The brother of a Sydney nurse who has been stood down after she and a colleague were recorded making vile anti-Semitic remarks has said his sister was “set up”.
“She was baited,” said Mohamed Abu Lebdeh of his sister Sarah Abu Lebdeh who worked at Sydney’s Bankstown Hospital in Australia.
It comes as Israeli media outlets have reacted to the nurses’ shocking remarks and their subsequent apologies. One questioned if the pair were, in reality, “sorry, not sorry?”
Sarah and fellow nurse Ahmad “Rashad” Nadir were recorded by Israeli influencer Max Veifer.
He frequently uses Chatruletka and Omegle, online platforms that pairs users into random video chats, to expose instances of anti-Semitism and also to learn English, he has claimed.
The two nurses were wearing New South Wales Health scrubs when they ended up talking to Veifer.
“I’m so upset that you’re Israeli, like eventually you’re going to get killed,” Nadir told the Israeli man.
When Veifer asked why he was going to get killed, Sarah appeared on the screen.
“It’s Palestine’s country not your country, you piece of s—,” Sarah said.
“One day your time will come and you will die the most … listen to me when your time comes, I want you to remember my face so you can understand that you will die the most disgusting death.”
Veifer questioned whether they would treat an Israeli person, but Sarah cut him off saying “I won’t treat them, I’ll kill them … Not God forbid, I hope to God”.
The remarks set off a firestorm with NSW Health suspending the staff members and making moves to sack and bar them from ever working in healthcare again.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb has said a Strike Force Pearl investigation was “well underway”. Police have indicated they could charge the pair.
Sarah is believed to have graduated with a diploma of nursing five years ago, and has been working at NSW Health since February 2021.
A man who identified himself as her uncle told The Australian on Wednesday that Sarah was “sorry” for her remarks.
“I’m trying to calm her down to see what the f–k happened,” he said outside her home.
Her uncle insisted that she posed no threat to Israeli patients.
“You can’t talk to her now because she’s having a panic attack. We might be calling the ambulance for her.”
‘She was set up’
However, another man, who identified himself as Sarah’s brother, said the video of his sister had been edited and that she had essentially been pushed into making her horrific comments.
Mohammed told the Daily Mail his sister “helped” rather than “hurt” people.
“That video was a set up. You can see that it’s edited. You can see the jump cuts.
“Sarah said those things but she was pushed. She was baited.”
Mohammed claimed 70 family members had been lost in Palestine which he claimed she had explained on the video.
“To hear those things. It’s too much, but he cut that part out and made it look like she just said that,” he claimed.
“She was provoked. She snapped. Anyone would.”
Police have acknowledged the video was edited and have asked Veifer for the full version, with no cuts, as part of their investigations into the incident.
‘It was a joke’
In the video Nadir, the other nurse, replied to a question Veifer made about whether an Israeli person would be treated by them.
“You have no idea how many Israeli … dog came to this hospital and … I literally sent them to (the afterlife),” a scrubs-wearing Nadir said, while slicing his hand across his neck.
It’s not clear what Nadir meant by this comment.
Nadir’s lawyer said he had given a “sincere apology” to Veifer and the wider Jewish community.
“He understands what has happened. He is trying to make amends with what has happened. He has never appeared before the court in relation to any criminal matters. He is a person of prior good character,” Sakr said.
“He’s apologized for the action, he’s apologized for his words, whether he had the mental capacity at the time of an alleged offense, to commit an offense, that is a matter for the courts.”
Talking to The Daily Telegraph, Nadir said: “It was a joke, a misunderstanding … I will use social media, anything, to apologize but I need to go and see the detectives first.”
Israeli newspaper says nurses ‘sorry, not sorry?’
The nurses’ comments have made waves around the world, including Israel.
The country’s biggest newspaper Israel Hayom characterized the pair as trying to “play down” the furore, and pushing the line that it was merely a “misunderstanding”.
It asked, in a headline, if the nurses were “sorry, not sorry?”
News website Ynet said the country’s ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon had spoken to NSW Premier Chris Minns and called for Nadir and Sarah to be fired.
Israel’s deputy foreign minister Sharren Haskel said anti-Semitism was a “disease spreading in Australia”.
“This behaviour must be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law and at the very least, they should be fired,” Ynet reported her as saying.
“They violated the Hippocratic oath, spoke of murdering Jews and exposed the real racism and hatred that the Jewish community in Australia faces today”.
Speaking to journalist and commentator Sharri Markson on Sky News on Wednesday, NSW health minister Ryan Park said he “literally couldn’t believe” what he saw on the video when he was first shown it.
He said he was “determined that these people never work in NSW Health again and never be responsible for patients again”.
Park added that while no adverse patient outcomes had so far been detected in Bansktown Hospital due to the two nurses, a deeper look would now be taken at health records.
