Violence broke out during a protest in Melbourne’s CBD as Victoria Police moved on and arrested members of the far-right Jewish club The Lions of Zion (TLOZ). Yaakov Aharon investigates.
TLOZ is an organisation that regularly counter-protests against Palestine rallies to ‘reclaim’ Melbourne CBD, and it was not the first time TLOZ had found themselves on the wrong side of the law. Police know the group well.
Co-founder and IDF veteran Yaacov Travitz led the protest from the front, wearing a jacket with the club’s black and white colours. “I’m keeping it simple,” Travitz said. “We stand for three words: unity, courage, and pride.”
A ‘charitable’ fight club
Lions of Zion is a registered organisation with charitable purposes, including fight training. The “fight club” has connections to Nazi groups from Melbourne’s anti-lockdown movement, and appears to model itself on sanctioned terrorist groups abroad.
Before last Sunday’s Palestine rally and counter-protest by TLOZ, Victoria Police said they were aware of the situation and that there would be a “visible police presence at these events.”
“Police have been attempting to engage with the organisers of the counter-protest. However, the group has not been forthcoming with their plans. We ask organisers to engage with police so we can help facilitate a safe and peaceful protest, so it is disappointing to not receive this engagement.”
TLOZ proceeded with their protest anyway. TLOZ co-founder Josh Kelman emailed precise plans and instructions to registrants for the event, and notified them that by registering for the event they “acknowledge that there is a risk involved’.”
“Depart Caulfield Station at 9:46 AM. Proceed from Flinders [Street Station] to Parliament Steps, arriving by 10:21 AM.
“Travel in groups… Conceal any flags, signs, or Israeli paraphernalia until we’re gathered.”
This Sunday, let’s reclaim our city.
In anticipation of TLOZ’s protest potentially breaching the peace, Victoria Police formed a line on the corner of Bourke and Swanston Street, blocking the club’s route. Following an hour of the club facing off with police, they were instructed to move on.
Melbourne protests April 6, 2025. Image: John Stayner, Instagram
Some TLOZ protesters assembled further down the road. Eyewitness accounts say that TLOZ had planned to go around the police line. Police were ready and met them on the corner of Bourke and Russell Street, a short while before the Palestine rally was set to pass by.
Police issued another move-on order to ensure that the Palestine rally could march peacefully.
“We’re not in a group. We’re not protesting. We’re not nothing.” Travitz said to the police. “You’re asking us to run away because you won’t be able to control the hate mob.”
The police repeated their concerns that the club may cause a breach of peace when they meet with the imminent Palestine rally. At that point, police used physical force to move the club on. Several people, including an elderly woman, were restrained. Travitz and Kelman were arrested face down on the pavement.
Later on, police released them without charge but said they may be summoned at a later date.
Tracing TLOZ roots
The club is modelled on other anti-lockdown and far-right groups. “Australia for Australians” is the club’s rallying cry.
TLOZ organiser An Nguyen was regularly active in the anti-lockdown movement and the splinter groups that came from it. In October 2024 he attended an event by Leave Our Kids Alone, an anti-trans group led by former professional wrestler Craig Cole. Cole was also a headline speaker at the National Workers Alliance launch.
Nguyen joined TLOZ at an event by Celebrate Australia on 26 January 2025, where he posed for selfies with Nick Patterson, founder of Australian Peacemakers. Patterson – formerly a gym owner and MMA fighter – founded Peacemakers during the lockdowns, during which the group challenged cops to fights while providing amateur security for anti-lockdown and Christian Zionist rallies.
Patterson was also the first speaker at the launch of the Nazi group National Workers Alliance at the Polish Club in June 2024.
Founding organiser of TLOZ Reuven ‘Rubi’ Flescher previously organised with Nazi groups within the Victorian Freedom Movement. Flescher also organised anti-lockdown rallies with Peacemakers, as well as Harrison Mclean, in 2022. The year before, The Guardian published an investigation showing Mclean intended to slowly introduce his followers to Nazi ideology, by showing them ‘that Hitler had some good points’ and introducing them to the ‘Jewish Question’.
Mclean’s networks also issued callouts for ‘people trained in some form of combat’ to clash with police at protests.
First rule of fight club: Register as a charity
On 26 February 2024, Travitz announced on a Jewish community Facebook group that he was “creating a support group for veterans of the IDF (Israel Defence Forces).
At first, this group was known as the Unsilent Majority, but later rebranded as The Lions of Zion.
“The Lions of Zion is not an organisation,” Travitz told The Israel Connexion podcast in January 2025. “I like to classify us as a movement.” He stated that TLOZ was rapidly expanding its membership and was receiving “calls and messages begging us to come to Sydney.”
We’re going to go national, and then we’re going to go worldwide.
Despite Travitz’s preferred description of his ‘movement’, TLOZ registered as an incorporated association and club with Consumer Affairs Victoria three weeks later. According to an official statement, the club includes members who are “Aborigines [sic] and Torres Strait Islanders – traditional landowners – Persians, Samoans, Israelis, Christians, and Jews.”
The club’s extract states that its goal is to pursue “charitable purposes” including activities promoting multiculturalism, social cohesion and peace. Another purpose is “equipping individuals with practical skills for self-protection and emergency preparedness, including self-defence training.”
Furthermore, the club is to “empower individuals and communities through structured education [and] skills training… to foster resilience and self-sufficiency.”
A plea to TLOZ webpage’s visitors urges those looking to make a donation to get in touch with co-founder Josh Kelman by email. However, it does not list its privacy policy or its incorporated association number.
We contacted Kelman and TLOZ to clarify how donations are made and how the club is funded. The club refused to comment.
Terrorist support
Roman Kostenetsky, an attendee of the protest. Hash Tayeh, Instagram
TLOZ has expressed support for the Jewish supremacist and former Member of Knesset Meir Kahane, who died in 1990 and was a proscribed terrorist in Israel and America.
In one video shared by the club, Kahane said, “It’s important that every one of you knows what the name Kahane means to the Arabs. It means terror.”
They’re afraid. And that’s the only language they understand.
Kahanism is a Zionist ideology, named after Kahane, advocating for a theocratic Israeli state in which only Jews can vote and with ‘Greater Israel’ borders expanding from Egypt to Iraq.
The Jewish Defense League, founded in 1968 by Kahane, was a militant Zionist club, similar to TLOZ, which focused on combating antisemitism in the streets of New York. In 2001, the FBI designated it a ‘right-wing terrorist group’.
Australia has sanctioned 21 Israeli organisations and seven people due to their associations with Meir Kahane.
A longer version of this article first published by Independent Australia, link here.
Israel agitator Birenbaum and the Creative Australia sackings
Yaakov Aharon is a Jewish-Australian living in Wollongong. He enjoys long walks on Wollongong Beach, unimpeded by Port Kembla smoke fumes and AUKUS submarines.