Great-grandmother tells of being attacked by pro-Palestine protesters

An 84-year-old Jewish great-grandmother says she despairs for the Australia her family has called home for six generations, after she was pushed around and called a ­‘Zionist pig’ by pro-Palestine protesters.

Many of the pro-Palestine protesters used keffiyeh scarves to cover their faces. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

An 84-year-old Jewish great-grandmother says she despairs for the Australia her family has called home for six generations, after she was separated from her group, pushed around and called a ­“Zionist pig” by pro-Palestine protesters outside Victorian parliament on Sunday.

The woman, who has declined to be named out of concern for her safety, is one of numerous members of the public who were abused, assaulted and prevented from walking down the street as they attempted to attend the Never Again is Now rally against anti-Semitism.

Organisers of the rally on Monday contacted those who attended, urging them to report any harassment they ­experienced from pro-Palestine protesters on their way to the event.

“My family has lived here for six generations. I went to a non-Jewish school. I was taught respect for other religions. I can’t believe this is the Australia I grew up in,” the woman said.

She said she had found herself in a group of “20 or 30” people who got off a train at Parliament station and headed to the rally. It was attended by thousands of members of the Jewish community and their supporters, including the Christian founders of the Never Again is Now movement and religious leaders, as well as Liberal senators James Paterson and Sarah Henderson, former Victorian premier Ted Baillieu, and former state Labor minister Phil Dalidakis.

“Nobody had any flags. There was nothing to identify us as anything other than ordinary Australian people, which we are, and then we walked out of the station,” she said.

Pro-Palestine activists counter-protesting the “Never Again is Now” rally against anti-Semitism outside Victorian Parliament on Sunday. Picture: Getty Images

“There was a good police presence there, and they were very good telling us where to go, but coming up out of the station, we turned into Spring St, then all of a sudden there was a scuffle.

“There was a woman that was in that group with us. She would have been in her late 40s, early 50s and she was knocked to the ground by the protesters. I was taken aback. I didn’t expect any of this, and suddenly they (pro-Palestine protesters) seemed to swarm out of nowhere.”

The woman said she was nearing the Princess Theatre, heading south along Spring St, when she was separated from her friend, who is also 84, by the protesters. “The next thing I remember there was a masked face right in my face, wearing a keffiyeh, asking me where I was going. I said, ‘Just let me through’. Then I had a girl with a mask also, and she said, “Zionist pig”, poked me and pushed me. There was quite a few that kept poking me.

“Somehow someone helped me to get to where the police were, but before that, one of the protesters yelled out, ‘Leave her alone, she’s an old lady’, and I’ve never been so happy to be called an old lady in my life.

“At the Never Again is Now protest, nobody had their face covered. We were proud of what we were doing. The other side, they were all covered. When I looked in their eyes, I thought ‘that is what is called pure hatred’ … and I thought to myself, ‘this is the future for this wonderful country’.”

A woman in a wheelchair was among those the pro-Palestine protesters tried to prevent from attending the rally against anti-Semitism. Picture: Getty Images

The woman said she was a “very active” 84-year-old who frequently meets up with friends, but has not felt safe going into the Melbourne CBD since October 7.

Police arrested six people on Sunday – all associated with the pro-Palestine rally – including one for bill posting, three for hindering police, one for hindering police and stating a false name, and one for assaulting police and possessing a drug of dependence.

One protester was filmed burning an Israeli flag, while another – a heavily built man who had just removed his keffiyeh as he walked away from the protest – yelled homophobic abuse at a young Jewish man wearing a skullcap, calling him a “kippah-wearing faggot” and “f..king ugly dog”, and telling him to “take your little boyfriends and walk off”.

In other reported incidents, a 77-year-old woman was separated from her husband, spat on, threatened and kicked multiple times, an 82-year-old Jewish man was assaulted by masked men, and police were forced to rush to protect an elderly woman in a wheelchair holding an Israeli flag.