Police have charged a second Sydney nurse over a video posted online that allegedly made threats to Israeli patients.
Ahmad Rashad Nadir, a 27-year-old nurse who worked at Bankstown-Lidcombe hospital, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend, and possessing a prohibited drug, the Sutherland police said.
Mr Nadir has been granted conditional bail and was due in court on 19 March.
Mr Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, 26, were suspended from their duties at the hospital over antisemitism after a video of them was posted online in which they allegedly threatened to deny treatment to Israeli patients or kill them.
Ms Labdeh was arrested in February and charged with the federal offences of threatening violence to a group, using a carriage service to threaten to kill and using a carriage service to menace and harass, police said. The charges carried a potential maximum penalty of 22 years in prison.
Mr Nadir was interviewed by the police earlier and has reportedly apologised for the video last month through his lawyer.
The hospital examined patient records and found no evidence that the nurses had harmed patients.
In the video, the nurses, wearing their uniforms, purportedly engaged in a conversation on the chat platform Chatruletka with Jewish content creator Max Veifer. After learning that Mr Veifer was from Israel, one of the nurses allegedly said if patients from the country came to their hospital, she would not treat them. "I won't treat them, I'll kill them," she said.
The other nurse, a man, said: "Eventually you're going to get killed and you're going to go to (hell)."
The incident comes amid a wave of antisemitic attacks targeting Jews in Australia in the backdrop of Israel's war on Gaza. Recent months have seen attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars belonging to Jews across the country as well as the discovery of a caravan carrying explosives and a list of Jewish targets in Sydney.
New South Wales police commissioner Karen Webb said the antisemitism taskforce called the Strike Force Pearl has arrested 15 people and laid a total of 78 charges.
“I must commend the work Strike Force Pearl detectives are doing to investigate, charge and put these individuals before the courts,” she said on Wednesday, according to The Guardian.
“There is a tremendous amount of dedication and hard work going into all these investigations. “Detectives have overcome many challenges – including huge public expectation – to put these individuals before the court,” Ms Webb said.
The duo have been barred by the Australian health practitioner watchdog from working in the profession nationwide “in any context”.
