Protesters insist violent attacks not antisemitic as speaker predicts Israel's demise

Sydney Morning Herald

16 hours ago

A speaker at the latest of Melbourne's regular pro-Palestine rallies has insisted recent violent attacks at businesses with links to Israel were not antisemitic, as controversial chants were again led at Sunday's event.
Speakers at Sunday's march, attended by hundreds in the CBD, also attacked Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who last week released a report from his antisemitism envoy, and Premier Jacinta Allan, who announced a taskforce after last weekend's attacks, which included the firebombing of a synagogue.
The protests have been held almost every weekend since Hamas' terror attack on Israel, which killed about 1300 people, and throughout Israel's devastating retaliation that has killed almost 60,000 people in Gaza as well as fuelled wider regional conflicts.
One rally speaker said the media, including The Age, had misrepresented last weekend's incidents at Lovitt Technologies in Greensborough, where cars were torched, and Miznon restaurant, which was violently trashed, as antisemitic.
'The action at Lovitt Technologies was a legitimate target, because they provide military parts to F35 aircraft that are bombing civilians in Gaza right now,' said the speaker, whom this masthead has attempted to identify.
She said Miznon in the CBD was also a valid target, because of part-owner Shahar Segal's former role as a spokesman for the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been widely criticised over its role in the deaths of civilians trying to access food in the enclave.
'The Miznon restaurant [incident] was not antisemitic, because the mother----er that runs that place has direct ties to the GHF that is killing starving civilians,' she said.
She did not say whether she believed the tactics in those two attacks were justified but condemned the East Melbourne synagogue attack, saying the protesters would never target a place of worship.