Restaurant boss ‘acted suspiciously’ at synagogue as police found water bombs in car

Al Yazbek ‘will go to an ashram in India’ as it is revealed he was found with water bombs at a Bondi synagogue in Sydney in 2014 and later removed by police from a large Jewish rally in the city.

Rebecca Yazbek and Al Yazbek pictured in 2012 at their Toko restaurant on Oxford Street, Paddington, in Sydney.

Nomad restaurant founder Al Yazbek, who last week apologised “unequivocally” for holding a Nazi sign at a Pro-Palestine protest, was questioned by police after acting suspiciously outside a Bondi synagogue in Sydney’s east in 2014, when his car was found loaded with “water bomb” balloons.

The next day, he made his way into a rally for Israel in nearby Dover Heights where more than 10,000 members of Sydney’s Jewish community had gathered, before the restaurateur was spotted by security and removed by police.

Police also spoke to Mr Yazbek’s wife, Rebecca, who was found in a car outside the event and said she was waiting for her husband.

Jewish community leaders were alarmed by Mr Yazbek’s conduct and believe his display last week of a swastika superimposed on an Israeli flag was not a one-off event but that the high-profile restaurateur “has form” stretching back at least decade.

Mass cancellations have been reported at his up-market restaurants Nomad Sydney, Nomad Melbourne and Reine & La Rue, with major corporations cancelling events and business relationships after the 56-year-old was charged with knowingly displaying a Nazi symbol in public.

Al Yazbek waves a Nazi sign at a Pro-Palestine protest in Sydney. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Last week, Mr Yazbek issued an apology for his actions at the demonstration on Sunday “where I carried a sign that is deeply offensive to the Jewish community”.

“Friends and acquaintances who know me – both Jewish and gentile – know I am not an anti-Semite; they also know how passionate I am about supporting diversity and equality in both my personal life and within the Nomad Group of businesses.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin told The Australian: “No one took his apology seriously, which predictably referred to ‘Jewish friends’ and a ‘support for diversity’ to mask deplorable actions. These latest revelations show a pattern of vilification and harassment of Jewish Australians going back a decade.

“Both incidents weren’t spontaneous emotional outbursts but involved planning and premeditation suggesting a disturbing level of fixation,” he said.

On Sunday, Mr Yazbek admitted he had gone to the synagogue to throw water bombs, mistakenly believing the Israel rally was to be held there, but claimed he had simply “detoured” to the rally the following day, while the couple were taking their dog for a walk, “to listen to the event”.

The pro-Israel Rally at Dudley Page Reserve, Dover Heights, on August 3, 2014.

Mr Yazbek told The Australian he would be standing down from the Nomad business, for the sake of his family, staff and customers, to attend an ashram in India.

In the same statement, Ms Yazbek said: “I’m furious at my husband’s actions with the placard. His actions are a threat to my family and our business.”

An investigation by The Australian reveals Mr Yazbek’s ­aggressive activism against Israel extends back at least a decade, to the last major confrontation between Israel and Hamas.

In July 2014, Israel launched a military operation into Gaza following the kidnap and murder of three Israeli teenagers by the terror group, leading to the reported deaths of more than 2000 Palestinians. As pro-Palestine protests swept Australia, Sydney’s Jewish community organised a rally in support of Israel at the Dudley Page Reserve in Dover Heights, to be held on Sunday, August 3, 2014.

The day before the rally,, at 10.25am, a man was seen walking past the Bondi Mizrachi Synagogue and into Barracluff Park next door, where he sat and took out an iPad on which he appeared to be either taking photographs or making notes.

About five minutes later, he got up and walked past the back door of the synagogue, before returning a few minutes later. He was then seen walking towards Beach Road, where he got into a parked black BMW X5 and drove away. Police were immediately alerted.

At 10.40am the same man returned to the synagogue on foot and sat on a wooden bollard. When synagogue staff approached him, he said he was “here for an Israel rally today”. The staff member told him there was no rally and asked whether there was anything else they could help him with.

“No, that’s none of your f..king business”, the man allegedly ­replied.

Police then arrived and questioned the man. He was identified as Al Yazbek, police noting a tattoo in Arabic writing on his left forearm.

Al Yazbek holds a yellow flag resembling the Hezbollah flag, with a Ned Kelly-like figure brandishing a gun on it, at the pro-Palestine protest at Hyde Park in Sydney's CBD. Picture: NewsWire/Damian Shaw

When police searched his car, they found a quantity of filled water bombs.

Mr Yazbek was not charged but a Google search revealed that two days before, he had posted a message on Australian Jewish news website J-wire: “end the slaughter. end the blockade. the missiles will stop. too simple a concept for you to grasp?”

The following day, huge crowds turned out for the Dover Heights rally in support of Israel, with more than 10,000 members of the Jewish community attending. Messages from Labor MP Mark Dreyfus and Liberal MP Josh Frydenberg were read to the Israeli flag-waving crowd.

At 11am, as the rally was in progress, the black BMW identified the day before outside the synagogue in Bondi was spotted outside the park.

Police stopped the car, which was being driven by a woman who identified herself as Rebecca Yazbek. She told police her husband was inside the event and she was waiting to pick him up.

Mr Yazbek was identified in the crowd, detained and removed from the event. He was questioned by police but allowed to leave without charge.

The pro-Israel Rally at Dudley Page Reserve, Dover Heights on August 3, 2014.

On Sunday, Mr Yazbek told The Australian he mistakenly thought the Israel rally was going to be on Saturday at the synagogue and acknowledged he had planned to demonstrate “and was going to throw water balloons”.

“There was no event. The police came and asked me to move on,” he said in a statement.

Mr Yazbek did not answer specific questions about whether he was taking photographs but ­denied the exchange with the Synagogue staff member.

“I don’t swear at people,” he said. “I wanted to demonstrate about the Israeli killing of 2310 Palestinians, leaving 3374 children wounded and 1000 permanently disabled.”

Mr Yazbek denied he had gone to the Jewish rally the following day to cause trouble.

“The next day, Rebecca and I were going for a walk with our dog. I asked her to detour so that I could listen to the event – that’s all,” he said.

“I was simply going to listen to the speeches.

Rebecca Yazbek and Al Yazbek Picture: Petrina Tinslay/Facebook

“I have put at risk my family, my staff and my restaurants. I’ve also, strangely, helped to inflame the discourse in Australia. My ­intent was the opposite.

“This is what I do believe. I support peace. I am against the ­violence perpetrated by Hamas and Hezbollah. I am against the ­violence perpetrated by the ­current Israeli regime.

“My family and the staff who rely on our restaurants, and our customers, do not deserve to suffer because of my political actions, so I am standing down from the business to attend an ashram in India.”

Mr Ryvchin told The Australian: “While Yazbek’s prominence has brought attention to his ­actions, the reality is that dozens of influencers and thousands of activists have spent the past year engaging in similar conduct.

“Targeting Jewish Australians because of certain feelings or opinions about what is happening in the Middle East is repugnant. It will only stop if there are meaningful consequences.”