When a sting goes sour: Footage reveals Telegraph reporter was at centre of row
When The Daily Telegraph embarked on an undercover sting to catch out how Middle Eastern hospitality workers reacted to a man in a Star of David cap, it may have been an underwhelming moment as a staffer told the man she hoped he enjoyed his hibiscus tea.
Footage reveals the reporter herself was at the centre of a heated row that came next, after the journalist insisted the female staffer showed she was “appalled” by the Jewish man because she had looked at him on the footpath.
Cairo Takeaway in Enmore Road, Newtown, the scene of the Daily Telegraph’s attempted stunt.Credit: Anna Kucera
Following days of claim and counter-claim over the altercation at popular Middle Eastern restaurant Cairo Takeaway, a covert recording has shed more light on how the events played out.
A reporting team from the Telegraph had hatched a plan to tail a man in a Star of David cap around several multicultural Sydney suburbs to “see what it’s like being Jewish”, according to an internal pitch document.
The “undercover” operation targeted the restaurant on Newtown’s Enmore Road, which has been a vocal supporter of Palestine on its social media pages.
The Herald obtained footage from inside the restaurant and filmed by the man in the cap to help piece together what transpired that day.
The man in the hat enters Cairo
The start of the footage shows there was no animosity from either side as the man enters the store and orders a hibiscus tea.
The man leaves and chats with staff
The man in the hat then leaves the store moments later, taking his tea with him before engaging with the female staff member outside the store, where he asks what sort of tea it is and she tells him to enjoy it.
The Telegraph enters Cairo
CCTV footage from inside the venue then shows Telegraph senior reporter Danielle Gusmaroli enter, speak with staff and then depart within 31 seconds. What was precisely said cannot be heard in the footage.
The altercation on Enmore Road
CCTV footage taken from an external camera at Cairo then shows the news crew from the Telegraph walking west down Enmore Road, quickly followed by the female staff member, who walks straight past the man in the white hat, who later also makes his way down the street.
Tensions boil over once the group is outside on Enmore Road, the recording by the man in the cap reveals.
The female staffer can be heard asking Gusmaroli: “Who comes into a restaurant and asks me a question about this man who I don’t even know?”
Gusmaroli replies: “Do you think it’s not intimidation that you found it appalling that he came into your shop?”
The man in the hat then says: “I think something’s upsetting her.”
And the female staff member replies: “No, darling, nothing at all, but I get intimidated by people like this woman here.”
Gusmaroli insists that the staffer had become “visibly upset” by the fact the man in the cap had come to the store to buy a tea.
When the staffer disputes this, the journalist asks: “Why did you come out to look at him?”
The staffer says she stands outside the store all the time. To which Gusmaroli replies: “you were eyeballing him”.
“I stand out here all the time, I’m looking at customers coming and going all the time madam, it’s my job,” the staff member says.
“I have no problem with Jewish people, Palestinians, nothing. I don’t care about it.
“I actually don’t give a shit. And you’re here taking photos of me unsolicited with this guy.”
The man in the hat said he felt like he had offended the woman but then says: “I feel, I don’t know if it’s true.”
The footage emerged as Cairo Takeaway apologised to the man in the cap on its Instagram page, but fired another broadside at the journalists involved in the incident.
The post acknowledged that the man in the cap did not “positively make threats against our staff”.
“During the exchange between our staff and Daily Telegraph employees, a lot of things were said by a lot of people, including numerous members of the public,” the post said.
“Our employees accept that they may have been mistaken about [the man in the cap] saying words to the effect of “I hope your restaurant gets blown up”.
“To the extent that our statements identified above have in any way harmed [his] reputation, we apologise.”
The restaurant said it hoped the incident would remind people of the need to act respectfully during a time of enormous distress to both the Palestinian and Jewish communities.
“In these circumstances, we consider it is highly insensitive and divisive to wear overtly prominent symbols of the Israeli state when attending a clearly pro-Palestine eating establishment,” the statement said.
“We hope that journalists will start acting with integrity and stop trying to manufacture conflict and division to exploit for profits.”
Telegraph editor Ben English said on Friday that the masthead never intended to provoke an incident at the restaurant or report that its staff are antisemitic, but acknowledged its approach could have been better handled.
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