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A business owner in Melbourne, Australia, verbally attacked and kicked out an Israeli man from her hair salon last week after identifying his accent.
The confrontation took place in Bentleigh, a Melbourne suburb with a large Jewish and Israeli population.
The man said that the owner of the Juniper Salon, identified as Katrina Ann Smith, grew hostile after asking where he was from. “She asked if we kill babies,” he recalled. “That’s Hamas propaganda. I laughed and said, ‘Why would we kill babies?’ If they release the hostages, the war will end. But they don’t want peace.”
He described the owner as “full of hate and hypocrisy,” noting that she claimed to love everyone “but hates only Israelis.”
Owner Repeats Antisemitic Accusation
Jewish Australian activist Avi Yemini later visited the salon with a camera to confront the owner. She repeated her accusations that Israelis “kill babies,” and called police.
The owner told reporters she had expelled the Israeli customer because he was “part of the army that kills babies.”
Members of Melbourne’s Jewish community vowed to continue combating antisemitism in the city. The incident comes amid a sharp rise in antisemitism across Australia. Since Hamas’s October 7 massacre, Jewish communities in the country have faced growing violence, harassment, intimidation, and threats.
In response to the proliferation of Jew-hatred in Australia, the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) will co-host the 2025 Australian Mayors Summit Against Antisemitism in Gold Coast on Sept. 3-5. With more than 100 mayors and city leaders from across Australia expected to attend, the summit will provide practical tools, data, and partnership opportunities to effectively combat antisemitism and strengthen social cohesion at the local level.
