Sydney cars, houses sprayed with anti-Semitic graffiti in latest attack on Australian Jews
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The spate of anti-Semitic attacks in recent months has alarmed Australia’s Jewish community.
PHOTO: AFP
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SYDNEY – Cars and houses in Sydney were daubed in anti-Semitic graffiti, police said on Feb 2, the latest in a string of incidents targeting Jews in Australia’s biggest city. The spate of attacks in recent months has alarmed Australia’s Jewish community, drawn criticism from Israel and placed pressure on the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who faces re-election in polls that must be held by May.
In the latest incident, police said vehicles and residences were damaged overnight with anti-Semitic graffiti in Sydney’s east, an area with a significant Jewish community.
“Crime scenes have been established,” police said in a statement, a day after they doubled to 40 the number of officers in a special task force set up in December to target anti-Semitic crime in the country’s most populous state of New South Wales.
Mr David Ossip, president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, said that in the attack on Feb 2, “cars and homes were defaced with hate speech for the sole purpose of intimidating and terrorising the Jewish community and destabilising Sydney’s social harmony”.
On Jan 30, anti-Semitic graffiti was sprayed on three sites, including Mount Sinai College in Sydney’s east, one of almost a dozen incidents in the city of around five million in recent months that police say appeared to be coordinated.
Police said on Jan 29 that they found explosives in a caravan, or trailer, in Sydney that could have created a blast wave of 40m, and may have been intended for a mass casualty attack on Jews.
Mr Albanese, previously criticised by the conservative opposition coalition as weak for failing to prevent hate crimes against Jews, has repeatedly condemned anti-Semitism, saying there is no place for it in Australia’s “tolerant multicultural community”.
Australia has seen an increase in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents since militant group Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and Israel launched its war on Gaza. REUTERS
