First published on Michael West Media.
Egyptian food outlet Cairo Takeaway in Sydney’s Inner West was flooded with supportive customers this weekend after a Daily Telegraph undercover operation to find evidence of anti-semitism badly backfired.
News Corp chose Cairo Takeaway for its covert journalism because its owner, Hesham El Masry, is well known for his support for Palestine. If there was any doubt, a large mural in Palestinian colours by noted artist Scottie Marsh is featured on the laneway wall beside the restaurant. On Sunday, Cairo Takeaway organised a ‘Gadigal to Gaza’ fundraiser for Palestine at the Factory Theatre, in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s seat of Grayndler.
On Tuesday morning, Israeli Australian Ofir Birenbaum donned his white Star of David cap, white T-shirt and a prominent Star of David necklace on his chest and headed to Cairo Takeaway with Daily Telegraph journalist Danielle Gusmaroli and a cameraperson in tow, ostensibly seeking evidence that there is a crisis of anti-semitism in Sydney, including in the Inner West. An internal Telegraph plan revealed by Crikey last week indicated that he would be wearing video glasses but Birenbaum has since denied using them, although he has claimed to have used them before. Gusmaroli and other Newscorp reporters are acquainted with Birenbaum because they have previously used him as a source. The plan referred to him as an ‘undercover Jewish man’.
Birenbaum was served the hibiscus tea he ordered. He then started interrogating the staff about their attitude to his Jewishness. By then the restaurant staff had twigged to the media presence and the sting, rather than being a successful hit, turned into an embarrassment. The DT duo found themselves being publicly accused of ‘divisive journalism’ as they retreated up the street.
That evening, a detailed account of the botched undercover hit was published on social media.
From @CairoTakeaway Instagram account
The SMH and other outlets took up the story. Owner Hesham El Masry alleged that Birenbaum made a series of provocative comments to staff, in an attempt to spark an argument. “Our staff members were subjected to a deliberate, orchestrated incident … at our establishment,” he told the Herald. The Cairo Takeaway Instagram attracted thousands of comments including some from people who claimed that Birenbaum had previously tried to provoke them at pro-Palestinian protests.
Birenbaum has hired prominent defamation lawyer Rebekah Giles who threatened to sue El Masry if the statements on his Cairo Takeaway Instagram account were not removed by late Friday. Birenbaum has described those statements as “wholly incorrect” and “scandalously false”.
On Monday, ABC’s Media Watch published a letter from Giles that stated that before arriving at the Cairo Takeaway, the Daily Telegraph had witnessed one person observed that he was a “Jew in Newtown” and another saying he should “go back to Israel.”
On Tuesday, Cairo Takeaway posted a partial retraction and apologised for any harm done to Birenbaum’s reputation. They removed some details from their original post.
Birenbaum’s connection with far right Zionism
This much has already been reported – what Michael West Media can now reveal is that Ofir Birenbaum is a strong presence at the heart of the right-wing pro-Israeli groups in Australia. If Pro-Palestinian supporters think they’ve seen him before, they’re probably right.
MWM researchers have tracked his activities since October 2023. They include astroturfing in the NSW Local elections, media interviews, protests outside Greens MP offices, organising pro-Israel rallies, motivational talks urging support for Israel’s war effort, monitoring antisemitic graffiti and even doing his own pro Israeli graffiti at Sydney University and campaigning against Jewish people, pro-Palestinian academics and others whom he perceives to be a threat to Israel.
Late last week Birenbaum closed his LinkedIn account and switched to private mode his ‘Ofir from Israel’ Instagram account on which he has more than 4000 followers and 1000 posts.
Who is Ofir Birenbaum?
Birenbaum grew up in Israel and served in the IDF.
Ofir Birenbaum in the Israeli Defense Forces.
According to a recently deleted LinkedIn account, he graduated from Ruppin Academic Centre in Israel in 2014.
By 2021, he was in Australia working as an AI consultant.
A year later he married computing engineering student Sophie Calland. Sophie became a Zionist supporter and has played a role in his later political activities.
Photo from Facebook of Ofir Israel. (Ofir Birenbaum)
In 2023, he joined the multinational human resources software company Dayforce as a ‘solutions architect’ and ‘seasoned technology strategist’. He describes himself as a ‘charismatic, creative entrepreneur’.
As soon as Israel’s war in Gaza began, following Hamas’s October 7 attack, Birenbaum became intensely involved in campaigning in support of Israel in Australia. He has been designated as an official ‘Friend’ by the right wing Australian Jewish Association that is campaigning with Advance Australia to starve the Greens and Teals of preferences by putting them last in all elections. (More on links between AJA and Advance Australia.)
Australian Jewish Association complains about ‘Friend’ Ofir Birenbaum being stopped by police at a protest against a University of Technology Israel Technion event in Sydney
Birenbaum has also been an active committee member in Together with Israel since it was founded in October 2023 and represented them as a motivational speaker with the message “One Nation, One Heart, One Land”.
Birenbaum was one of the organisers of a rally by Together with Israel in December 2024. Speakers at the rally included Rabbi Benjamin Elton, Great Synagogue Sydney(pictured below), Senator Dave Sharma, Woollahra Mayor Sarah Swan and Ofir Birenbaum himself.
L-R, Ofir Birenbaum, Rabbi Benjamin Elton(Senior Rabbi Great Synagogue Sydney), Michael Danby (ex-Labor MP and Labor Friends of Israel), Ed Halmagyi (owner, Avner Bakery), Dr. Glenn Kolomeitz, (International lawyer and defence analyst) , Councillor Carol Tannous-Sleiman (Hunter’s hill council), Colonel Michael Scott (ex-ADF), Hagit Ashual (Ex-Zionist council of NSW, Stand with Israel, Better Councils), Vanina Vaisman-Levy (Stand with Israel), Avi Efrat (Better Councils, Stand with Israel), Meiran Rubinstein (Stand with Israel)
Birenbaum speaks at a pro-Israel ‘United with Israel’ rally. LNP Senator David Sharma on the left.
Campaigning for “Better Councils Inc”
While Birenbaum was busy forming a coalition to defend Israel in Australia, Calland joined the Alexandria branch of the NSW Labor party in late 2023.
Calland became the official front person for Better Councils Inc, a business name registered to campaign in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs’ Councils of and the Inner West Council in the 2024 Local government elections. Alex Polson, who had previously worked for Simon Birmingham owned the Better Councils Inc ABN.
Calland, Birenbaum, Polson and two other Israeli Australians who were at the centre of the Together with Israel formed the core group that organised and recruited for Better Councils Inc. They were assisted by the right wing Christian campaigner Mark Leach.
The Better Councils campaign was the precursor of the current Advance Australia campaign for the 2025 Federal election.
Left: Labor member Sophie Calland who began Better Councils Inc. Right: Ofir Birenbaum campaigning to put Greens candidate (now Councillor) Olivia Barlow last on the Marrickville Booth
Organisers and attendees of United with Israel rally some of whom were also involved in Better Councils: Haim Ayalon, Noy Miran (ex-IDF), Hagit Ashual(former Operations Director, Zionist Council of NSW, Better Councils ), Alex Polson(former Liberal party staffer, Better Councils), Leeron Spitzer (ex-IDF commander), Avi Efrat (ex-IDF, Better Councils), Ofir Birenbaum(ex-IDF, Better Councils)
As readers will see from the photo above there was a lot of overlap between the Better Councils Inc group and the Together with Israel group.
In a Zoom meeting, an organiser explained that Better Councils Inc would only target Greens not Labor in the Inner West as a reward to Mayor Darcy Byrne who had risked unpopularity by opposing a Greens motion for a BDS audit in August 2024. (As covered by Michael West Media.)
Birenbaum recruited volunteers to help staff booths for pre-poll and election day. Their efforts helped stop the Greens from gaining more than their existing five seats in the Inner West, keeping the Local Government Area under Labor control.
In October when Greens Councillor Peter Strong moved for a BDS audit of Bayside Council, Birenbaum spoke vehemently against the motion as a veteran of the IDF.
Rallies galore
Meanwhile Birenbaum was attending lots of rallies in Sydney, Melbourne and Newcastle, photographing Greens and other activists.
He was at the Supreme Court when the Palestine Action Group was appealing against a police refusal of a permit to march.
Ofir Birenbaum blending in with protesters outside the NSW Supreme Court in October 2024.
He was at Sydney University during the camp-in protest. He even did his own graffiti there, which was captured on video.
Birenbaum paid visits to the Occupation at Sydney University where also did his own graffiti.
On December 5 a protest was held across the road from the Great Synagogue in Elizabeth Street Sydney against a celebration for Israel Institute of Technology “Technion”. As Birenbaum approached the synagogue for the event, he pulled out an Israeli flag. He vigorously objected when police assigned to the protest accused him of deliberately trying to provoke a confrontation. Birenbaum filmed this event wearing his video glasses.
Dressed in an (unusually for him) informal way, he took photos of Greens at Sydney’s Invasion Day rally this year.
Ofir Birenbaum at the Australia/Invasion day rally, wearing similar glasses to the ones with which he denied recording Cairo takeaway staff
On the spot to highlight anti-semitic graffiti
On January 16, residents woke to the shocking news that CEO of Executive Council of Australian Jewry Alex Rychin’s former home had been graffitied. Birenbaum was there at the same time as media and police.
Early in the morning on January 30, police were notified that anti-semitic graffiti had been sprayed on a wall near a Jewish Primary school in Maroubra. News.com’s Duncan Evans headed to Maroubra and interviewed Ofir Birenbaum who was described as a “consultant for a software company who lives 10 minutes away from Maroubra”. He arrived carrying an Israeli flag, and said “it feels like a told-you-so moment.” He blamed the graffiti on the weekly pro-Palestine protests, saying “It starts with tolerating what we see in our streets. The flags and the chants that we see in our universities …. we need a change of attitude by our universities, we need a change of attitude by our writers’ festival, our arts and culture centres in fostering hateful ideologies, that result in violent actions.“
Newswire shot of Birenbaum holding Israeli/Australian flag in Maroubra
On February 2, he was again on the spot when more graffiti appeared in Kingsford.
Later, he appeared on a popular news show on Channel 12 in Israel in which he berated the Labor government for having previously failed to act on anti-semitism and blamed protests for the anti-semitic graffiti.
If all this was not enough, Birenbaum fills his time with directing online barbs at pro-Palestinians. For example, after pagers modified by Israel exploded in Lebanon killing 32 people (including two children) and injuring thousands (source BBC news) he posted, “Someone made sure you’ll do your BDS properly”.
He has targeted Jewish Council of Australia director, human rights lawyer and academic Sarah Schwartz calling her an anti-semite because she is critical of Israel.
Last weekend, Birenbaum attended a Sydney Town Hall rally, after which he travelled to Melbourne. There, he celebrated the Advance Australia ‘Put Greens Last’ campaign in Prahran where a loss of preferences caused the Victorian Greens to lose the seat.
He also filmed a Jewish-led pro-Palestinian protest in Melbourne, labelling those Jews as anti-semites while himself attending the pro-Zionist one held at the same time.
Birenbaum at Zionist rally in Melbourne
He then returned to Sydney for his job with the Daily Telegraph. But since his News Corporation stunt backfired, he has suddenly gone quiet and deleted his Instagram account but not his OfireforIsrael Facebook page.
Amplifying anti-semitism, nationalism and building Islamophobia
The spate of recent graffiti has shown that anti-semitism is a serious issue that hurts Jewish people and spreads fear. But there is so far no evidence that the graffiti incidents have anything at all to do with pro-Palestinian protests or dissent. Birenbaum’s definition of anti-semitic behavior includes protests and the activities of intellectuals, artists, fellow Jews and others who support Palestinians. He regards Israeli and Australian national interests as inseparable.He is a crusader for Israel who uses surreptitious and public tactics against his opponents whom he wants banned or suppressed. In the process, he is helping to amplify anti-semitism, build Islamophobia and build support for authoritarian change.
Wendy Bacon was the Professor of Journalism at UTS and is a supporter of the BDS campaign and the Greens.