By Adelaide Lang in Sydney

A former nurse will stand trial over claims he made menacing comments about Israeli patients while wearing his scrubs in a widely decried recorded conversation that went viral online. 

Ahmad Rashad Nadir, 28, and Sarah Abu Lebdeh, 27, allegedly bragged about refusing to treat Israeli patients, threatening violence towards them and saying they would go to hell.

The pair made the alleged threats on an online video chat platform in February, while they were working a night shift at southwest Sydney’s Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospital.

Charges were laid after Israeli influencer Max Veifer shared footage of his conversation with the two nurses online, attracting widespread condemnation.

“You have no idea how many Israeli (sic) … came to this hospital and … I send them to (hell),” Nadir says in the video.

The 28-year-old faced Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday to plead not guilty to using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend, clearing the path for a trial in late 2026 or early 2027.

He will remain on bail under strict conditions which bar him from using social media, owning more than one phone, or leaving the country.

Nadir has previously apologised through his lawyer for his comments in the footage, which he described as a “big mistake”.

His lawyer previously said he would apply to have the video tossed out of court because it was recorded without his client’s permission, which is required under state law.

The 28-year-old is likely to face a trial alongside his former colleague Abu Lebdeh, who previously pleaded not guilty to two charges including threatening violence towards a group.

The pair will appear in the NSW District Court in February to be arraigned before a trial date is set.

Both Nadir and Abu Lebdeh have been prohibited from working as nurses anywhere in the country by Australia’s health practitioner watchdog and their registrations have been suspended in NSW.

Their comments attracted widespread criticism – including from the prime minister and NSW premier – amid heightened community concerns at the time about anti-Semitic acts in Sydney and Melbourne.

Many of the highest-profile incidents in Sydney have since been revealed to have been concocted by criminal networks with no clear ideological motivations.

Nadir’s pleas come in a renewed atmosphere of heightened tensions, just days after two gunmen opened fire on a crowd of people celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach.

They killed at least 15 people – including a 10-year-old girl – in the onslaught and a dozen people were critically injured.

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