Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily OS.
Speaker 2: Oh now it makes sense.
Speaker 1: Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday,
Speaker 1: the twenty seventh of February. I'm Zara, I'm Billy. Yesterday,
Speaker 1: a Sydney nurse was charged by New South Wales police
Speaker 1: over an antisemitic video that went viral earlier this month.
Speaker 1: When your time come, how are you doctors? I want
Speaker 1: you to remember.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, I have a question.
Speaker 1: She's now facing three separate charges and is expected to
Speaker 1: face court next month.
Speaker 2: Zara. So, this story first came to light earlier this
Speaker 2: month when this video that we just played a snippet
Speaker 2: of emerged and it showed two Sydney nurses talking to
Speaker 2: an Israeli content creator and it went viral online.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: What do we need to know about that video?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So, as you said, it was a video that
Speaker 1: went absolutely viral, but it originally was posted by Max Vifer,
Speaker 1: who's an Israeli content creator. In this video, he's seen
Speaker 1: speaking to two nurses on this chat app called chat Roulettka,
Speaker 1: where you can connect with people all across the world.
Speaker 1: One of the nurses initially tells the content creator that
Speaker 1: he is a doctor. We later found out that he
Speaker 1: is a nurse before they then begin to engage with
Speaker 1: Vifa about being Israeli. I'm not going to attempt to
Speaker 1: summarize the video, but I'll play a quick clip about
Speaker 1: the nature of the conversation. Let's say, let's say an
Speaker 1: Israeli God beat them, You'll kill them. So if an
Speaker 1: Israeli is in Australia and that's wore something happened to
Speaker 1: him and he.
Speaker 2: Comes to your hospital.
Speaker 1: Would you kill him? Okay, you have no idea how
Speaker 1: many Israeli had a dog came to this hospital. And
Speaker 1: since that conversation was published online, the two nurses have
Speaker 1: been identified and we understand that they were working at
Speaker 1: Bankstown Hospital when that video was recorded.
Speaker 2: And the response to this video at the time was
Speaker 2: pretty universal condemnation. I mean every political leader, well a
Speaker 2: lot of political leaders did a press conference and they
Speaker 2: all condemned what was said by these nurses in these videos.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Correct, So we had, as you said, condemnation both
Speaker 1: at a state level and then also at a federal level.
Speaker 1: At a state level, the New South Wales Health Minister,
Speaker 1: very shortly after that video surface confirmed that both nurses
Speaker 1: had been stood down and that an investigation would follow.
Speaker 1: In a press conference at the time, Ryan park as
Speaker 1: I said the Health Minister called the video one of
Speaker 1: the most vile, shocking and appalling videos that he had
Speaker 1: ever seen. He also said at that time that those
Speaker 1: nurses would never work for New South Wales Health ever again.
Speaker 1: But when he said those things, the investigation was just beginning.
Speaker 1: Leaders across the spectrum echoed this sentiment. We heard from
Speaker 1: the Prime minister, as you said, we heard from state
Speaker 1: premiers at the time, the government's Special envoy to combat
Speaker 1: anti Semitism, so that's the person that the government assigned
Speaker 1: specifically to deal with this rising anti semitism. Her name's
Speaker 1: Gillian Siegel, and she said reassurance and words are not
Speaker 1: quite enough. They're important and necessary, but they're not sufficient.
Speaker 1: So I think that goes to a bit of the
Speaker 1: reaction that we had at the time earlier this month.
Speaker 2: And from my understanding, so there was an investigation into
Speaker 2: what this means for these two people in terms of
Speaker 2: what they will now be charged with potentially be charged with.
Speaker 2: But then also they had to investigate whether the claims
Speaker 2: that they said in the video, which was that they
Speaker 2: allegedly threatened to not treat Israeli patient. They had to
Speaker 2: the police had to look into whether that had actually
Speaker 2: occurred by these two nurses at the hospital.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, And the complexity of this case was made
Speaker 1: apparent very early on by New South Wales Police. They
Speaker 1: issued a statement shortly after the videos saying, as the
Speaker 1: influencer is in Israel and the video is believed to
Speaker 1: have been created in Israel, police need to manage the
Speaker 1: complexities involved in gathering and producing evidence from an overseas
Speaker 1: jurisdiction to meet Australian legal requirements for the evidence to
Speaker 1: be admissible in Australian courts.
Speaker 2: And when you say it was created in Israel, that's
Speaker 2: because it was livestream in Israel. But the nurses, to
Speaker 2: be clear, were in the hospital in Bankstown in Sydney.
Speaker 1: Correct. But one would presume that this video would have
Speaker 1: formed a large part of the evidence and what happens
Speaker 1: when evidence is collected in another jurisdiction. That's what the
Speaker 1: police is saying was one of the complexities that existed here. However,
Speaker 1: they were still able to pursue this investigation. We know
Speaker 1: that in the same week that the video was released.
Speaker 1: Police raided the home of one of the nurses and
Speaker 1: seized a number of items that raid, and then the
Speaker 1: subsequent seizure of those items was conducted by Strikeforce Perl
Speaker 1: And you're going to be hearing quite a bit about
Speaker 1: that because they are the strike force who led this operation,
Speaker 1: and that strike force was established to specifically combat arise
Speaker 1: in anti Semitic attacks across the state. So that's why
Speaker 1: it fell into kind of their jurisdiction.
Speaker 2: And have we heard anything from these two nurses in
Speaker 2: the video.
Speaker 1: So will refer to the male nurse and the female nurse.
Speaker 1: The male nurse spoke to the Daily Telegraph shortly after
Speaker 1: the video went online. He claimed his words were, and
Speaker 1: I'll quite directly hear a joke and a misunderstanding. He
Speaker 1: said that he intended to use social media to apologize
Speaker 1: and to specifically apologize to the Jewish community, but that
Speaker 1: he needed to speak two detectives first. So again, this
Speaker 1: was at the beginning of the investigation. He also suggests
Speaker 1: that the entirety of what happened was just a mistake.
Speaker 1: Those were his words. Again. In terms of the female nurse,
Speaker 1: we haven't heard directly from her. Media hasn't had any
Speaker 1: direct interaction with her, but her uncle at the time
Speaker 1: told The Australian that she will come out and make
Speaker 1: a statement when she's ready. He went on to say
Speaker 1: that she's never done anything to hurt anyone. Again, that's
Speaker 1: going to some of the allegations included in that video
Speaker 1: about allegedly not treating or you know, allegedly killing Israeli
Speaker 1: patients here in Australia.
Speaker 2: Okay, so this video comes out earlier this month and
Speaker 2: there is this immediate response you know, from political leaders,
Speaker 2: It goes everywhere in the media, and we hear initially
Speaker 2: from the two nurses. But that was a few weeks
Speaker 2: ago now and we're talking about it today because yesterday
Speaker 2: New South Wales Police announced that they had charged the
Speaker 2: female nurse. Yeah, what do we know about those charges?
Speaker 1: Yes, so yesterday morning we found out that a twenty
Speaker 1: six year old woman had been charged with three offenses.
Speaker 1: We know that it is the woman that was in
Speaker 1: that video. The three offenses are as followed, threatening violence
Speaker 1: to a group, the use of carriage services to threaten
Speaker 1: to kill, and the use of a carriage service to menace,
Speaker 1: harass and offend.
Speaker 2: Quick question, when you say carriage service. Is that the
Speaker 2: online platform that streamed this conversation.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, it's the service that carried the communication that
Speaker 1: is at the center of the allegation. And so she
Speaker 1: was charged with these three offenses. She was granted conditional
Speaker 1: bail and the Sydney Morning Herald reported what those conditions were.
Speaker 1: So this woman is banned from using any social media,
Speaker 1: she's been required to surrender her passport and she's also
Speaker 1: prohibited from entering any international airport. So those are the
Speaker 1: conditions of the bail. But she is out on bail.
Speaker 1: We are expecting her to appear in court on the
Speaker 1: nineteenth of March.
Speaker 2: If she is found guilty, does it carry a maximum
Speaker 2: prison sentence.
Speaker 1: Yes, So the main charge that she's facing this threatening
Speaker 1: violence to a group that carries up to seven years
Speaker 1: in jail, and the New South Wales Police Minister Yasmin
Speaker 1: Catley said yesterday that these are very serious charges and
Speaker 1: it is being dealt with appropriately, which could in the
Speaker 1: instance that she is found guilty, lead to jail time.
Speaker 2: Okay, so that covers the woman in the video. But
Speaker 2: as we've been saying, there was also a man in
Speaker 2: this video. Do we know if there will be charges
Speaker 2: laid against him.
Speaker 1: The short answer is no, we haven't been told that
Speaker 1: by New South Wales Police and at the time of recording,
Speaker 1: he hasn't been charged with any crimes. We did get
Speaker 1: a bit of a sense of how difficult and complex
Speaker 1: this case has been from New South Wales Police Commissioner
Speaker 1: Karen Webb. She said that detectives had had to overcome
Speaker 1: obstacles and jurisdictional challenges to get to where we are today.
Speaker 1: I need to press charges against the woman. She added
Speaker 1: that detectives should be commended for acting swiftly under enormous
Speaker 1: pressure and public expectation. That we didn't get a sense
Speaker 1: of if there are charges coming down the line for
Speaker 1: the man, or if there isn't enough evidence to charge him,
Speaker 1: and we'll just see these three charges against the female nurse.
Speaker 1: I just want to end with a broader update on
Speaker 1: Strikeforce peerl because on this podcast we've now spoken about
Speaker 1: a number of anti Semitic attacks that have occurred across
Speaker 1: the state and as I said at the top, this
Speaker 1: strike force was specifically designed to attend to those crimes.
Speaker 1: There have now been fourteen people arrested under this operation
Speaker 1: and there have been seventy six charges laid to date,
Speaker 1: so I just thought that was an interesting figure to
Speaker 1: round this out with.
Speaker 2: Sarah, thank you for taking us through it.
Speaker 1: Thanks Billy, and thank you so much for.
Speaker 2: Listening to this episode of The Daily Oz. We'll be
Speaker 2: back again this afternoon with your evening headlines, but until then,
Speaker 2: have a great day. My name is Lily Madden and
Speaker 2: I'm a proud Arunda Bunje Lung Chalcotin woman from Gadigal Country.
Speaker 2: The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on
Speaker 2: the lands of the Gadigal people and pays respect to
Speaker 2: all Aboriginal and Torrestrate island and nations. We pay our
Speaker 2: respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past
Speaker 2: and present.