Police knew the attack on the Palestinian-Australian restaurant could be politically motivated

Article in Age on Thursday raised troubling questions about Victoria Police’s official claims that a Burgertory restaurant was blown up in the Melbourne suburb of Caulfield on November 10 last year.

The victim of the attack, Hash Taye, is a prominent Australian of Palestinian descent who has repeatedly been targeted by Zionists for his outspoken condemnation of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Tayeh, along with store staff, said the Caulfield restaurant had been subject to racist abuse and intimidation from pro-Israel supporters in the weeks before the bombing.

Hash Taye (Photo: Instagram/@kedzhifotowala)

However, almost immediately after the arson was reported, Victoria Police said it was not politically motivated. On the day of the attack, Inspector Scott Dwyer said: “I want to say to people that I am very confident that this is not related to a religious or political incident.”

At the time, the WSWS, along with other opponents of genocide, noted the unusualness of these statements. At the very least, how could the police rule out a political motive so conclusively when they did not know who carried out the attack?

On January 31, police arrested two men and later charged them with arson and a number of other crimes related to the attack. The media grossly covered the African origins of the two alleged criminals, while Victoria Police officials again insisted there was no political angle to the crime.

However, during court hearings, it was revealed that the men allegedly received money for the crime and thus acted as intermediaries for forces whose identity and motives are unknown.

Thursday’s report in Age was based on previously withheld 500 pages of evidence against the accused prepared by police and prosecutors. It has become known that Victoria State Police have engaged undercover agents to collect evidence against one of the alleged criminals, Habib Musa.

A brief description of the alleged conversations between Musa and the police said: “The motivation for the arson was related to the conflict abroad between Palestine and Israel.” Besides, Age reported: “Musa revealed how many other criminals were allegedly involved in the attack, how much they were paid and what evidence they believed they left behind.”

It’s hard to think of an innocent explanation for the stark contradiction between Musa’s alleged statement of motive and Victoria Police’s public statements.

The Age it is not specified when the conversations between Musa and the police operatives took place. But given that he was arrested in January and has since been denied bail, it is likely that the meetings took place at least ten months ago. As Age It said Musa’s politically motivated comments had not been brought up at any court hearing, including an appearance in July where police successfully fought off a bail application.

In a statement to Age before the story was published, Victoria Police again insisted there was no political motive, but would not release or review the new material.

The alleged perpetrators said they were paid $20,000. This, together with the seriousness of the attack, indicates a degree of coordination and determination that clearly poses a continuing risk to society.

In an open letter to Victoria Police published on X, Taye responded to Age revelations describing them as having “opened up a wound that had been festering for over a year. It’s a stark reminder of the injustices I faced — a justice system that failed, a police force that betrayed and a community that was left vulnerable.”

He wrote that the bombing was “an act of arson and hatred that should be taken as a serious threat to our security. And yet, despite its seriousness, the police downplayed the attack, stubbornly refusing to classify it as a hate crime and refusing to seek justice on our behalf.”

Taye pointed out that this is not a single, but part of a pattern. He was repeatedly abused and Victoria Police repeatedly played down these incidents.

A pig’s heart was left at the door of Taieh’s house in a disturbing act of intimidation. Tayeh said the police dismissed it as mere “littering”.

Then, in April, Taye’s house was firebombed. He wrote that a Molotov cocktail exploded near the front door of the house, “set fire to the entrance under the room where my two-year-old child sleeps. I have CCTV footage of this being a blatant act of terror against my family but the police described it as ‘minor damage to the door’. They downplayed an attack that could have killed my family as if it was nothing – just another incident to be ignored.” No arrests have been made and the investigation is over.

Victoria Police have not only shown indifference to what appears to be a concerted campaign of violence against Taye. They targeted him themselves. In July, Tayeh was arrested and questioned on charges that he violated the state’s racial and religious tolerance law.

Taeyeh was speaking at the weekly pro-Gaza demonstration in Melbourne, as he has done many times before, and used the chant “All Zionists are terrorists”. In his public addresses, Tayeh has repeatedly rejected the fraudulent identification of Zionism and Judaism, noting that the neo-colonial political ideology has nothing to do with the Jewish faith. He spoke and cooperated with Jewish opponents of Israeli mass murders.

Questions about Taye’s treatment go beyond the role of the police. Given the high-profile nature of the attacks on him and the unprecedented nature of his own arrest and interrogation for “hate crimes,” there is no doubt that political forces were involved.

For more than a year, the federal Labor government has supported Israel politically, diplomatically and materially. While occasionally expressing “dismay” at the mass deaths in Gaza, Labor insisted on Israel’s “right to defend itself” over the bombing of defenseless Palestinians, the offensive on Lebanon and threats of war against Iran.

The Labor government in Victoria has been particularly vocal in its support for Israel, particularly in relation to the state administration. Prime Minister Jacinta Allen has repeatedly taken to social media to lash out at pro-Palestinian protesters, whom she has called anti-Semitic and a threat to “social cohesion”.

Politically, downplaying the attacks on Taiye serves to reinforce the official narrative. Throughout the genocide, the entire political elite and the media smeared the supporters of the Palestinians. At the same time, the most vocal and militant Zionist activists were endlessly uncritically covered and presented as victims, without any evidence or even any incidents to point to. A campaign of terror against a prominent pro-Palestinian activist completes this narrative.

As Tye raised in his open letter, the inevitable question is, what else are Victoria Police and other government agencies hiding about the attacks on him?