A pro-Israel activist who visited a pro-Palestinian Sydney restaurant with News Corp reporters claims he was vilified and subject to an investigation by his employer after the restaurant allegedly implied he attempted to manufacture an “antisemitic incident”.
Ofir Birenbaum went to Cairo Takeaway, a popular restaurant in Sydney’s Newtown, in February wearing a Star of David cap and necklace alongside reporters from the Daily Telegraph. The undercover operation, later revealed to be dubbed internally by the paper as “undercover Jew”, made international headlines after it backfired.
In August, Birenbaum launched defamation proceedings against the restaurant’s owner, Hesham El Masry, and staff memberTalaat Yehia.
Court documents obtained by Guardian Australia show he is disputing the allegation that his intention was to provoke an antisemitic incident, and that he was defamed in a series of social media posts on the restaurant’s account implying that was the case.
Birenbaum’s statement of claim, released this week, included screenshots of a since deleted social media post that the restaurant posted in the aftermath of the incident. A number of allegations made in this post were later retracted and apologised for by the restaurant.
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Birenbaum, who is being represented by Giles George, alleged in his statement of claim that the first post implied he made “baseless accusations of antisemitism against staff” and that it was “to stir up controversy”.
The claim says the post caused “people to shun and vilify Birenbaum, to an extent unknown to him”, and that he was “subjected to a workplace investigation” after the incident.
Stewart O’Connell from O’Brien Criminal and Civil Lawyers, which is acting on behalf of the restaurant, said they had made attempts to peacefully settle the matter outside court.
The respondents are yet to file their defence to the claims.
What did the posts say?
Screenshots show that the restaurant said Birenbaum had come to the premises and ordered a hibiscus tea with “no fuss”. They wrote that he then “lingered” near the counter, leading a staff member to ask if there was anything else he wanted.
In since retracted statements, the post went on to say that Birenbaum responded: “Do you have a problem with me because I’m Jewish?” and “you’re intimidating me, you’re making me feel unsafe”.
The post said it was then that the staff member tried to disengage from the conversation by walking outside, and found a camera crew from the Daily Telegraph waiting.
“It is very easy to infer that they had attended Cairo Takeaway along with the instigator in an attempt to manufacture a story,” the restaurant wrote of the incident.
However in a subsequent post, the restaurant apologised and retracted it’s re-telling of some of the events, saying it reflected their perceptions at the time but wanted to clarify now that “emotions had settled”. They wrote that Birenbaum did not “verbally taunt” or become “verbally confrontational” with staff.
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They also clarified in the post that he did not say “Do you have a problem with me being Jewish?”, or “you’re intimidating me, you’re making me feel unsafe”.
“The ugly nature of their media stunt caused members of our staff to experience extreme upset and distress, which unfortunately led to our publishing material in the Instagram posts which turned out to be inaccurate,” the post said.
“We have learned from this. We hope that other parties involved have also learned from this and will never engage in such a divisive and distressing stunt.”
The post also said that the restaurant is “unapologetically and transparently pro-Palestinian”, and that Birenbaum’s prominent wearing of pro-Israel symbols while carrying a heavy bag and “acting strangely” had caused the staff to feel uncertain and unsafe.
It also noted the “extraordinary escalation of conflict between Israel and Palestine” and that it had caused enormous distress to both communities.
“We would never consider entering a Jewish establishment wearing prominent Palestinian flag symbols during this time.”
Birenbaum has not denied in the statement of claim that he went to the restaurant alongside the reporters or that it was for a story.
In February, Ben English, the editor of the Daily Telegraph, said the newspaper “never intended to provoke an incident at the Cairo Takeaway restaurant” but acknowledged “our approach could have been better handled”.
English said the paper had visited multiple venues across Sydney in an attempt to report on “the rise of antisemitism and … how it is affecting the daily lives of Jewish people in Sydney”.
