Sydney nurses anti-Israel remarks incident

Bankstown Lidcombe Hospital in south-western Sydney, the workplace of the two nurses involved in the incident.

On 12 February 2025, international media coverage and widespread condemnation arose after two NSW healthcare workers then employed at Bankstown Lidcombe Hospital, Sydney, Australia, bragged during a video chat with Israeli TikTok creator Max Veifer about refusing to treat, as well as killing, Israeli patients.

The video, which was shared with Veifer's 102,000 TikTok followers, caused widespread national and international outrage, with health ministers and politicians promptly condemning it as "vile" and "antisemitic", and led to the suspension of the two nurses. Both nurses' registrations were suspended by the NSW Nursing and Midwifery Council.

The incident occurred less than one week after Australia passed tougher laws against hate crimes and amid a surge in anti-Semitic incidents in Australia, as well as a resurgence in anti-Semitism worldwide, including, notably, in "the world of healthcare."

Background

The incident occurred on a video chat at Chatruletka, a relatively unknown app used for webcam-based conversations, which suggests that Veifer may have connected with the nurses perchance on that platform, before reposting the video on TikTok. The video opens with Max Veifer and the male nurse at the Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital, who was wearing scrubs. Although cordial and welcoming at first to Veifer (the female nurse was not on screen at the time), when Veifer revealed that he is from Israel, the male nurse audaciously expressed how upset he is that Veifer is Israeli, proclaiming that Veifer will "eventually get killed and go to hell inshallah", while simultaneously complimenting Veifer's "beautiful eyes".

The female nurse, also wearing scrubs, then appears on screen and interjects after Veifer stated that he has served in the IDF, where she tells him he has "no soul" and asks him how he "can kill innocent people to protect" his country, to which Veifer replied, "in the war people die". After Veifer asked who started the war and who elected Hamas, she responds, "It's Palestine's country, not your country, you piece of shit", before telling him he will "die the most horrible death" and his "time will come", finishing her harangue by making a spitting gesture towards Veifer. He replies: "You spread hate, we spread positivity, we spread protection, we spread peace and you spread death. How are you doctors?"

Veifer changes the topic and asks the nurses whether they would treat an Israeli person, to which the female nurse gloatingly replies, "I won't treat them, I will kill them". Veifer then asks the question again, saying that if "God forbid" an Israeli needed to seek hospital care, and is interrupted by the female nurse, who says, "Not 'God forbid', I hope to God." The male nurse then responds, "You have no idea how many Israeli khara dog[s] came to this hospital and..." (he makes a throat-slitting gesture), before asserting that he has sent Israeli patients to "jahannam" (the name for hell in Islam). When the visibly disquieted Veifer asks if they would treat Jews in general, the male nurse appears to shake his head, though the video abruptly cuts off.

Consequently, both nurses were immediately suspended.

Participants

The male nurse in the video escaped from Afghanistan to Australia with his family as a teenager and worked one day a week at Observatory Tower Medical Centre in Sydney CBD and Bankstown Hospital. He became an Australian citizen four years prior to the incident. According to the medical centre's website, he worked at emergency nursing and assisted doctors with a wide range of clinical duties. The female nurse had graduated with a Diploma of Nursing five years prior to the incident, and had been working at NSW Health since February 2021. The clinic has since removed the names of both nurses from its website.

Israeli influencer and TikTok creator Max Veifer has a following on both Instagram and TikTok, where he generally uses Chatruletka and Omegle to expose instances of antisemitism and also to learn English. Veifer had previously posted similar videos exposing people making antisemitic remarks in online chatrooms. Veifer spoke with Sky News presenter Sharri Markson (who first alerted the video to NSW health minister Ryan Park) to discuss the event, and the recurring anti-Semitic incidents going on in Australia. He recalls, "As soon as they found out I was from Israel they started cursing me and threatening me...I had a mission to accomplish to expose them, I had to stay calm." He then said the encounter made him worry about the next time he visits a hospital or is placed under anesthesia, should the workers know of his Israeli background.

Reactions

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the footage as "sickening and shameful" and stated that the "antisemitic comments, driven by hate, have no place in our health system and no place anywhere in Australia". NSW Premier Chris Minns believed the incident was an outlier, but commented that new state legislation is needed to send an "unambiguous message against hate crimes, antisemitism and racism in general". He stated, "We cannot have examples of naked racism from public servants exhibited on social media or anywhere."

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb described the incident as "a sad day for our country," and said it was "unthinkable that we are confronted with and forced to investigate such an appalling incident".

Following the incident, Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton claimed that the video revealed a need for a "national conversation" on migration and naturalization. He was in turn accused by Labor cabinet minister Anne Aly of "conveniently" turning a "conversation about antisemitism" into "a conversation about immigration. As if somehow, the two are connected."

British journalist Jonathan Sacerdoti interpreted the incident as reflecting a trend in healthcare that extended beyond Australia, writing in The Spectator, "Since 7October, the spectre of medical bias looms larger than ever. Jewish patient and staff in the NHS have voiced growing anxieties that the people entrusted with their lives may carry the same contempt that animated the Australian nurses." Sacerdoti argued that "the Australian scandal is not an anomaly; it is a warning."

In an opinion piece in The Guardian, Australian politician and pediatrician Mike Freelander expressed shock and concern over the incident, writing, "The hateful and vile comments made by two nurses from Bankstown hospital, captured in an edited film and recorded and broadcast around the world, shocked me to my core. It shocked me as a Jewish Australian and it shocked me as a member of our community." He noted that he had for decades worked in public hospitals in Australia, alongside healthcare workers of various faiths and cultural backgrounds, who "saw themselves as Australian health professionals first; as people called to serve our communities and provide the care and support we would want our loved ones to receive." He emphasized that, although the shock and concern surrounding the incident revealed "the severe harm the incident has caused to our public healthcare system", the two nurses involved in the incident were "outliers," and "do not represent the NSW Health workforce".

NSW Healthcare Staff

Following the incident, Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler stated, "Australians have a right to feel safe wherever they go and nowhere should be safer than a hospital. Health workers have a solemn duty to treat and heal everyone who comes before them needing help. The overwhelming majority hold to that oath". He further stated, “The idea that you would single out a particular group in our community and indicate you wouldn’t care for them, let alone actively threaten their lives, runs against every single principle in our health care system. Their sickening comments – and the hatred that underpins them – have no place in our health system and no place anywhere in Australia.”

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park stated, "I do not want to leave a sliver of light to allow any of them to be able to think they will ever work for NSW Health again."

NSW Health Secretary Susan Pearce, close to tears during a press conference, said to the press, "Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be standing here with two staff of the NSW health system having said such horrendous feelings about our community, and particularly to our Jewish community, I offer my sincere apologies."

In response to the incident, the New South Wales Nurses and Midwives' Association held a demonstration outside NSW parliament. Close to 100 nurses and midwives gathered at the rally, holding signs bearing messages such as "no hate in health care", "care without bias," and "be kind, be inclusive". Additionally, the organization issued a statement condemning "all forms of racism, bigotry and hatred, including acts of antisemitism and Islamophobia." The union stated that the two nurses' conduct was "deplorable, unacceptable, and cannot be tolerated".

In the aftermath of the incident, it was revealed that an NSW Health nurse at Bankstown Hospital had reportedly sounded the alarm about anti-Semitism at the hospital over a year prior to the anti-Israel remarks incident, having raised her concerns about anti-Semitism after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel. Concerned about the private messages she had received from Jewish nurses, midwives, and pregnant woman in the aftermath of the attack, as well as instances of nurses and midwives across the country chanting "from the river to the sea" while donning NSW health uniforms, she reported her concerns to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency; however, the agency took no action. After posting an open letter on social media outlining her concerns about anti-Semitism, she subsequently found herself the target of over half a dozen complaints, and received a warning letter threatening legal consequences.

Jewish community

Co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry Alex Ryvchin said the video was "utterly sickening to watch". Ryvchin told Network 10 television, “For months, I’ve been hearing from medical practitioners in the community who have been warning about extreme content posted by other doctors and nurses online," and stated that the incident in question was "merely the tip of the iceberg".

Islamic community

Several Muslim healthcare practitioners condemned the sentiments expressed by the nurses in the video. Dr. Jamal Rifi, a veteran Lebanese-Muslim Australian doctor, said he was "shocked" by the footage, stating that "no health practitioner should ever treat anyone differently based on their religion, culture, or nationality. We treat them as human beings." Queensland-based Muslim leader Ali Kadri called the video "vile" and provided "no justification". Bilal Rauf, the senior advisor to the Australian National Imams Council, characterized it as "reprehensible", adding that the incident "undermines the wonderful and important work Australian Muslims are doing in the health sector".

Despite the outrage, a coalition of Islamic organizations released a joint statement criticizing what they claimed was "selective outrage" following the video, asserting that media outlets and political leaders had provided "active diplomatic and journalistic cover for ongoing crimes by the Zionists" and describing the public outrage as a "weaponization of antisemitism". Signatories included mainstream groups such as the British pressure group The Muslim Vote and local Islamic community bodies such as the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils and the Islamic councils of Victoria and Western Australia, as well as more controversial groups, including Hizb Ut-Tahrir and the Al Madinah Dawah Centre, the latter of which had been taken to court the previous October by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) for alleged hate speech, including calling Jews “vile” and “treacherous”.

Whilst declaring that "healthcare should be provided justly to all", the signatories called it hypocritical to condemn the two Australian nurses when the actions of the Israeli government in Gaza were reacted to with "silence, dismissal, or complicity". They then commented that, "The frustration and anger directed at Israel is a direct response to its violent and inhumane policies — not an expression of hatred toward Jewish people".

Although condemning the nurses for their "terrible comment", Western Australian Senator Fatima Payman stressed that the nurses are being treated as if they had "committed the absolute worst crime imaginable" and that there lacked "the same level of anger and vitriol when the roles are reversed", in regards to Islamophobia in Australia.

Participants

The male nurse involved in the incident stated that it had been "just a joke" and "a misunderstanding". His solicitor said his client had sent an "apology to not only that individual but to the Jewish community as a whole" and was "trying to make amends". The uncle of the female nurse involved in the incident said that she was "sorry". Her brother claimed that the video was a "set up," as the video featured "jump-cuts". According to her family, she experienced a panic attacks following the video's publication due to the severe condemnation from the public.

Veifer, the influencer who published the video, stated that the incident caused him concern about the next time he needed to be treated in a hospital or to be placed under anesthesia, should the workers know of his Israeli background. “Seeing medical staff who are supposed to treat people, everyone, seeing them saying these things made me sad," he said, adding, "I don’t know who I can trust anymore? If I go under anaesthesia, can I trust these doctors? Should I tell them I’m from Israel?”

Investigations

The Bankstown Hospital began examining patient records after the nurses' claim that they have killed Israelis, but concluded that no evidence of harm to patients had been discovered. The male nurse had his home raided where several items were taken for further examination. Police allegedly found one vial of morphine in his personal locker at the hospital, in which it was collected as part of the investigation. Allegedly, a co-worker had been asked by the nurse to empty the locker but felt uncomfortable with the alleged request, and called the police instead. CCTV footage has also been collected from the hospital and other staff have been interviewed by police. Both nurses were eventually stood down from their positions. Australia's health practitioner watchdog has updated its public records to show both nurses had been prohibited from working in the profession countrywide. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler stated that "this means the two nurses are unable to practice nursing anywhere in Australia, in any context".

The police spoke with the Israeli influencer, who had agreed to provide detectives with a full, unedited version of the video chat. As of February 19, NSW Police officers have been speaking to Veifer on a regular basis, working with him to present a signed statement that meets legal standards and to be admittible in the Australian court. (Since the influencer is in Israel and the video was created in Israel). Superintendent Darren Newman stated that there have been "complexities" with the case as the authorities work to ascertain if any charges can be laid against the two nurses involved in the incident, before concluding that he cannot "give a time frame for when that evidence" will come or "how it will come" to the police. If charges are laid, then they would be in relation to "using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence". The investigation is being done under NSW Police taskforce Strike Force Pearl.

See also

• Antisemitism on social media
• Antisemitism during the Gaza war
• Normalization of antisemitism
• Terrorism and social media