The Palestinian-Australian owner of a popular Melbourne burger joint that was firebombed has revealed the drastic move he made after receiving a death threat.
The Palestinian-Australian owner of the Melbourne burger chain that was firebombed has revealed that his wife and child are living in a “safe house” following death threats.
Hash Tayeh, the owner of Burgertory, was forced to call in the police after a social media threat that he would become a “Shahid”, an Islamic term for a Muslim martyr.
“Our staff were getting phone calls daily, saying, ‘You don’t belong here. We’re going to boycott you. We’re going to close you down, your shop’s going to go’,’’ he told the ABC’s 7.30.
Grainy CCTV footage showed the moment the popular burger joint was torched. Picture: Supplied
Terrifying CCTV footage captured the moment the Caulfield burger store exploded into flames at 4am last Friday as two men in hoodies fled the scene.
That prompted 100 pro-Palestinian protesters to gather in a park across the road from a synagogue during a Shabbat service at around 7pm that evening.
“Police are still investigating so I can’t comment on that but what I can say is that whether it was a Muslim, a Jew, a Christian or an atheist, it’s a hate crime, and to say it’s a hate crime is not saying it’s a Jewish person, it’s saying you’ve hurt me, you’ve hurt my livelihood, you’ve hurt the livelihood of my staff,” My Tayeh said.
Emergency services were called to the scene of a fire at Burgertory at about 4.30am on Friday, November 10. Picture: Supplied
Police say the fire, which is being investigated as suspicious, has not been linked to date as politically motivated.
Victoria Police Inspector Scott Dwyer has urged people to stop making assumptions and linking the fire to the conflict in the Middle East.
“I’d like to point out, at this stage, there is nothing to indicate that this incident is related to any religious or political involvement,” he said.
“I am confident that this is not religiously or politically motivated.
“This incident, again, is a criminal act, it’s a suspicious fire that’s been linked, I would warn people not to make assumptions or draw lines of inquiry that aren’t there between this incident and anything else that is occurring.
“We are treating this as a stand-alone incident, and I would encourage the community to treat it as such.”
Pro-Palestinian protesters were pepper sprayed in a chaotic clash with police outside a Caulfield synagogue.
Police were out in force at the protest as things turned violent.
Recently, Mr Tayeh led chants of “Shame, shame USA, how many kids did you kill today”, and “from the River to the Sea” sharing the footage on his Instagram page.
The social media posts quickly sparked controversy forcing the entrepreneur to clarify the remarks.
“At no stage have I ever called for harm to any individual, and I want to emphasise that I have deep and meaningful friendships with members of the Jewish community,” he said.
“My dream has always been that the Jewish, Palestinian, Israeli people in Australia should be an example of what peace and unity looks like.”
“I didn’t want a rally in the heart of Caulfield because I knew what would happen, and what I thought would happen did happen.”
“It breaks my heart even talking about it.”
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