A nurse in Australia who allegedly threatened to kill Israeli patients in a viral video posted by an Israeli influencer has been charged with three offences.
Sarah Abu Lebdeh, who worked at the public Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital in Sydney's southwest, was charged with three commonwealth offences including threaten violence to group, use carriage service to threaten to kill and use carriage service to menace/harass/offend.
In the video posted by Max Veifer, she appears alongside colleague Ahmed Rashid Nadir, both allegedly claiming they won't treat Israelis and boasting of sending them to hell.
Strike Force Pearl investigators arrested and charged Abu Lebdeh late on Tuesday, but no charges have yet been laid against Ahmed Rashid Nadir.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said 14 people had been arrested so far under the operation targeting antisemitism, including 26-year-old Abu Lebdeh, and a total of 76 charges had been laid by the strike force.
"These charges have been laid following a lot of hard work and legal advice, received yesterday from the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions," she said on Wednesday.
"Detectives have overcome obstacles and jurisdictional challenges to get where we are today."
In the back and forth with Veifer, a former soldier who reveals in the video he served with the Israeli Defence Forces, Abu Lebdeh threatens him.
"One day, your time will come and you will die the most horrible death," she says on the video.
Reaction was swift to the video with widespread condemnation, including from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW Premier Chris Minns.
Australia's health practitioner watchdog barred both nurses from working in the profession nationwide "in any context".
The pair have also had their registrations suspended by the NSW Nursing and Midwifery Council.
Abu Lebdeh was granted conditional bail and is due to appear in court in March.
