New South Wales police have spoken to an Israeli influencer who has agreed to provide investigators with an unedited version of a video chat in which two Bankstown hospital nurses allegedly threatened Israeli patients.
The video attracted widespread political condemnation after it was published by the Israeli content creator Max Veifer and led to the male nurse issuing an apology. The video depicted an edited online conversation Veifer had with the two staff members on a video chat platform similar to Chatroulette.
On Wednesday, the health minister, Ryan Park, identified the pair as nurses from Bankstown hospital and said they had been stood down.
In the video, Veifer asked a man wearing scrubs with a NSW Health insignia, who identified himself as a doctor, and a woman sitting beside him, what they would do if an Israeli were to come to their hospital. The woman responded: “I won’t treat them, I will kill them.”
The man said: “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 NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, told ABC radio on Thursday that officers had been at Bankstown hospital and staff had been interviewed.
“We have taken CCTV and overnight we’ve … been able to speak with the influencer in Israel who has agreed to supply us with a statement and an unedited version of the video,” she said.
“We are looking forward to getting that and then being able to fully investigate the whole content and that will dictate the terms of the investigation.”
Webb said the hospital CCTV would allow investigators to pinpoint “where the video was taken, the time, the location within the hospital and has it been edited”.
The police commissioner said investigators had also been talking to the solicitors representing the two nurses regarding the alleged “hate crime”.
Mohamad Sakr, a solicitor who is representing the male nurse Ahmad Rashad 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.
“He has never appeared before the court in relation to any criminal matters. He is a person of prior good character. It is unfortunate to find himself in a situation like this.”
Park told Channel Seven’s Sunrise on Thursday that Jewish patients “have every right to have lost confidence” in the NSW Health system and he would work as hard as he could to rebuild that trust.
“I understand the Jewish community has been rocked by this,” the minister said. “I’ve spoken to a number of rabbis overnight. I’ve spoken to the Jewish Board of Deputies. It is my job to regain that trust in the health system.”
Park met the leadership and general staff at the hospital on Thursday to discuss the matter and make his expectations clear.
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“I wanted to visit Bankstown hospital with David Ossip [the president of the board of deputies] to apologise to the Jewish community.
“To assure him and the Jewish community that those two individuals don’t reflect the values of NSW Health. But also to convey to the hard-working staff of Bankstown hospital that we acknowledge those vile individuals don’t represent our workforce.”
Park earlier said there had been a “quick analysis” on Wednesday and overnight to check for adverse patient outcomes at the hospital and how people had been cared for.
It “didn’t indicate that that particular hospital had any outlying issues around adverse patient outcomes,” the minister said. There would be a more detailed check in the coming days with Park pledging to make the results public.
“I need to make sure that there have been no other incidents of this type of behaviour that has impacted on patient care in any way, shape or form in our hospitals. This is an issue that we need to confront. This behaviour is not acceptable.”
The minister confirmed on Wednesday that NSW police and the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission would investigate.
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 premier, Chris Minns, said on Thursday it was “hugely important that the public has trust in healthcare professionals across our public health system”.
“We cannot have examples of naked racism from public servants exhibited on social media or anywhere,” he told reporters, adding if the Health Care Complaints Commission needed more resources to investigate they would be provided.
The shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, welcomed news that NSW police was investigating and that the pair had been stood down from their jobs. But he told Sky News on Thursday he wanted to see more action from the federal government.
“The federal government regulates the health profession in terms of the registration of doctors and nurses and, as of last night, those two nurses were still registered through the national regulator,” he said.
“That registration should be stripped because, while they’ve been banned from the NSW public health system, that doesn’t stop them working in the private system, and they shouldn’t be anywhere near any patients, [given] they’ve said that they wouldn’t treat people based on their nationality or ethnicity.
“For anyone to think it’s a good idea to say this in any context, but to say it at their workplace, in their uniforms, on a recorded video, just shows how rampant this problem [of antisemitism] is and how decisive leadership is needed to tackle it.”
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, called the footage “sickening and shameful” on Wednesday. The federal health minister, Mark Butler, and the minister for home affairs, Tony Burke, released a joint statement condemning the video, labelling it “as chilling as it is vile”.
Article by:Source: Emily Wind
