'Bondi's for the Jews': Sydney businesses targeted for supporting Palestine

Eastern suburbs business owners claim they face intimidation and harassment for opposing Israeli genocide

Until recently, Alise James lived with her husband, Toks, and young daughter in Sydney's famed beach pocket, Bondi. The couple were well known in local business and community circles. They run an online clothing brand, Undivided, and had a regular stall at the Bondi Market.

In September 2024, Alise and Toks opened a pop-up storefront on Bondi's Glenayr Road. One morning shortly after the shop opened, Alise turned up to work to find that vandals had carved the phrases "Jew-hater", "Nazi", "rape supporter" and "antisemite" into the painted logo in the shop's front window, along with a Star of David.

"We had only been in there only a week," Alise says.

Alise took photos and reported the vandalism to Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command. While police promised to investigate, they warned that the shop's lack of CCTV cameras would make it difficult to find the perpetrator. As yet, police have yet to identify any suspects.

The following week, Alise was in the shop by herself when a man came in. Alise says he quickly became verbally abusive.

"He just started shouting things like 'you're a rape supporter, you're a Jew-hater' and 'Bondi's for the Jews'," Alise told Deepcut.

Alise followed the man outside to a cafe next door, where they argued. After returning to her shop, Alise locked the door and "burst into tears".

It was the start of what would become a months-long ordeal of vandalism, abuse, threats and intimidation that Alise and other eastern suburbs business owners claim to have faced for publicly supporting Palestine and opposing the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Alise believes she and her husband were targeted due to their displays of support for Palestine and criticism of Israel on social media.

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A post shared by @thealisejames

Alise also claims that NSW Police and the office of her local MP, Allegra Spender, were dismissive of her requests for help and support.

"No one wants to help us," Alise says. "If it was the other way around we would have had every newspaper and media channel covering it. We see so much coverage of antisemitic incidents and attacks, but when it happens to you because you support Palestine, you're invisible."

Responding to questions, a spokesperson from Spender's office said the dispute was the result of a "misunderstanding" and called the police response "completely inadequate".

Alise's story comes after a pro-Palestine protest on Bondi Beach on Sunday was met with counter-protesters waving Israeli and Australian flags and chanting "off our beach", "terrorists," "inbred" and “go back to Lakemba”.

Jews Against the Occupation '48 (JAO48), a Sydney-based activist collective of Jewish anti-Zionists, staged the protest with Eastern Suburbs for Palestine in support of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a volunteer effort to break Israel's siege and enforced starvation of Gaza.

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A post shared by @teachers4palestine_nsw

Alise, who attended the Sumud Flotilla, said the counter-protest “was a visceral reminder of what it’s like in Bondi if you speak up about Palestine”.

“I’ve never been to a pro-Palestine rally where people have behaved like that, but I’ve been to plenty of rallies where people have behaved like that towards us. I was frightened and ended up leaving early because it was such an intimidating situation.”

‘This area's for the Jews, you need to leave’

In November, a post in a local community Facebook group urged residents to boycott Alise's store. Accusing Alise and Toks of "vile, anti-Semitic remarks" and "hateful and harmful rhetoric", the post also claimed the couple "have publicly denied the rapes and atrocities committed during the horrific events on October 7th".

"It's not right for individuals holding such abhorrent views to move into our community, run a business here, and promote divisiveness and hatred," the post read.

After that post was published, incidents of harassment and abuse at the store increased dramatically.

"People would come in and start grilling me: 'Do you condemn Hamas? Do you believe in the state of Israel?'" Alise says.

"One old woman, who had little kids with her, would stand in our doorway and scream 'bitch!' while we had customers in the store. Another woman came in and told me: 'This area's for the Jews, you need to leave'," Alise says.

"When I told one person who called me antisemitic that I was married to a Jewish man for 19 years, she told me: 'Well, he's a self-hating Jew!'"

While Toks and Alise resolved to stay in the shop, Alise says the constant abuse "took its toll".

"Trucks would go past honking horns and waving the Israeli flag. When someone came in, we didn't know if they were there to buy something or abuse us. It got to the point where my daughter was scared to walk to school," she says.

In November, Alise went to police a second time, seeking clarification on whether the people urging a boycott of her business online were in breach of new federal anti-doxxing laws.

"When I told the officer that people had been telling me 'Bondi is for the Jews', the officer replied: 'Well, Bondi is for the Jews. We consider it a Jewish place'," Alise alleges.

"She told me that what's happening to me is happening to many people, but the police looking after my case did absolutely nothing."

The NSW Police Media Unit did not respond to questions about this allegation.

JAO48 believes the categorisation of Bondi or any other suburb as "a Jewish place" sets a dangerous precedent.

"The Jewish Zionist establishment in Bondi, and in general, allows no daylight between anti-Israel politics and anti-Jewish bigotry. The idea that there can be a no-go area for supporters of Palestinian rights in any Australian suburb because Jewish residents don't like it should alarm us all," JAO48 representative Michelle Berkon told Deepcut.

"We insist on everyone's right to not only criticise Israel, but to call for the dismantling of its occupation and apartheid, and to resist Zionist hegemony over Australian political and public spaces."

Another business owner in the Bondi area, who asked to remain anonymous, says their business was targeted in a similar manner to Alise's shop around the same time.

"I made a post on my personal Instagram criticising the state of Israel and how it was conducting the war. Somebody saw that post and made it very public in social media groups based around Bondi, posting online that I was antisemitic and calling for a boycott of my business," the business owner told Deepcut.

"It was very stressful – I got a lot of abuse and threats, including against my family. Some people would come into our business and try to look for me or talk to me, which was very distressing for our staff, who had no idea what was going on. It makes them feel afraid."

During one incident, staff were forced to physically remove a person from the store.

"This man came in and started shouting, disturbing the customers, and a male member of staff confronted him," they claim. "He got a little bit aggressive – not violent, but the staff ended up throwing him out into the street."

Allegra Spender's office accused of ‘victim-blaming’

Alise repeatedly contacted the office of Spender, the independent member for Wentworth, asking for the MP to come to Undivided and make a video for social media as a show of support. Spender did so for Avner's Bakery, a Surry Hills bakery that was targeted with a threatening note in October 2024.

Initially, Spender's office appeared eager to provide support, as shown in an email obtained by Deepcut.

"[Allegra] was really disheartened to hear about the vandalism of your shop and doesn’t take what happened to you lightly at all," the staffer wrote.

"Allegra has been in Parliament this week and last week for the final sitting weeks of the year, but as a first step, has raised your concerns and experience directly with the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBOD). Would you be happy for us to pass on your details to NSW JBOD so that they can get in contact with you as well?"

Alise claims that once she clarified that the harassment was based on her and Toks' support for Palestine, the tone from Spender's office changed drastically.

In a follow-up email, one of Spender's advisers asked Alise if it was true that she and her husband had used "vile and derogatory language" about Jewish people, as the Facebook post calling for a boycott of Undivided claimed.

"The statement... makes allegations against you and Toks about statements you're supposed to have made online and in person," the staffer wrote. "I know you said the statement is untrue in general, but just to be clear on the particulars... Do you know what they mean by vile and derogatory language? Is that true? Have you denied that rapes happened in the Oct 7 attack? Obviously, you and Toks deny being antisemitic but is there anything else here in detail you want to respond to?"

"I’ve taken some time to reply because I find it uncomfortably close to victim blaming," James wrote in reply.

"These Facebook allegations are false, as I have previously stated, and defamatory... It’s too easy to write these unsubstantiated claims online to cancel someone’s life and business."

"It was so disappointing," Alise says. "I went to them for help and support and to be treated the same as other businesses, and I ended up having to jump through hoops."

Responding to questions, a spokesperson from Spender's office said "we are sorry Ms James wasn’t satisfied with the response from our office".

"Allegra and her office always understood that Ms James and her family had been targeted because of her support for Palestine," the spokesperson said. "Her complaint is clear, and reported unacceptable harassment, vandalism and abuse against her, her family and her business by people claiming to represent the Jewish community. The office suggested arranging a meeting with the Jewish Board of Deputies because they might be able to intercede to support Ms James, speak to local community leaders and stop the harassment.

"The police response to her complaint seems completely inadequate, especially since we understand that Ms James has supplied the name and details of at least one alleged perpetrator. Allegra’s office has renewed our offer to support Ms James in advocating for more effective police action."

Speaking to the ABC on Monday, Spender criticised both sides of Sunday's Bondi protest, saying she "certainly [wished] the protesters had chosen a different location – not because they don't have the right to do this at Bondi, but because it provokes reactions that I think don't help anyone".

"There are lots of other beaches around where they could have held that protest," Spender said.

"Bondi is one of the places where there's a really significant Jewish population - I think about 20 per cent of the Jewish population in Australia lives in the eastern suburbs of Sydney," Spender said. "Bondi belongs to everybody. Of course everyone's welcome to host whatever they want at Bondi. However, the challenge is if [something] is seen as provocative... I certainly wish they had chosen a different location."

"I also wish there hadn't been a counter-protest... I think the counter-protest was counterproductive."

Spender is the co-chair of Parliamentary Friends of International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), a group of federal politicians working to enshrine the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism into law and government policy. Palestinian and non-Zionist Jewish groups, academic freedom advocates and civil liberties organisations, as well as the lead author of the IHRA definition, Kenneth Stern, argue the IHRA definition conflates opposition to Zionism and Israel with antisemitism.

Alise says she and her family have since moved out of Bondi.

"I worked and lived and protested with a lot of wonderful Jewish people who are against the genocide, but I would also sit next to people in restaurants who were sending their kids off to fight in the IDF," she says.