The two nurses at the centre of an anti-Semitic firestorm have been deregistered from practising anywhere in Australia.
Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh have gone into hiding as police wait to grill them over a video where they claimed to have killed Israeli patients at Bankstown Hospital in Sydney’s south-west.
A day after the footage shocked Australia, the pair were deregistered by the Nursing and Midwiferey Council of NSW on Thursday.
‘As a result, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency has automatically updated their record on the public register of practitioners,’ federal Health Minister Mark Butler said.
Lebanese Muslim Association Secretary Gamel Kheir refused to condemn Bankstown Hospital employees Ahmad ‘Rashad’ Nadir (left) and Sarah Abu Lebdeh (right)
Rashad Nadir (pictured) was born in Afghanistan but fled with his family at the age of 12 after his father was killed
‘As a result this means the two nurses are unable to practise nursing anywhere in Australia, in any context.
‘Australians have a right to feel safe wherever they go and nowhere should be safer than a hospital.
‘Their sickening comments – and the hatred that underpins them – have no place in our health system and no place anywhere in Australia.’
The pair were filmed on Tuesday wearing NSW Health uniforms as they threatened Jewish patients in an anti-Semitic rant during a video call with Israeli influencer Max Veifer.
‘It’s Palestine’s country, not your country you piece of s***,’ Abu Lebdeh said.
‘One day your time will come and you will die the most horrible death.’
‘You have no idea how many (Israelis) came to this hospital and I sent them to Jehannam (hell),’ Nadir said, while making a throat-slitting gesture.
Police have since swooped on Bankstown Hospital and seized CCTV as part of the investigation as they assess what charges, if any, can be laid.
Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh have gone into hiding after they claimed to have killed Israeli patients at Bankstown Hospital
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb branded the comments in the video akin to a hate crime and established Strike Force Pearl to investigate.
‘This is a sad day for our country, it is unthinkable that we are confronted with, and forced to, investigate such an appalling incident,’ she said on Wednesday.
‘Detectives have managed to interview staff and establish areas within Bankstown Hospital where detectives believe the video was allegedly filmed.’
Abu Lebdeh and Nadir have both apologised for the comments.
Nadir, 27, covered his face in shame when the media confronted him at his western Sydney home on Wednesday, and insisted his comments were ‘a joke and a misunderstanding’.
‘I will use social media, anything, to apologise but I need to go and see the detectives first,’ he said.
Solicitor Mohamad Sakr said his client was trying to ‘make amends for what has happened’.
‘My client sends a very sincere apology to not only that individual but to the Jewish community as a whole,’ he added.
