Attacking a Melbourne restaurant does nothing for peace in the Middle East

Waking to the news that an Israeli restaurant was targeted in Melbourne on Friday night has hit me hard.

A group of about 20 people – some wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh – threw food, upended tables, and smashed glasses and a window at Miznon restaurant in busy Hardware Lane, terrifying customers and staff, few of whom are Israeli.

A group storms Miznon restaurant in Hardware Lane on Friday night.Credit: Alex Zucco

Is this who we are in Melbourne, a place that people come to escape conflict, to find peace and to celebrate diversity? Is it not safe to go out for cauliflower and sweet potato?

I am Jewish, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor and, as I’ve realised since October 2023, I carry the trauma of broken glass and hateful slogans and sudden, violent disruption. My cells shrink inside me and I feel paralysed, as though fear has frozen my bones.

As a food writer, it’s Melbourne’s cultural richness that I love most. I eat Congolese fufu and Persian soup and Chinese noodles and Colombian biscuits, learning and drawing closer to culture and shared humanity. I celebrate restaurants as places of gathering and welcome, proving every day we can find similarities in all our differences.

At Miznon, simple ingredients are cooked with care and served with joy. When I interviewed the restaurant group’s Israeli founder, Eyal Shani, as the restaurant opened in 2017, he told me about the mission to source the perfect pita.

The aftermath to the attack at Miznon.Credit: Alex Zucco

He discovered a local Turkish baker and was delighted that a Jew and Muslim worked together for weeks to create the perfect bread pocket. “We changed the whole recipe for his wood oven,” he marvelled. “We discovered each pita has a birthmark from fire, each one is unique and its own creation. In the end I have a better pita in Melbourne than I have in Israel.”

Miznon’s two Melbourne restaurants – there is another in Collingwood – are part of an international hospitality group, part-owned by Israeli businessman Shahar Segal. Segal is also a spokesman for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a food aid group backed by Israel and the US, which has been widely criticised for its lack of impartiality and using aid as leverage.

Gazan people have been killed by the Israeli army while trying to get food. The UN refuses to work with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. I presume the pro-Palestinian group behind the attack on Miznon found this a reason to target the Melbourne business.

Attacking a Melbourne restaurant does nothing for peace in the Middle East. It does not feed one person in Gaza.

It scares customers and staff. It ripples through the Jewish community, creating fear. It undoes the cohesion that makes Melbourne a better place for all.

It scares customers and staff. It ripples through the Jewish community, creating fear. It undoes the cohesion that makes Melbourne a better place for all. I know of another Israeli restaurateur – an Australian citizen who had been here for nearly 20 years – who closed their restaurant and left Australia in 2024 after experiencing antisemitic graffiti and customer boycotts.

“The war in my country is nothing to do with me,” he told me then. “I’m not getting money from my government to represent Israel.” The saddest thing he told me was this: “I realise Australia is racist to another level.”

I can’t accept that. I don’t. I turn instead to another story. Opposite Miznon is a pizza restaurant called Max on Hardware. When the group attacked on Friday night, the Lebanese brothers who own Max blocked the entrance to Miznon, barricading their neighbour’s dining room and protecting the staff as tomatoes – a table decoration at Miznon – were thrown at them. That’s my Melbourne.

Dani Valent is a food writer and restaurant reviewer.

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