{"id":27884,"date":"2026-06-09T12:58:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/27884\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T12:58:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T12:58:23","slug":"israeli-witness-may-refuse-to-testify-in-person-at-nurses-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/27884\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli witness may refuse to testify in person at nurses\u2019 trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Israeli influencer who recorded two Sydney nurses allegedly threatening to \u201ckill\u201d Israeli patients<\/a> may refuse to travel to Australia to give evidence in their upcoming trial because he\u2019s not sure \u201cwhat will happen\u201d to him when he arrives.<\/p>\n

Max Ilinski \u2013 known online as Max Veifer<\/a> \u2013 went viral after he recorded Bankstown Hospital nurses Sarah Abu Lebdeh and Ahmad Rashad Nadir allegedly making violent threats towards Israeli patients last year.<\/p>\n

Now that criminal charges have been laid against Ms Abu Lebdeh and Mr Nadir, prosecutors want Mr Ilinski to fly to Sydney and give evidence in person at their trial. But in a police statement seen by The Australian, the Israeli appears hesitant to travel to Australia.<\/p>\n

Mr Ilinski was interviewed by Israel\u2019s National Cyber Crime Investigation Unit \u2013 which operates under Lahav 433, often referred to as the \u201cIsraeli FBI\u201d \u2013 on February 19, 2025, about a week before Ms Abu Lebdeh was arrested.<\/p>\n

A senior officer asked him: \u201cIf you have to, would you agree to come and testify in a court in Australia?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I don\u2019t know,\u201d Mr Ilinski said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what will happen to me there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Ilinski was not completely unwilling to give evidence in the nurses\u2019 trial. He said it would be \u201cno problem\u201d to testify via video-link.<\/p>\n

At a hearing in the case last week, prosecutor Justin Hannebery KC told the court the commonwealth\u2019s \u201cplan\u201d for the trial included having Mr Ilinski travel to Sydney to testify.<\/p>\n

Mr Hannebery did, however, remind Judge Michael McHugh that the commonwealth had an active application for Mr Ilinski to be allowed to give evidence via video-link. He said that while the plan was to have the Israeli appear in court in Sydney, he would not be withdrawing that application.<\/p>\n

The matter of Mr Ilinski\u2019s trial attendance was shelved for the time being.<\/p>\n

Mr Nadir and Ms Abu Lebdeh \u2013 who are out on bail \u2013 have both pleaded not guilty to using a carriage service to menace, harass or offend, while Ms Abu Lebdeh pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of threatening violence to a group.<\/p>\n

They have been stood down from their jobs by NSW Health and issued a two-year ban from working with NDIS participants.<\/p>\n

Their next court appearance is scheduled for June 23, when Judge McHugh will decide whether the video of their alleged threats will be allowed to be included in evidence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the 2\u00bd-minute video, Mr Nadir allegedly said, \u201cYou (Mr Ilinksi) have no idea how many (Israeli people) come to this hospital \u2026 I send to Jahannam\u201d, the Arabic word for \u201chell\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Abu Lebdeh allegedly told Mr Ilinski he was going to \u201cdie the most disgusting death\u201d and, when asked what would happen if an Israeli patient came into the hospital, she said: \u201cI won\u2019t treat them, I will kill them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their trial, set to begin on August 31, is expected to run five days.<\/p>\n

\"Bimini<\/a><\/p>\n

Bimini Plesser is a reporter for The Australian\u2019s Sydney bureau. She previously worked as a cadet, writing for The Courier-Mail, The Australian\u2019s Brisbane bureau and the Sunshine Coast Daily. Bimini holds a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Queensland. She can be contacted at bimini.plesser@news.com.au.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Israeli influencer who recorded two Sydney nurses allegedly threatening to \u201ckill\u201d Israeli patients may refuse to travel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[25717,25714,21259,6466,23,133,25713,832,10259,6456,25710,22729,25718,25715,21263,21261,355,120,25716,25712,247,25709,25719,25708,25711],"class_list":["post-27884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sydney","tag-abu-lebdeh-and-mr-nadir","tag-active-application","tag-ahmad-rashad-nadir","tag-august","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-bankstown-hospital","tag-carriage-service","tag-court-appearance","tag-criminal-charges","tag-israeli-influencer","tag-israeli-patients","tag-israeli-people","tag-israeli-witness","tag-judge-michael-mchugh","tag-justin-hannebery-kc","tag-new-south-wales","tag-oceania","tag-police-statement","tag-senior-officer","tag-sydney","tag-threat-nurses","tag-threat-video","tag-threatening-israeli-patients","tag-threatening-violence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}