A few days ago, Al Yazbek, the successful restaurants business owner who served up some antisemitism and terror support at an anti-Israel rally, put out an “apology” offering an “olive branch of peace and love.”
Doubting the sincerity of his apology, I told him “you know where you can stick your olive branch.”
I would now add to that statement “and rotate.”
An investigation by The Australian reveals Mr Yazbek’s aggressive activism against Israel extends back at least a decade, to the last major confrontation between Israel and Hamas.
In July 2014, Israel launched a military operation into Gaza following the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teenagers by the terror group, leading to the reported deaths of more than 2000 Palestinians. As pro-Palestine protests swept Australia, Sydney’s Jewish community organised a rally in support of Israel at the Dudley Page Reserve in Dover Heights, to be held on Sunday, August 3, 2014.
The day before the rally,, at 10.25am, a man was seen walking past the Bondi Mizrachi Synagogue and into Barracluff Park next door, where he sat and took out an iPad on which he appeared to be either taking photographs or making notes.
About five minutes later, he got up and walked past the back door of the synagogue, before returning a few minutes later. He was then seen walking towards Beach Road, where he got into a parked black BMW X5 and drove away. Police were immediately alerted.
At 10.40am the same man returned to the synagogue on foot and sat on a wooden bollard. When synagogue staff approached him, he said he was “here for an Israel rally today”. The staff member told him there was no rally and asked whether there was anything else they could help him with.
“No, that’s none of your f..king business”, the man allegedly replied.
Police then arrived and questioned the man. He was identified as Al Yazbek, police noting a tattoo in Arabic writing on his left forearm.
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When police searched his car, they found a quantity of filled water bombs.
Mr Yazbek was not charged but a Google search revealed that two days before, he had posted a message on Australian Jewish news website J-wire: “end the slaughter. end the blockade. the missiles will stop. too simple a concept for you to grasp?”
The following day, huge crowds turned out for the Dover Heights rally in support of Israel, with more than 10,000 members of the Jewish community attending. Messages from Labor MP Mark Dreyfus and Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg were read to the Israeli flag-waving crowd.
At 11am, as the rally was in progress, the black BMW identified the day before outside the synagogue in Bondi was spotted outside the park.
Police stopped the car, which was being driven by a woman who identified herself as Rebecca Yazbek. She told police her husband was inside the event and she was waiting to pick him up.
Mr Yazbek was identified in the crowd, detained and removed from the event. He was questioned by police but allowed to leave without charge.
On Sunday, Mr Yazbek told The Australian he mistakenly thought the Israel rally was going to be on Saturday at the synagogue and acknowledged he had planned to demonstrate “and was going to throw water balloons”.
“There was no event. The police came and asked me to move on,” he said in a statement.
Mr Yazbek did not answer specific questions about whether he was taking photographs but denied the exchange with the Synagogue staff member.
“I don’t swear at people,” he said. “I wanted to demonstrate about the Israeli killing of 2310 Palestinians, leaving 3374 children wounded and 1000 permanently disabled.”
Mr Yazbek denied he had gone to the Jewish rally the following day to cause trouble.
“The next day, Rebecca and I were going for a walk with our dog. I asked her to detour so that I could listen to the event – that’s all,” he said.
“I was simply going to listen to the speeches.
Yeah, I wouldn’t trust Al as far as I could throw him.
Not sure I would trust Mrs Al either.
In the same statement, Ms Yazbek said: “I’m furious at my husband’s actions with the placard. His actions are a threat to my family and our business.”
Given she was his driver back in 2014, I suspect she is only furious with him for getting caught and because of the consequences of his actions. I don’t see her saying she is furious over his actions because they were hateful towards the Jewish community; just that they jeopardize their business and family.
Meanwhile, Al – who claims he supports peace – says he will step down from his business..to attend an ashram in India:
“I have put at risk my family, my staff and my restaurants. I’ve also, strangely, helped to inflame the discourse in Australia. My intent was the opposite.
“This is what I do believe. I support peace. I am against the violence perpetrated by Hamas and Hezbollah. I am against the violence perpetrated by the current Israeli regime.
“My family and the staff who rely on our restaurants, and our customers, do not deserve to suffer because of my political actions, so I am standing down from the business to attend an ashram in India.”
Good luck with that.
