SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — Nineteen anti-Israel protesters were arrested following a clash with police in downtown Melbourne.
Three police officers were injured in the July 2 confrontation outside a Max Brenner chocolate shop, the Herald Sun reported.
Sixteen of the activists were charged for offenses that included assaulting police, riotous behavior and trespassing, the paper reported.
The downtown protest, organized by leftist groups, accused Israel of "ongoing ethnic cleansing" and targeted Max Brenner because its Israeli parent company, the Strauss Group, supports the Israel Defense Forces, organizers claimed.
Michael Danby, a Jewish lawmaker from the Labor Party, accused the “prejudiced extremists” of hypocrisy.
"While 1,500 people are murdered in Syria, they launch their own sad little attack on a chocolate shop because it also has stores in Israel," Danby, who was in Israel last week, was quoted as saying.
