Photo: Australian pro-Hamas activist Laura Allam, from X/Twitter

Following the circulation of a hit-list of around 600 Jews targeted for attacks by pro-Hamas activists in Australia, Victoria State Police are only now disclosing to the public a kidnapping, assault and robbery of a man committed on February 16. The man works for a Jewish employer and was ripped from the driver’s seat of his car, placed in another vehicle, assaulted, robbed and discarded. One of the several perpetrators was known to police and had been reported for making death threats against a female Jewish journalist and television presenter.

Prominent Pro-Hamas Activist Arrested on Kidnapping and Torture Charges

Algemeiner, February 29, 2024

Melbourne–Australian police on Monday announced the arrest of a prominent pro-Hamas advocate accused of orchestrating the kidnapping and torture of a man whose perceived offense was to work for a Jewish employer.

Melbourne resident Laura Allam was charged with kidnapping, armed robbery, illegal detention, assault and battery against the 31-year-old man, who has not been named by authorities. Working with an accomplice who has also been arrested and charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment, armed robbery, threats to kill, intention to cause injury, recklessly causing injury, unlawful assault and assault with weapon, the 28-year-old Allam is understood to have targeted the man solely because his employer is Jewish.

According to a statement from police in the State of Victoria, the brutal assault occurred on the night of February 16 in the Melbourne suburb of St. Albans. “It’s alleged a man was pulled from a car near the intersection of Gladstone and Cleveland streets about 9: 30 P.M.,” the statement noted. “He was then allegedly placed in another car and assaulted and robbed before being released in Braybrook.” The victim required extensive treatment in hospital for injuries sustained in the “horrific kidnapping and torture.”

Allam is a prominent member of Australia’s large Lebanese community and the CEO of the Al Jannah Foundation which bills itself as an Islamic humanitarian organization. While Allam’s social media profiles specify that she is still running the organization, an entry on the Australian register of companies notes that the foundation ceased operations in July, 2023, less than three years after it was formally incorporated. The foundation’s website additionally lists a number of projects that it is raising money for, including addressing food shortages in Lebanon and child health challenges, which apparently remain unfunded.

In the wake of the October 7 Hamas pogrom in southern Israel, Allam dedicated most of her time to attacking Israel on social media as well as spreading false information on her TikTok account, which had 20,000 followers before being closed down, as well as X/Twitter and Instagram. One post on February 5 promoted the fabricated claim that a British Royal Navy warship dispatched to the Gulf to combat attacks on shipping by Houthi terrorists in Yemen had “broken down off the coasts of England.”

Her barbs against Israel on social media included a post that declared “good riddance” over an image of four Israeli soldiers killed while serving in Gaza. On October 8, the day after the Hamas pogrom which resulted in the murder of more than 1,200 people and the kidnapping of over 200 amid atrocities that included mass rape and bodily mutilation, Allam told her followers that she had “woken up to some great news from our beloved Palestine.” Other posts spoke of “a jihad of martyrdom or victory” and lauded attempts to “avenge the martyrs in Jenin and Gaza.”

Allam discussed her arrest in her final post on her Instagram account before it was closed down. Reproduced on the pro-Israel blog Israellycool, Allam’s post boasted of her “selflessness” and her commitment to “remaining quiet–for now,” going on to declare that “[T]here are words that burn the wildest flames in the deepest pits of my heart and will only ever be extinguished when Allah takes the ‘haqq’ (truth) from every single oppressor to walk this earth.”

“This seems to be an admission as to her involvement, yet amazingly no apology for her actions,” Israellycool observed in an accompanying commentary. “In fact, she speaks as if the incident somehow passively ‘occurred,’ as opposed to her actively doing something terrible.”

In its coverage of Allam’s arrest on Monday, Melbourne’s Herald Sun reported on “an extraordinary suppression order relating to her case prevents the Herald Sun from running  Allam’s image, referencing some ethnic groups or providing certain detail about her advocacy activities.” Several posts on X/Twitter did, however, share her photograph, her name and her other affiliations. [Sky News Australia presenter Sharri Markson spoke about her victimization at Allam’s hands and also cited draconian court and/or police suppression orders forbidding her from naming the perpetrator, her nationality and her political affiliations. Under applicable state and federal law, a court issuing an order of suppression must be presented with the motion three days prior by the interested party, and the court must then present that order to the press. Reportedly no such orders were issued in this case, neither were any hearings held to oppose a media injunction. Victoria’s Open Courts Act makes explicit secret trials may only be held under very specific conditions and for good reason. An Australian attorney familiar with the case said an order of suppression had been issued Friday last week, but during an off-hours bail hearing most likely held at a police station rather than a court of law. He said such orders are considered interim orders under the law and must be heard by a court of law almost immediately, usually the very same day. The attorney said that never happened, media outlets were not allowed to contest the order, and now most of the major media outlets in Australia have signed on to fight the order in open court, and will argue for immediate relief rather than waiting for the next court hearing of the defendant scheduled for May 31. Microsoft’s internet news service MSN also apparently didn’t receive any notice of a press ban or ignored it, posting the name of the accused and other information about her worldwide.]

Allam made the news earlier this month after she spoke at a pro-Hamas protest at the Australian parliament in Canberra alongside three senators from the left-wing Green Party. Responding to the event, Sky News Australia host Andrew Bolt highlighted Allam’s Islamist loyalties, saying, “[T]hat’s one of the people now sharing a stage with the Greens. The Greens may not have known of Allam’s past, but this is who they find next to them in their gutter.” [The Australian Greens also made a blatantly anti-Semitic statement before the Australian national parliament, calling Jews “tentacles.,” according to Australian media.]

Full story here.

Note: The Victoria State Police have consistently taken a pro-Palestinian, anti-Jewish position regarding protests, most recently last week, when several Jewish people with official invitations were attacked and assaulted outside the Melbourne City Council during the discussion of a resolution for an Israeli ceasefire. Police arrested the Jewish people for creating a disturbance, presumably by being Jewish.