Sarah Abu Lebdeh #
Introduction #
Sarah Abu Lebdeh is an Australian registered nurse who was working at Bankstown Hospital in Sydney when a video recorded on an anonymous video-chat platform appeared to show her and a colleague threatening Israeli patients. In the footage, published on social media by Israeli content creator Max Veifer, Abu Lebdeh allegedly said of Israeli patients, “I won’t treat them, I will kill them.” The clip spread within hours, was condemned by the prime minister, and within days both nurses involved had their nursing registrations suspended. Abu Lebdeh was later charged with threatening offences and granted conditional bail, with her case set to return to court. The episode became one of the most prominent in a string of antisemitism controversies that engulfed Sydney institutions in early 2025.
Background Information #
Abu Lebdeh was 26 years old at the time the video surfaced and worked as a registered nurse at Bankstown Hospital in Sydney’s south-west, alongside fellow nurse Ahmad Rashad Nadir. The footage that ended her nursing career was recorded on an online platform that pairs strangers randomly for video chats — the same format Veifer used deliberately in his work. He told Sky News that he “created content” using online video chats where he worked to “expose people,” and said that as soon as the two nurses learned he was from Israel, they began cursing and threatening him. Little else about Abu Lebdeh’s personal or professional background was reported in the coverage; the public record of her life before the incident is essentially limited to her role at the hospital where the video, which appeared to have been filmed inside the facility, was recorded.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #
The video was released in edited form on Instagram in mid-February 2025 and quickly attracted national attention. In the exchange, Veifer identified himself as Israeli, and Nadir replied that he had “really, really beautiful eyes” but that he was upset he was Israeli, saying, “Eventually, you’re going to get killed and you’re going to go to Jahannam” — the Arabic word for hell. When Veifer asked why, Abu Lebdeh spoke offscreen for the first time: “Because you killed innocent people, that’s why.” Pressed on the point, she asked, “So you kill innocent people to protect your country? What kind of soul do you have?”
The moment that triggered the backlash came when Veifer asked what the nurses would do if an Israeli patient came to their hospital. Abu Lebdeh replied: “I won’t treat them, I will kill them.” Nadir added: “You have no idea how many [Israelis] came to this hospital, and I sent them to Jahannam. I literally sent them to Jahannam.” The BBC reported that in the footage the two nurses allegedly bragged about refusing to treat Israeli patients and killing them. The video caused a public outcry, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemning it first as “sickening and shameful” and later describing the comments as “disgusting” and “vile”.
Public Reaction and Consequences #
The institutional response was unusually fast. NSW Health Minister Ryan Park launched an investigation after the edited video was published, identifying the pair as Bankstown Hospital nurses. The federal Health Minister, Mark Butler, announced that the Nursing and Midwifery Council of NSW had suspended both nurses’ registrations, saying, “Australians have a right to feel safe wherever they go and nowhere should be safer than a hospital,” and that their “sickening comments” had “no place in our health system.” The council’s suspension took effect on February 13, 2025, which it said was intended “to protect the health and safety of the public and to maintain the public’s confidence in the nursing profession.”
Police moved quickly as well. Strike Force Pearl officers executed a search warrant at a Sydney home the Friday night after the video went viral, removing “a number of items” for examination, though no arrests had been made at that stage. Weeks later, Abu Lebdeh was charged with three offences: threatening violence to a group, using a carriage service to threaten to kill, and using a carriage service to harass or cause offence. NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb called the charges a significant breakthrough in what she described as a complicated investigation involving an overseas witness.
Current Status #
Abu Lebdeh has been charged but not convicted, and the allegations against her remain allegations in law: she has pleaded not guilty. She was granted bail on conditions that banned her from social media and from leaving the country, and her case has since moved through the NSW courts alongside that of Nadir, who was receiving medical treatment and had not initially been charged but remained under investigation. Both nurses retain the right to appeal the council’s suspension decision to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The legal fight has turned heavily on the video itself: a District Court judge initially excluded the footage from trial on the grounds it was improperly obtained and breached privacy laws, before the ruling was reversed in July 2026 and the video was ruled admissible.
The trial, which had been due to begin on August 31, 2026, was vacated at the last minute after the Crown served the defence an expert report by Middle East analyst Rodger Shanahan dated May 31 but provided only on August 5. Nadir’s lawyer, Zemarai Khatiz, said the defence needed two to three months to secure its own expert in response, and that a new trial was anticipated “sometime in 2027,” with the matter next listed in Parramatta District Court on August 21, 2026 — leaving the 27-year-old’s case stretching past its second year unresolved.
Abu Lebdeh’s solicitor, Rayan Kadadi, said in a statement that it was “a very emotional and distressing time for my client and her family” and that, given the pending investigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further. Veifer, meanwhile, released what he described as the unedited version of the chat after police asked him for it, saying he had “nothing to hide.”
Impact on Their Career/Life #
The practical consequences for Abu Lebdeh were immediate and severe: a nursing career ended by suspension before any court could rule, a criminal prosecution carrying serious charges, bail conditions restricting her movement and online activity, and her name attached to one of the defining antisemitism controversies of Australia’s summer of 2024-25. The case landed against a tense backdrop — the BBC noted it came amid a series of antisemitic incidents in Sydney, including the discovery in January 2025 of a caravan packed with explosives and a document listing Jewish targets. Whether her nursing career can ever resume depends on both the criminal case and the regulatory process, and as of the most recent reports neither had resolved.