Two American nurses were suspended after a movie appeared to show them threatening to kill Jewish people and praising their refusal to handle them.
According to New South Wales ( NSW) officials, the man and the woman are currently being investigated by police. They are both employed by a Sydney hospital.
State Health Minister Ryan Park said that a” thorough investigation” would be carried out to make sure there had been” no adverse]patient ] outcomes”, but that a “rapid” examination of hospital records had not turned up anything unusual.
After the videos started to go viral online, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese criticized it as” horrible and terrible.”
It comes less than a week after Australia passed stricter laws against hate crimes in response to a flood of well-known racist problems.
On Wednesday, NSW Police said that they believed they had “identified the persons involved” in the picture.
Both were soon called to resign, according to the health secretary, and promised that they would never work in the NSW medical system again.
Max Veifer, a father of information, claims he is from Israel and shared the video on TikTok.
His profile contains conversations with people he encounters on the private online system Chatruletka, which arbitrarily pairs people for video chats.
The film, seen by the BBC, appears to have been recorded in a clinic.
A gentleman, who claims to be a physician, tells Mr Veifer that he “has wonderful eyes” but adds” I’m sad you’re Israeli” before saying he sends Israelis to Jahannam- an Islamist place akin to heaven.
He goes on to make a throat-slitting movement, before a person comes on display and says that “one time” Mr Veifer’s “time will come” and that he will kill, later adding that she didn’t handle Israelis.
” I won’t treat them, I will kill them”, she says.
The video has been edited, emojis have been added, and some comments have been bleeped out- but authorities are not questioning its authenticity.
Albanese described it as “disgusting” and “vile”, writing on X:” These antisemitic comments, driven by hate, have no place in our health system and no place anywhere in Australia.
” The full force of our laws will be applied to individuals found to have committed criminal antisemitic acts.”
Park also apologised to the Jewish community and expressed his regrets to them as he explained that he wanted to reassure them that they could still expect” first class” medical care in NSW.
There is no place in our healthcare system or hospital where this kind of viewpoint can ever exist. This kind of perspective should not be accepted in our society.
He continued, noting that the hospital’s employees were embarrassed and ashamed, but that this did not diminish their hard work.
In recent months, in incidents unconnected to the hospital video, there have been a series of arson and graffiti attacks involving homes, cars, and synagogues in Jewish areas across Australia, causing fear in the community.
In NSW in January, a caravan containing power gel explosives that police had warned had the potential for a “mass casualty event” was discovered, along with a document with antisemitic sentiments and a list of Jewish targets in Sydney.
The video served as a “warning sign once more to all Australians about the evil that exists in our midst,” according to Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australia.