Pro-Israel and Palestine protest groups engaged in a tense stand-off at Bondi Beach on Sunday morning, hurling abuse at one another and being forcibly separated by a heavy police contingent.
The ugly scenes took place against the backdrop of a sunny spring morning at the iconic beach, with sunbathers and volleyball players watching on.
The rival protests broke out after pro-Israel groups took exception to a paddle-out supporting Gazans caught up in the conflict in the Middle East. Organised by the group Jews Against the Occupation, the demonstration called on “surfers, Bondi residents and Palestine supporters” to join the gathering.
A few hundred pro-Palestine demonstrators gathered on the beach for the event, while pro-Israel supporters lined the pavement. Michael Gencher, the executive director of StandWithUs Australia, a pro-Zionist group, helped set up the counterprotest at short notice. He said it was “targeted provocation” to hold a pro-Palestine demonstration at Bondi because of the area’s large Jewish population.
“I think that we’ve ignored enough as a community. We have been intimidated and, you know, we’ve had vandalism, graffiti, and now this is in broad daylight. We saw this as a huge crossing of a red line. We don’t want to pick a fight [but] why should we feel intimidated?” he said.
But Michelle Berkon, from the group Jews Against the Occupation, who helped organise the protest, said she was a Bondi local, and laughed off the counterprotest.
“If Jews choose to support a genocidal, colonial regime, that’s their problem,” she said.
“They do not have any right to exclude people from their own public spaces. We’re Jewish too, I was born and grew up in Bondi, and even if I didn’t, I have every right to come here.”