Two healthcare workers from Australia are under investigation for making threats against an Israeli man on video, where they also claimed to have harmed Jewish patients in their care.
Identifying themselves as doctors, the man and woman engaged in a conversation with the Israeli man via Chatrouletka, a platform that connects strangers worldwide for chats.
Upon learning of the man’s Israeli nationality, the female healthcare worker verbally attacked him, stating, “it’s Palestine’s land, not yours, you disrespectful person,” as captured in the recording.
Skyline of Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
“Hospitals are a place where people should never feel unsafe,” Ryvchin said. “It’s the exact contrary. People should feel entirely comfortable that they’ll be treated based on their condition and humanity, not in the way that we saw in that video.”
He added the incident was the “tip of the iceberg,” and he believes there are many Australians with the same ideology.
Members of the local Jewish community look at the damage of the arson attack at the Adass Israel Synagogue on Dec. 6, 2024 in Melbourne, Australia. (Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)
“Antisemitism has sadly taken root in Australia, and we need to expunge it root and branch,” Ryvchin said. “There need to be consequences.”
On Wednesday, Australia enacted a hate crimes bill imposing minimum mandatory penalties for certain hate-related crimes, including six years for terrorist offenses, three years for financing terrorism and one year for displaying hate symbols.
“There have been similar instances of such behavior in Sydney and Perth where perpetrators have been convicted and given only a token fine,” the ECAJ wrote in a statement posted on its website. “That is also unacceptable because perpetrators come to regard such fines as merely the cost of “doing business” and not as a real deterrent.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese posted on X after the video went viral online. (Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP)
Though it has faced more intolerance, the Jewish population of Australia is substantially smaller than the Muslim population, which accounts for 3.2%, according to previous reporting. Jews account for just 0.4% of the population.
The Australian Federal Police was previously tasked with conducting an operation that would “focus on threats, violence, and hatred” targeting the Jewish community, Fox News Digital reported.
In addition, the prime minister allocated $25 million, about $15 million in the U.S., beginning in 2022 to increase security for Jewish organizations, according to a Reuters report. He also took a stand against hate speech and banned the Nazi salute.
Fox News’ Beth Bailey contributed to this story.
