A mob of pro-Palestinian protesters vandalized an Israeli-owned restaurant in Melbourne on Friday evening just minutes after a nearby historic synagogue was targeted in an arson attack, Australian authorities said.
About 20 masked anti-Israel protesters stormed the Miznon restaurant at around 8:30 p.m. local time, with the Herald Sun citing witnesses who said the mob chanted “Death to the IDF.” Rap duo Bob Vylan led a crowd in shouting the same phrase at the Glastonbury festival in England days earlier.
The protesters — many of them masked — hurled furniture and food at the restaurant, shattering one of its outer windows as customers dined both inside and outside.
Police said they arrested a 28-year-old protester and questioned several other participants at the scene, identifying each of them for the purpose of follow-up investigation.
Activists say they targeted the restaurant because it is co-owned by Shahar Segal who has served as a spokesperson for the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
GHF is backed by the US and Israel but rejected by the UN and other international aid groups who say that its distribution sites have forced Gazans to walk long distances while crossing IDF lines — often exposing them to deadly gunfire — in order to pick up food.
Police declare Miznon Hardware Lane crime scene after protesters clash with restaurant over alleged ties to American-Israeli aid group implicated in killings. Many arrests. This is a developing story pic.twitter.com/Gp30uIUkdg
— Alex Zucco (@zucco_alex) July 4, 2025
Around a half hour before the incident at Miznon, police said a man entered the grounds of the East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation and poured flammable liquid on the door before setting it alight.
Roughly 20 people were inside the synagogue at the time of the fire, but they managed to evacuate before anyone was injured, authorities said, adding that firefighters arrived at the scene within minutes to put out the blaze.
Two major antisemitic attacks in Melbourne, Australia:
A synagogue was set on fire with 20 people inside the synagogue at the time, however, everyone was able to evacuate from the back.
In a separate incident, a group of 20 Palestinian protestors stormed and trashed an Israeli… pic.twitter.com/dDJALZ9LID
— Ari Ingel (@OGAride) July 4, 2025
Damage from the fire was contained to the entrance of the synagogue, police said, adding that while the suspect remained at large, the incident was caught on security cameras.
Australia’s Jewish community, numbering around 120,000, has been among the hardest hit by the global surge in antisemitism since October 7, 2023. The country experienced more than 2,000 anti-Jewish incidents between October 2023 and September 2024, more than quadruple the number from the year before Hamas’s October 7 assault that sparked the Gaza war, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).
Suspected arson at this synagogue in East Melbourne. FRV say they received triple zero calls around 8pm last night. More to come #7NEWS @7NewsMelbourne pic.twitter.com/rbYZwlANF1
— Jacqueline Stanley (@jacstanley7) July 4, 2025
In recent months, Jews there have experienced synagogues, schools and homes firebombed, two nurses threatening to kill Jewish patients in their hospital, and the discovery of a trailer filled with explosives said to be intended for a mass-casualty event at a Sydney synagogue.
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