The outrage over the viral video of two Sydney hospital nurses threatening to kill Israeli patients was a disproportionate response created by double standards and manufactured moral panic to silence criticism about Israel, dozens of Australian Muslim organizations and leaders asserted in a joint Sunday statement.
The statement, signed by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, Hizb ut-Tahrir Australia, The Muslim Vote, and dozens of others, charged that the overwhelming response to last Wednesday’s viral video by politicians at every level was “calculated and politically motivated outrage” amplified by a “coordinated media campaign.”
“The most revealing aspect of the reaction to the nurses video is not the video itself – but the speed, intensity, and uniformity of response from certain political leaders and media outlets,” read the statement.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New South Wales Health Minister Ryan Park and commentators expressed horror about the video, which included boasts that the nurses had already killed Israeli patients, but the Muslim groups said that the same people were providing diplomatic and journalistic cover for “ongoing crimes by the Zionists” in Gaza.
“Outrage is manufactured when it serves a political narrative, with silence strategically deployed when the truth might expose the complicity of those in power,” read the statement that had also been signed by the Islamic Councils of Victoria and Western Australia.
A near-identical Sunday letter issued by the Lebanese Muslim Association said that “the same voices condemning these nurses remain silent on these war crimes. Those truly concerned with medical ethics should be the loudest in denouncing such atrocities – not just selective incidents that serve a political agenda.”
The labeling of the video as antisemitic was, according to the letter signed by AFIC and the Australian Arab Association of Western Sydney, part of a “pattern of gaslighting by Zionist lobby groups and their friends within government and media circles.”
“Attempts to weaponize accusations of antisemitism to silence dissent are not only intellectually dishonest, but also dangerous,” said the letter.
LMA said that equating outrage over war crimes with antisemitism was dishonest. “The nurses’ comments, while regrettable,” targeted “a nationality, not a religion or ethnicity.”
Frustration and anger was directed against Israel, and not the Jewish people, as a result of a supposed genocide against Palestinians, and the “clearly emotional and hyperbolic” statements by the nurses were against Israelis, read the joint statement.
“We urge the Australian public to see through this manufactured moral panic and recognize the deeply political nature of this response,” said AFIC, the Muslim Legal Network, and the Sydney University Muslim Students Association.
IN A Sunday Instagram video, Western Australia Senator Fatima Payman echoed letters from Muslim leaders and organizations by saying that what the nurses said was wrong, but questioned the degree to which the nurse scandal had occupied the attention of political and journalistic echelons.
Payman said that nurses Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, who have been stood down from the hospital and had their nurse registration suspended, were under intense public scrutiny, but they had apologized and police investigations had shown that there was no evidence that they had killed Israeli patients.
“They made a terrible comment but are being treated as if they have committed the absolute worst crime imaginable,” said Payman. “What’s the end goal here? What exactly are we trying to achieve? Justice? Or just public humiliation?”
Payman said that the Muslim community was not seeing the same vitriol in response to physical anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim attacks and incidents. She cited a December incident in which a Sydney imam was reportedly attacked in an alleged anti-Muslim attempted car ramming.
The senator, joint statement, and letter also cast a recent incident with the Daily Telegraph, in which a news team allegedly entered a Sydney Middle Eastern restaurant while wearing a Star of David-emblazoned hat, as a further example of a double standard.
Albanese and other leaders had not denounced to the same degree what Payman said was a deliberate attempt to provoke a response, manufacture a story about antisemitism, and create division. She asked why, if young adults like the nurses were held accountable, a national news outlet was not also shamed. These double standards, according to the senator, were what actually damaged social cohesion.
Accusing Israeli of atrocities due to IDF service
The joint statement also accused Israeli influencer and English teacher Max Veifer, who posted the random chat platform video, of being involved in atrocities because he was at one point in the IDF.
In a longer version of the viral video posted on Thursday by Veifer, he asked Nadir if he thought he would be killed because he served in the military. Nadir said that was “definitely the answer.”
When asked if they would treat Israelis in their hospital, Abu Lebdeh said, “I won’t treat them, I’ll kill them.” Nadir added, “You have no idea how many Israeli s*** dogs came to this hospital, and I sent them to hell.”
When Veifer asked what would happen if “just Jewish people” came for treatment, Nadir appeared to have disconnected the call.
In a Tuesday Instagram post, Veifer thanked everyone who shared the video to expose the two “antisemites.” He said that he was in contact with the NSW police, and while he couldn’t share details because it was an ongoing investigation, he was confident that with the full unedited video they had enough evidence to take action.