Jewish man Adam Lippmann says he was assaulted at pro-Palestine rally

Adam Lippmann says he was ‘targeted’ in a 150-person ‘sea of terrorist supporters’ at a rally in Sydney, with one man allegedly calling him a ‘Zionist f...ot’ and another throwing his phone on to the tram tracks.

Adam Lippmann near Town Hall in Sydney on Monday. Picture: Nikki Short

Adam Lippmann has described the fear he felt at being “exposed and targeted” in a 150-person strong “sea of zealous, terrorist supporters” at a Gaza and Lebanon solidarity rally in Sydney, with one man allegedly calling him a “Zionist faggot” and another throwing his phone on to the tram tracks.

Mr Lippmann, a 38-year-old Australian Jew of Iraqi descent, said he wanted to put his name to the story “out of desperation”, despite the potential cost to himself.

He visited Woolworths Town Hall on Sunday afternoon to buy some bananas, and stuck around to view and document the Gaza solidarity protests after noticing a display of Hezbollah flags and other insignia in the crowd.

The protests against Israel and in Gaza have been occurring, largely peacefully, for more than 50 weeks. Protest organisers claim 30,000 attended the rally for Gaza and Lebanon in Sydney on Sunday, which followed airstrikes in Beirut.

Mr Lippmann shuffled alongside the group on Bathurst Street. When he turned on to Pitt Street, he said it could only be described as a “terrorist portrait parade”, with dozens of printed images and homemade lanyards of assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who led the terrorist organisation for 32 years.

“I was shocked (by the protest) so I was just documenting what I could see. I was pretty careful, and stayed a distance away. I didn’t say a word. It was a terror stampede … It was an unmasking (of Hezbollah supporters).”

He took pictures and said some people were posing for him.

He circled back around to Town Hall with the protesters, and stood on the west side of ­George Street near the tram stop.

“There was a … male-exclusive group, the crowd I would estimate was 5000 people. This group would be at least 150 or 200. They had red headbands, yellow armbands … they were chanting ‘labayka ya Nasrallah’, his portraits were all among them.”

“Labayka ya Nasrallah” in Arabic translates as ‘At your service, Nasrallah’ or ‘Here I am, Nasrallah’.

Mr Lippmann described them as “one real dense clump of very zealous Hezbollah supporters”, all aged about 20 to 35.

He said he spotted one masked man carrying a framed image of Nasrallah, which he thought was odd, and took his photo from about 10m away. “When I took a photo of this guy, he … spotted that I took a photo.

“He came up to me and he just said ‘We all know who you are. You’re a f..king Zionist faggot. You’re a f..king Zionist, get the f..k out of here.

“He spotted me from a distance and picked this fight of anti-Semitic, homophobic abuse.”

Another younger man, about 25, then approached him, grabbed his phone and threw it on to the tram tracks, damaging it.

The phone was still recording the interaction.

Demonstrators hold flags and pictures of Hassan Nasrallah, late leader of the Lebanese group Hezbollah, at a protest rally in Sydney on Sunday 29. Picture: AFP

He said the first man was waving his finger, and repeating those words, but what was most frightening was that he was “outed and exposed and targeted” in that “sea of zealous, terrorist supporters”, saying it felt like a “provocation and an invitation to those who were there”.

Mr Lippmann said when he approached nearby police and said “I’ve got photos, I’ve got audio, I’ve just been assaulted”, they told him they couldn’t help because “we’re here for the protest”. When he questioned them, they said “We’re here to ensure it’s a peaceful protest”.

Mr Lippmann said: “I said to him, I’m a product of that failing.”

He was directed to the nearest police station, which he attended and filed a police report.

“The city is not a safe place for Jews. Police policy is not sufficient to protect Jews,” he said.

Politicians have widely condemned the Hezbollah flags and insignia that appeared in Sydney and Melbourne on Sunday.

Palestine Action Group, which runs the weekly protests, said media attention on the “presence of some Hezbollah flags at the rally” was a “distraction” and a “hypocritical and racist scare campaign”.

“This scaremongering about some flags is designed to distract from Israel’s crimes and to intimidate Israel’s critics into silence,” it said.

The NSW Police Force said the investigation was ongoing.