Gun vs Keffiyeh. One kills, the other gets you death threats

A Jewish woman wearing a Keffiyeh and the Star of Israel was escorted by police to Bondi Beach. The resulting social media storm led to death threats against him and his friend.

I write this knowing it will likely result in more death threats.

This is not a metaphor. This is a statement of fact based on what happened to my friend Michelle and I this week and what happened later when we sought protection from the government.

On Monday, at the Bondi memorial service for the victims of the previous day’s mass shooting, local Jew and organization member Michelle said: Jews Against Occupation ’48 – He was surrounded by a hostile crowd shouting “Save him!” He was removed from the beach to the applause of approximately forty police officers who tried to explain his situation to the surrounding journalists and was taken to Bondi Police Station, where he was told that he could not return to Bondi Beach for 6 hours.

“His crime”? I wear a keffiyeh.

Whether one agrees with his politics or not is beside the point. The monument featured Israeli flags, the flag of a state now accused of genocide and whose leaders are wanted for war crimes. Michelle wore the keffiyeh because she spoke out against the politicization of a moment of grief. But this is not a crime. This is not a provocation that requires the mafia to intimidate.

What happens next should concern everyone who believes that the rule of law is equally valid.

The abuse quickly escalated after video footage of Michelle was published on X under a post by journalist Hugh Riminton.

A woman wearing a kaffiyeh was led away by police from the Bondi Pavilion site, which has become a makeshift memorial to the 15 people killed by terrorists yesterday. pic.twitter.com/MaKOBsDZ5N

— Hugh Riminton (@hughriminton) December 15, 2025

Facts ignored

Although Michelle wore a visible Star of David and openly stated to the press that she was Jewish, it was not said that she was a Jew who grew up in Bondi. This omission was significant.

I made a public response on X to clarify that Michelle is Jewish, my friend, and part of it. JAO48. While these responses received hundreds of supportive comments, they also revealed some of the most extreme anti-Semitic, misogynistic, ageist, and Islamophobic abuse I have encountered in my years of public advocacy.

I can deal with online harassment on social media. The block button is my friend.

Threats arrived in my email inbox; not through social media, but directly through my contact form and messages connected to my business. In one message, he stated that he wished Michelle “stayed home now” and warned: “I wouldn’t want to be her.”

Using the name “Brenton Tarrant”, the name of the Christchurch mass murderer, the person who contacted me wrote that I “deserved a bullet in the head”, that Michelle would be “hunted”, and that “it would be easier to put a claw hammer into her skull” because her address and personal information had been deleted.

This was enough intimidation for me to call 000 and have two members of Chatswood station come to my house. The expressions on their faces when they read the messages were full of shock and disgust.

No police report

More worryingly, Michelle’s home address was posted online in response to Riminton’s post. On Monday night, he went to Maroubra Police Station to report that his personal information had been taken.

And nothing happened. He was not contacted or given a case number the next day. Nothing.

Two days later, when we returned to Maroubra Police Station to ask what action had been taken regarding the disclosure of personal information and threats, the officer on duty

We couldn’t find any record of Michelle even going there on Monday night.

There was a record of death threats I received from Chatswood Police Station but that doesn’t help someone whose life is in danger in Maroubra.

The Jewish woman, who was detained at the police station with threats of violence and accompanied by dozens of police officers, had no record in the system days later. If anything had happened to him in the intervening period, there would be no official trace of his existence or vulnerability.

This is not a paperwork error. This is a systemic failure.

The irony of personal information collection laws

The irony is sharp enough to cut. NSW’s personal information disclosure laws were introduced following sustained lobbying over online threats to Zionist Jews. These laws were framed to provide immediate protection against harm.

But here is a Jewish woman who is anti-Zionist, whose address has been published, who has received death threats, and whose case seems to have been completely ignored.

Doxing hypocrisy: pacifist doctors doxed en masse

It was only after she made the double standards clear to a young police officer – noting how differently this situation would have been handled if Michelle had been a Zionist Jew – that a report was finally entered into the system. I also requested that the police investigate the person who instigated the disclosure of personal information. Whether the individual can be ultimately defined is beside the point. The problem is the lack of effort.

Over the past two days, the disclosure of personal information has been raised publicly again as an urgent threat; but apparently only when the victims align with a particular political identity.

This failure becomes even more troubling as the stakes become even higher.

Identity is important

Michelle’s Jewish identity was not included among the topics of abuse. Not because his Judaism should provide protection or legitimacy—which it shouldn’t—but because it fuels a narrative that makes him a target. The meaning was clear:

he was an outsider, an agitator, someone who deserved to be removed from office.

It shouldn’t matter who he is. It shouldn’t matter what he believes. Wearing a keffiyeh is no more illegal than waving the flag of a state accused of mass atrocities.

The important thing is that no one attending the commemoration should be threatened with death, their home address disclosed, or left unprotected by the police.

Government takes advantage of tragedy to stifle freedom of expression | West Report

If this standard applies only to some Jews, then it is certainly no protection. This is a political choice imposed by the state.

And if writing this results in more threats, then that fact alone tells you how broken our public discourse and institutions are.

Tragedy should have united the country

Fifteen people died. There are around forty injured. Families and communities are grieving. However, within a few hours, the incident was turned into a weapon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the Albanian government. Jillian Segal linked the massacre to the March for Humanity on the Harbor Bridge.

Josh Frydenberg has reemerged in the wake of mass death, positioning himself as a future Prime Minister, but it seemed “quite offensive” to him to suggest that was the case.

Josh Frydenberg is so shamelessly opportunistic that instead of calling for unity as Australia mourns the Bondi tragedy, he accused Albo of being “personally responsible” for the deaths – but couldn’t justify it after Sarah Ferguson asked 3 times. Performative. Pathetic. #abc730 #auspol pic.twitter.com/fwzrmAnSI3

— Sahar A (@Sahar_A_Writes) December 17, 2025

I think for Josh, it’s irrelevant that the father of the father/son terrorist team arrived in ’98 when Howard was Prime Minister, got his gun license in 2015 when Abbott was Prime Minister, and that the ASIO investigation into his son was stopped in 2019 while Morrison was Prime Minister.

And now, as a result of Sunday’s horrific terrorist attack, calls to ban pro-Palestinian protests are louder than ever.

If anyone might think that Palestinians, Muslims, or even humanitarian organizations who oppose the genocide have a stake in mass murder, they are, as we say in Australia, “in the head”. If anything, this week’s events

Show exactly why dissent must be protected.

When anti-Zionist Jews can be threatened with death, their personal information disclosed, misrepresented as terrorists, and left unprotected by the state, the danger is not protest but repression.

If writing this results in more threats, that fact alone will validate the point.

The priority in this country is not everyone’s safety. It is not even the safety of all Jews that is prioritized. What dark days we live in.

White supremacists with Australian flags. What really happened at Bondi?