Newtown institution, Lebanese restaurant Arabella, was the target of a racist attack in the early hours of this morning, when thugs smashed the restaurant’s front windows, and scrawled slurs like ‘fuck Arabs’ on the glass.
Talking about racist people this what happen at my restaurant (Arabella ) tonight at 130 am and they left racist…
Posted by Moey Hachem on Monday, September 21, 2015
Owner Moey Hachem, who has lived in Australia since he was a young child and prides himself on offering the best and most authentic Lebanese food in Sydney, was still audibly shaken when P.TV spoke to him earlier today.
Fearing for his safety, and frustrated that the police don’t seem to be able to help, he wants to share his story with as many people as possible.
PTV: How did you find out what had happened? Did you get to the restaurant this morning to find it trashed?
Moey Hachem: Security called me last night. We had a couple of phone calls from stupid people saying stupid things about Lebanese, Arabs, whatever …
PTV: Is this kind of racist abuse something you have to deal with often?
MH: I’ve been at the restaurant for 15 years, and we receive phone calls a lot from stupid people who speak this way in a racist way. The girls that work here, they tell me that they get phone calls from private numbers, with people talking bullshit, talking crap. Two months ago, when I was away in Lebanon, that happened. Most of my clientèle is Aussie, and I never have problems with Australians, they’re really nice – last night was really terrible. They had written ‘fuck Arabs’ on the wall with a key, and smashed the windows.
PTV: Do incidents like this make you feel unsafe in your own community?
MH: It’s scary for me and my family. It’s not the first time this has happened
PTV: What would you say to the kind of people who would do something like this?
MH: I would say this is not the right thing to do, that it’s going to take them nowhere. This is not going to stop me loving and respecting Australia – I came to this country at six years old, and I belong to this country, I’m an Aussie.
PTV: What’s happening now – have the police been helpful?
MH: We’ve reported these incidents a couple of times to Newtown Police Station, but they never did anything, maybe they can’t. I feel like the police can’t protect you. This time, I really want to spread the story as wide as I can through the media, it’s time that people took notice, it’s time that the police take notice.
If you have any information on the attack that may be helpful to police, you can call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
