Caulfield and Coogee: a chilling new phase in physical hostility towards Jews

Pro-Palestinian supporters crossed a line in the sand over the weekend when they took antisemitic violence and intimidation onto the streets.

In the days and weeks since Hamas launched its massacre of Israelis on October 7, the world has seen an almost instant outpouring of verbal scapegoating, physical intimidation and attacks against Jews. Antisemitism seems too mild a word for it. Attacks on US university campuses, a stabbing in France, the firebombing of a synagogue in Berlin, the list goes on.

But they were always elsewhere. In Australia, there was the gut-wrenching sight, just two days after the massacre, of pro-Palestinian demonstrators in Sydney chanting “Kill the Jews”. There has been a series of pro-Palestinian demonstrations around the country, angry but peaceful, that have grown in number as Israel’s retaliation in Gaza continues.

There has been vile graffiti, social media battles, offensive public letters by advocacy groups, and the tearing down of the “Kidnapped” posters put up by Jews trying to raise public awareness of the fact that Hamas has taken nearly 240 Israelis hostage. The release of those hostages is one of the chief aims of the offensive in Gaza, that has claimed too many Palestinian lives due to Hamas’ tactic of embedding command centres and infrastructure within and beneath civilian buildings such as hospitals.

But in Australia, there were no mass physical confrontations and violence. Not until this past weekend. The events of Friday night in Caulfield and Saturday evening in Coogee signalled a frightening new phase in the repercussions of the Israel-Hamas war.

On Friday afternoon, after news broke of a fire at the Burgertory outlet in Caulfield, owned by Muslim man Hash Tayeh who spoke at a Free Palestine rally last month, tension grew across Melbourne. The owner has since claimed his staff had received threats before the fire. Although police said they were “very confident” the fire was not motivated by religious or political concerns, carloads of pro-Palestinian supporters, inflamed by an offensive Instagram post during the day from a Melbourne Jew, announced they were coming to Caulfield in a show of solidarity with Mr Tayeh.