Latest news with #NursingandMidwiferyCouncilofNSW
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Yahoo
Nurse charged over alleged anti-Semitic video
A nurse who allegedly vowed to 'kill' Israeli patients during an anti-Semitic rant has been charged. Sarah Abu Lebdeh was deregistered by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of NSW, effective from February 13, after a video circulated online of her allegedly threatening Israeli patients while wearing her NSW Health uniform. Investigators arrested the 26-year-old about 7.30pm on Tuesday following extensive inquiries. She was charged with threaten violence to group, use carriage service to threaten to kill and use carriage service to menace/harass/offend. More to come...
The Guardian
14-02-2025
- The Guardian
Sydney nurse who allegedly threatened Israeli patients taken to hospital as ‘unedited' video released
A nurse at the centre of a video chat showing two New South Wales hospital workers allegedly making anti-Israeli threats to an Israeli influencer has been taken to hospital due to 'welfare concerns', police say. The influencer, Max Veifer, on Friday released what he said was the 'unedited version' of the video involving two Bankstown hospital nurses. NSW police, meanwhile, said emergency services were called to a Bankstown home on Thursday night 'following reports of a concern for welfare'. 'A 27-year-old man was taken to hospital for assessment,' a spokesperson said in a statement on Friday. 'No further information is available.' Police said on Thursday they spoke with the Israeli influencer who they said had agreed to provide investigators with an unedited version of the video chat. In a statement on Friday, police said they were aware an extended version had been posted online, 'however nothing has been directly provided to NSW Police'. 'Discussions between NSW Police and the influencer remain open and ongoing.' The shorter video posted to Instagram by Veifer earlier this week attracted widespread political condemnation, with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, condemning the footage as 'sickening and shameful'. Veifer posted a two-minute video on Friday with the caption: 'The police are asking me for the unedited version. I have nothing to hide. Here it is and if they tell me where to send it I will send it to them.' The video begins with the male nurse, Ahmad Rashad Nadir, and Veifer greeting each other. When Veifer says he is from Israel, Nadir replies: 'I'm going to be really honest with you. You've actually got really, really beautiful eyes, but I'm so upset that you're Israeli. Eventually, you're going to get killed and you're going to go to Jahannam [hell]'. Veifer responds: 'Why do you think I'm going to get killed? Maybe because I served in the IDF?' Nadir replies: 'That's definitely the answer, correct.' Veifer then states 'that's the reason, I served in the IDF, what is the problem with that?' to which the female nurse, Sarah Abu Lebdeh, speaks offscreen for the first time stating: 'Because you killed innocent people that's why.' 'I was protecting my country,' Veifer responds. Abu Lebdeh asks: 'So you kill innocent people to protect your country? What kind of soul do you have?' The NSW health minister, Ryan Park, launched an investigation on Wednesday after the edited video was published. Park identified the pair as nurses from Bankstown hospital. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, said on Thursday the Nursing and Midwifery Council of NSW had suspended both nurses' registrations. 'Australians have a right to feel safe wherever they go and nowhere should be safer than a hospital,' Butler said. 'Their sickening comments – and the hatred that underpins them – have no place in our health system and no place anywhere in Australia.' Sign up to Morning Mail Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Veifer told Sky News on Wednesday night he 'created content' using online video chats where he worked to 'expose people'. 'I was talking with these two nurses … and as soon as they found out I am from Israel they started cursing me and threatening me – that they are going to kill me and never going to treat Israeli patients at their hospital,' he said of the edited exchange he released online. 'I was shocked. It's insane that so far away in Australia the hate has gotten so far. I was shocked but I had a mission to accomplish. I had to expose them, so I had to stay calm and get as much info as I can so I can post it and show my people and we can find them.' The NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, told ABC radio on Thursday that officers had interviewed staff at Bankstown hospital, obtained CCTV footage, and had spoken with the influencer in Israel who agreed to provide the unedited version of the video. Webb said investigators had also spoken to the solicitors representing the two nurses regarding the alleged 'hate crime'. Mohamad Sakr, a solicitor representing Nadir, said on Wednesday his client had sincerely apologised to the individual in question and the broader Jewish community. 'He understands what has happened, he is trying to make amends,' Sakr said. Rayan Kadadi, a solicitor representing Abu Lebdeh, said in a statement: 'As you can all appreciate this is a very emotional and distressing time for my client and her family.' 'Given there is a pending investigation it will be inappropriate to make any further comment,' Kadadi said. Neither nurse has been charged over the video. In the video, Veifer asks the nurses what they would do if an Israeli were to come to their hospital. Abu Lebdeh responds: 'I won't treat them, I will kill them.' Nadir says: 'You have no idea how many [Israelis] came to this hospital, and I sent them to Jahannam [hell]. I literally sent them to Jahannam.'
The Guardian
13-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Referendum needed for Dutton's call to toughen citizenship-stripping laws, expert says
Peter Dutton's proposal to toughen citizenship-stripping laws in response to comments made by two NSW nurses would probably require a referendum, a constitutional lawyer says. Both major party leaders have been accused of a 'bidding war' on who can look tougher on the issue, with Abul Rizvi, a former senior immigration official, urging politicians not to throw more petrol on the fire amid social tensions. The video, published this week by Israeli content creator Max Veifer, has attracted widespread political condemnation after two Bankstown nurses were recorded saying they wouldn't treat Israeli patients under their care. The male nurse has since apologised through his lawyer. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email On Thursday, the federal health minister, Mark Butler, said the Nursing and Midwifery Council of NSW had suspended both nurses' registrations. The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency automatically updated its record on the public register of practitioners, meaning the two nurses are 'unable to practise nursing anywhere in Australia, in any context', Butler said. Anthony Albanese described the comments as 'sickening and shameful' on Wednesday but Dutton has suggested more drastic measures be considered, including stripping one of the nurses of their citizenship. On Thursday, the opposition leader said a public debate was necessary to resolve the 'inadequacies' of the citizenship system. 'I think it's a conversation for our country at some point, maybe sooner than later, about how we can say to these people, 'if you don't share our values, if you're here and you're enjoying the welfare system and you're enjoying free health and free education, then at the same time you hate our country, well, I don't think you've got a place here',' Dutton told 2GB on Thursday. Dutton said a 'proper process' should be in place to 'understand how this individual became an Australian citizen and where the failing in the system originated and how we can make sure it doesn't happen again'. Guardian Australia understands one of the nurses gained citizenship in 2020, years after fleeing from Afghanistan to Australia as a child, while Dutton was home affairs minister. 'Constitutional constraints' allowing citizens to stay in the country, regardless of their loyalty, should be of 'deep concern' to Australians, Dutton said. In 2022, the high court ruled the home affairs minister's powers to strip dual nationals of Australian citizenship as unconstitutional, describing it as 'punishment in the sense of retribution' and depriving a person of citizenship based on the minister's discretion rather than a conviction. Under the existing citizenship cessation laws changed after the high court ruling, a minister can apply for a court order to consider whether a person with dual citizenship – and who has been convicted of a serious offence, including terrorism, espionage, foreign interference, with a jail sentence of at least three years – should have their Australian citizenship stripped. Helen Irving, a constitutional law expert, said a future Dutton government wanting tougher powers to strip dual citizens for hate speech offences could attempt to lower the existing law's threshold or change the constitution through a referendum. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion However, Irving said there were simpler solutions that could be considered for easing tensions and this appeared to be a distraction. 'If there was a clear constitutional solution, obviously that would need to be considered. But I think we don't want to distract or deflect from looking at the really serious nature of what those nurses said,' she said. Rizvi, a former deputy secretary of the immigration department, criticised both leaders for attempting to one-up the other in an effort to look tough. 'There's a bidding war going on here, and whatever the government comes up with, I'm sure, Mr Dutton, will want to trump that,' he said. 'Where people say things out of passion, you rarely solve those with legislation. That's not the solution.' The former senior official said now was a time for calm. 'I haven't found many [politicians] who have talked about calming things down,' Rizvi said. 'All of them are looking at the politics and thinking, 'How do I position myself to benefit politically?' … Few people seem to be worried about social cohesion and calming things down in a multicultural society.'
