Protesters Outside Melbourne Restaurant Were Antigenocide, Not Antisemitic

Around 20 antigenocide and pro-Palestinian activists protested the Miznon restaurant in the Naarm-Melbourne CBD last Friday night, 4 July 2025, as the Israeli owner of the establishment, Shahar Segal, is also the spokesperson for the so-called ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’ (GHF), which is marketed as an aid agency operating in the Gaza Strip, but has been accused of acting as a front to kill Palestinians.

The reporting of the demonstration against Miznon has tended to focus on scuffling between the activists and staff from another restaurant across the laneway, and it has been accompanied by stories regarding an arson attack on a synagogue in Naarm on the same evening, which tends to portray it as an antisemitic incident.

However, according to the protesters themselves, their demonstration had nothing to do with the Jewish faith, as it was all about the Gaza genocide.

So, as Melbourne lord mayor Nicholas Reece said that the “attacks on Jewish businesses in the CBD and the East Melbourne Synagogue are shocking” might have rung true based on the reporting the following day, his deeming the Miznon protest as a despicable racist action is distorted as the protesters were rallying against the Gaza genocide not due to any hatred of Jews.

The GHF, of which Segal has been acting as a spokesperson, is a relatively new US-Israeli privatised humanitarian aid organisation formed in May, which is said be providing aid to starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as Israel has cut all aid from entering into the region since 2 March, however over 600 Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli troops as a result of attending its distribution sites.

Downplayed in mainstream media reporting, this fact that Segal was the spokesperson for an aid agency that Israeli Defence Force soldiers have disclosed involves their being repeatedly ordered to shoot starving Palestinians as they’re lured towards the distribution sites on the promise of sustenance, does tend to cast a different shadow upon the Miznon restaurant incident.

The pizzeria across the way

“We, as a group of autonomous individuals, believe it is important to call out any false or misleading information regarding the recent direct action on the Israeli Miznon restaurant in the CBD,” said some of the antigenocide protesters in a 6 July statement posted online. “A reminder: the owner of this restaurant Shahar Segal is the official spokesperson for GHF ‘aid distribution’ in Gaza.”

The antigenocide protesters add that last Friday night protesters gathered out the front of Miznon restaurant, which is part of a global chain of Israeli food outlets, located in Hardware Lane. They claim that activists then had “unknown liquids” poured down upon them from Max’s restaurant, the pizzeria across from Miznon, and then Max’s staff approached hurling abuse and instigating violence.

“This then escalated outside of Miznon, where it can be seen on the footage, Max’s employees physically assaulting multiple activists,” the statement then continues, which is a post accompanied by video capturing the scene. “Footage also shows the Max’s employees having to remove one of their own from repeatedly punching the antigenocide activist.”

The statement adds that attending Victoria police officers were informed by staff from the pizzeria in Hardware Lane that one of the activists present was the instigator of the violence, and she has since been charged with affray, under section 195H of the Crimes Act 1958 (VIC), which is an offence that carries a maximum of up to 5 years prison time, or 7 years if the person is wearing a face covering.

The demonstrators add that in respect of the target of their protest, Miznon, and not the pizzeria across the laneway, that the “GHF is staffed by American mercenaries who have shot and killed 613 Palestinians who were desperately seeking aid”, whilst there have “also been reported cases of oxycodone-laced within bags of flour”.

“It’s a killing field”

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation commenced operating on 26 May, and is a partnership between US and Israeli private entities, which has replaced UNWRA, the United Nations agency that had been successfully providing aid to Palestinian refugees, who had or have been forcibly displaced by the establishment of the apartheid state of Israel, since 1950.

Questions have been raised about the legitimacy of the GHF, as it has links to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Donald Trump. These concerns were then given credence by a report by Israeli publication Haaretz on 27 June, as it outlined that IDF soldiers had disclosed to the outlet that they had been ordered to deliberately shoot unarmed Gazans.

US broadcaster National Public Radio reported on 26 June that Israeli entrepreneur Shahar Segal, who runs restaurants around the planet, including having part ownership of Miznon, had taken on the role of spokesperson for “a new food distribution group in the Gaza Strip that is drawing international controversy”, which was referring to GHF.

In citing an anonymous source, NPR said that Segal had been approached to be the face of GHF in order to “project the image that the initiative has nutritional value for Gazans.”

Segal is a director and the business partner of chef Eyal Shani, who created Miznon in Tel Aviv in 2011, and the pair today run the international restaurant association Good People Group.

“I believe this is the only correct and possible way to deliver food to Gazans without bankrolling Hamas’s terror machine,” Segal told NPR in a text message. “It’s crystal clear.”

Segal announced over the weekend on Instagram that he had parted ways with GHF, although he did not state his reasons for departing the “volunteer role” that “was always designed to be temporary”.

Being antigenocide does not equal being antisemitic

Antigenocide and pro-Palestinian protesters in this country are currently being labelled as antisemitic, when what they are actually protesting is a country that is wantonly and purposefully killing off a particular group of people in order to gain possession of their land – and out of sheer hate – and these actions have been deemed plausible genocide by the International Court of Justice.

Since the 1970s, those adhering to the political doctrine of Zionism, some of whom are Jewish and many of whom are not, have been conflating criticism of the state of Israel with the antisemitism that led to the Holocaust of World War II, as it serves to deflect from Israeli human rights violations.

Demonstrators in this country are being labelled as antisemitic in order to attempt to suppress criticism and understanding that another holocaust is being perpetrated in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli state, so that it can continue on with its genocidal mission without any intrusions.

The main photo of Miznon restaurant in New York City was taken by Toosu and is licensed under CC BY 2.0