to kill Israeli patients will be sacked from Bankstown Hospital after allegedly making the shocking statements while on shift.
- Breaking
- Politics
- Federal
- Antisemitism
By Matthew Knott, Jessica McSweeney and Kate Aubusson
Updated February 12, 2025 — 10.25amfirst published at 8.21am
The NSW Health Department has called in police and launched an urgent investigation into social media footage allegedly showing two nurses at Bankstown Hospital bragging about killing and refusing to treat Israeli patients.
Premier Chris Minns said the pair were identified on Wednesday morning and had been stood down pending a full investigation.
Israeli social media personality Max Veifer posted a video on Instagram and TikTok showing him talking to the two nurses.
Asked what would happen if an Israeli patient came into the hospital, the woman says: “I won’t treat them, I will kill them.”
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said the footage, which has been shared widely on Instagram, made him feel “sick to my stomach”.
“The comments are vile, dehumanising and unacceptable,” Park said.
Park said police were en route to Bankstown Hospital, and both the NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb and the Health Care Complaints Commission had been informed immediately.
The pair are expected to be fired.
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“Those people subject to that investigation will not ever be working for NSW Health again. There is no place, no place in our hospital and health system for this sort of view to ever, ever take place,” he said.
Park said he had spoken to staff at the hospital, who were “upset, embarrassed and felt ashamed”.
NSW Health secretary Susan Pearce has undertaken a “rapid examination” of patient incidents at the hospital to investigate the nurses’ claims that Israeli patients weren’t treated. So far, the government has found no evidence that this is the case. In the video, the man identifies himself as a doctor despite wearing nurses’ scrubs.
In Australia, it is an offence to misrepresent yourself as a medical professional.
In the video, the woman allegedly says of Israelis: “One day, your time will come, and you will die the most horrible death.”
The man adds: “You have no idea how many [Israelis] came to this hospital, and I sent them to Jaheem” – the Islamic equivalent of the underworld.
Veifer uses the social media platform Chatruletka – which allows users to speak to randomly chosen strangers around the world – to expose antisemitism.
Veifer and the NSW Police have been contacted for comment.
Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel said: “There needs to be an investigation immediately into these two Australian medical professionals who are saying they will kill Israeli patients – and suggesting that they already have.
“They are expressing criminal intent towards Jewish people; this must be stopped.”
Haskel, who previously worked as a vet in Australia, said: “Antisemitism is a disease that is spreading in Australia. This behaviour has to be treated with the highest consequences under the law, and they should, at the very least, be fired.
“They have talked about killing Jews; they show the true racism and hate that the Australian Jewish community is currently enduring.”
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the video was “sickening” to watch.
“Their unrepentant, gleeful hatred is the precursor to the violence we are experiencing in our country, and it must be stamped out,” he said.
“These two medical professionals employed by NSW Health must be identified and immediately removed from any scenario in which they could give effect to their threats and their murderous intent.”
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip said if the people in the video were found to be employed by NSW Health, they should be immediately sacked.
“That anyone feels comfortable spewing this hatred while wearing NSW-branded scrubs is sickening.”
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Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via Twitter or Facebook.
Jessica McSweeney is a breaking news reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
Kate Aubusson is Health Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. Connect via Twitter or email.
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