{"id":769313,"date":"2026-06-30T06:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T06:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/769313\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T06:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T06:29:13","slug":"cairo-takeaway-secures-court-win-over-pro-israel-activist-who-claimed-he-was-completely-vindicated-after-settlement-sydney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/769313\/","title":{"rendered":"Cairo Takeaway secures court win over pro-Israel activist who claimed he was \u2018completely vindicated\u2019 after settlement | Sydney"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pro-Israel activist breached parts of a legal settlement with Sydney<\/a> restaurant Cairo Takeaway when Ofir Birenbaum and his lawyer released \u201chighly misleading and even deceptive\u201d statements that implied they had won, a court has ruled.<\/p>\n

Justice Robert Bromwich handed down his decision in the federal court on Tuesday after the Middle Eastern restaurant in Newtown alleged Birenbaum had breached part of a confidential settlement in a defamation suit.<\/p>\n

Bromwich wrote that the settlement was \u201ca true compromise\u201d, which included requiring the parties to release a joint statement that conveyed \u201cno party had won\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, Birenbaum and his lawyer, Rebekah Giles, released personal statements on the same day as the joint statement which painted \u201ca similar picture of victory\u201d, the judge said.<\/p>\n

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Bromwich found that this breached the settlement because it \u201cmisrepresented\u201d and was \u201cinconsistent\u201d with the joint statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose statements as reported upon were in a general sense highly misleading and even deceptive,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

The judgment was the latest chapter in a long-running feud involving Birenbaum, who visited the popular Middle Eastern restaurant wearing a Star of David cap and necklace, with reporters from the Daily Telegraph in February 2025.<\/p>\n

The operation, later revealed to have been dubbed \u201cundercover Jew\u201d<\/a> internally by the newspaper, made international headlines after it backfired.<\/p>\n

In August, Birenbaum launched defamation proceedings<\/a> against the restaurant\u2019s owner, Hesham El Masry, and staff member Talaat Yehia for statements made in a series of social media posts.<\/p>\n

Birenbaum denied the version of events depicted in the posts, which the restaurant later deleted and apologised for before the defamation suit was launched.<\/p>\n

The case reached a confidential settlement in March. It involved Cairo Takeaway, Birenbaum and the Daily Telegraph releasing a joint statement in which the Daily Telegraph apologised to Cairo Takeaway for \u201ccausing distress\u201d. Cairo apologised unreservedly to Birenbaum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe joint statement reflected a sensible and mature outcome, by way of a genuine compromise, in the best interests of all concerned,\u201d Bromwich wrote in his judgment on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

However, that joint statement \u201cwas completely overwhelmed by public statements attributed to Mr Birenbaum and by Ms Giles, which cast a very different complexion on the nature of the resolution of the proceeding\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Birenbaum, through his own conduct and via Ms Giles, deliberately set out, in a planned way, to undermine and overwhelm the contents and effect of the joint statement by publishing their statements first or at around the same time,\u201d Bromwich wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Birenbaum uses language such \u2018the Truth wins\u2019, asserts that he has been \u2018completely vindicated\u2019, and points to \u2018lies\u2019 being told about him that are the subject of an unreserved public apology. None of that is reflective of the content or tenor of the joint statement even upon the most cursory reading.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge said that \u201cthe Giles statement paints a similar picture of victory\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt portrays the resolution as \u2018an important win\u2019 for Mr Birenbaum and a \u2018vindication for Jews across the globe\u2019 and suggests that \u2018a lesser man would have cut his losses and walked away\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer statement conveyed an unqualified victory in relation to the proceedings as a whole, which she must have known was not what the joint statement conveys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bromwich found that the settlement had been in the best interest of both parties, saying there was a real \u201creputational harm\u201d for both.<\/p>\n

He said the reputational risk for Birenbaum if the case went to trial \u201ccould well have been greater\u201d than the Instagram posts that he alleged were defamatory.<\/p>\n

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During the May hearing, the court heard that a briefing note had been sent to journalists at the Daily Mail and Crikey, which included details of the case as well as the joint statement and personal statements from Birenbaum and Giles.<\/p>\n

Bromwich found that Giles, or someone on her behalf, sent that briefing note to the two journalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy conclusion is also bolstered by the fact that it was not until after this document was produced in answer to the notice to produce that Ms Giles\u2019s affidavit was not read and she was not otherwise called to give evidence,\u201d Bromwich wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cI draw the ordinary inference that she was not called because it would not have assisted her client\u2019s case in general, and on this issue in particular.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sky News Australia also ran a news segment hosted by Sharri Markson, who reported that compensation had been paid to Birenbaum.<\/p>\n

Bromwich found that information in the Sky News segment about compensation being paid was conveyed by Giles to Markson or another employee of Sky News on behalf of Birenbaum.<\/p>\n

Stewart O\u2019Connell, of O\u2019Brien Criminal & Civil Solicitors, which represented Cairo Takeaway, said in a statement after the judgment: \u201cIt was unfortunate that all the hard work that went into achieving a compromise in this matter was undone by people who wanted to spin that compromise into some kind of victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope this judgment results in the avoidance of such conduct in the future and a greater respect for the importance of compromised and reasonable settlements,\u201d O\u2019Connell said.<\/p>\n

El Masry, the owner of Cairo Takeaway, said in a statement he was \u201crelieved that the proceedings are finally over\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis whole court case has been a very difficult time for my family and I. We had a very different view of things from Mr Birenbaum and his lawyers. But we agreed to compromise because we did not want the fight to get out of hand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also thought that the joint statement would help restore some harmony in the community. We were bitterly disappointed that the other side did not show the same respect for that joint statement that we intended to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Birenbaum said in a statement following Tuesday\u2019s ruling that \u201cthe resolution brokered between the parties remains on foot and I remain happy with its terms\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bromwich said that ordinarily costs would be awarded following judgment; however, both parties had asked to make submissions before a sum was determined.<\/p>\n

Comment was being sought from Giles, News Corp Australia and Sky News Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pro-Israel activist breached parts of a legal settlement with Sydney restaurant Cairo Takeaway when Ofir Birenbaum and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":769314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-769313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/769314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}