Two nurses in Sydney are facing a criminal investigation for antisemitism after claiming in a social media video that Israeli patients in Australia will be denied treatment or killed.
The New South Wales health workers have been stood down at the Bankstown Hospital after allegedly declaring that they would kill Israeli patients if they had to treat them.
One nurse, who falsely claimed to be a doctor, even suggested he had killed Israeli patients, 9News reported.
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.
The nurses, wearing their uniforms, engaged in a conversation on video chat platform Chatruletka with Jewish content creator Max Veifer. After learning that Mr Veifer was from Israel, one of the nurses said if patients from the West Asian 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 male, said: “Eventually you’re going to get killed and you’re going to go to (hell).”
“It’s Palestine’s country, not your country,” the woman nurse said. “One day your time will come … you will die the most disgusting death.”
The man added: “You have no idea how many Israeli … came to this hospital and … I send them to (hell).”
Mr Veifer shared the conversation on his TikTok page and it quickly sparked outrage.
“This morning Bankstown Police Area Command launched an investigation into the video that has circulated widely on social media,” the New South Wales police said in a statement.
“Officers attached to Strike Force Pearl have now taken carriage of the investigation. NSW Health believes they have identified the individuals involved and are currently assisting detectives with their investigation.”
According to Australian media, the TikTok video was sent to NSW health minister Ryan Park at 7.20am local time and the nurses were stood down by 10am. Mr Park apologised to the Jewish community for the “vile, disgusting act” and sought to reassure them they would continue to get “first class” care in Australian hospitals.
Federal health minister Mark Butler condemned the video saying that every health professional was obligated to care for “whomever comes before you”.
“The idea that you would single out a particular group in our community and indicate you would not care for them runs against every single principle in our healthcare system. At a time of unprecedented antisemitism in our country, this is a particularly sickening video,” he said.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese called the video “sickening and shameful” and said it was driven by hate. “These antisemitic comments … have no place in our health system and no place anywhere in Australia,” he said in a post on X.
He added: “They have rightly been referred to the NSW Police for criminal investigation. Individuals found to have committed criminal antisemitic acts will face the full force of our laws.”
Australia last week passed anti-hate crime laws under which a Nazi salute in public, among similar offences, will be punishable by a mandatory jail sentence of 12 months to six years.
