A man ordered out of a Melbourne hairdressing salon for being of Israeli origin has outlined his response to the incident.
Guy, who withheld his surname, says he was denied service and told to leave the Juniper Salon by the business owner last month.
This occurred after she asked where he was from.
When he replied he was from Israel, she allegedly called him a “baby killer,” and said he needed to leave.
The community response was swift, with a snap rally outside her building in Bentleigh. The salon owner appears to now be out of business.
The inner-city suburb of Bentleigh has a sizable Jewish and Israeli community, and Juniper Salon is now being advertised for lease.
The man said it would only strengthen his home country in its ongoing war effort against the Hamas terrorist group, which is the leading political party in Palestine.
“To be honest, I wasn’t surprised. We’ve had a very hard time here in general,” Guy told The Epoch Times. “We’ve seen them chant, ‘Gas the Jews,’ on the Sydney Opera House steps, and I wasn’t surprised.”
“But I knew I needed to take action because you can’t just let that go. You have to stand against it.”
Guy said many Australians had shown support for him.
“We want to move on and try to live in peace. We don’t want war. That’s why you don’t see any hate from our side.”
The man also spoke of Israel’s efforts to provide Gazans with food aid.
“And we’ve lost so much of our reputation around the world. The economy has also been damaged a lot by this war,” he said.
“What country supplies food and water to their enemies in a war?”
According to the American Jewish Committee, by March of this year, more than 1.3 million tons of humanitarian aid had been delivered to Palestinian civilians mostly by Israel, but with help from its allies.
Despite the conflict occurring thousands of kilometres away from Australia, the ramifications have been felt locally with social cohesion now a major issue for authorities.
Months earlier, the government-appointed Special Envoy to Combat Anti-Semitism released her report with measures like cutting university funding if action isn’t taken, and broadening the definition of anti-Semitism to capture more incidents.
On Sept. 12, the Special Envoy to Combat Islamaphobia Aftab Malik also outlined a plethora of measures to deal with the other side of the social cohesion debate.
“Muslim women in particular face the brunt—many are physically assaulted, spat or shoved or subjected to threats simply for wearing a headscarf,” he told reporters, while releasing the report alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Sydney.
Malik said Islamophobic incidences had “skyrocketed” by 150 percent increase by November 2024.
Meanwhile, Isaac Balbin, co-founder of the pro-Israel Lions of Zion group, said his family had experienced similar issues that Guy encountered.
“It reminded me of what we ran away from, my family,” the 43-year-old told The Epoch Times. “It’s exactly the kind of thing that happened in Soviet Russia.”
“What they did do was exclude Jews from society. They weren’t allowed to hold prominent positions.”
The Epoch Times contacted Victoria Police for comment.
