The Jewish community in Sydney, Australia was again targeted with antisemitic hate this week when a car was tagged with the epithet, “F—k the Jews”.
Police are investigating the vandalism.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the graffiti, spray-painted in black letters on the vehicle overnight the Queens Park neighborhood in the city.
Ironically, the car is owned by a man who is not even Jewish; a Jewish neighbor discovered the vandalism on Monday morning when she left her home for a walk.
“It’s like a cricket bat that hits your head,” she told ABC News in Australia. “Just shock that it’s here, it’s finally come outside your front door.”
“There is no tolerance for antisemitism in Australia from my government, nor should there be tolerance from anyone else,” Albanese told reporters at a news conference.
“Antisemitism is a scourge and any event such as this, targeting people because of who they are, is not the Australian values that I hold dear, and the Australian values that are held dear, overwhelming, by Australians.”
Just a few days earlier, a man pretended to point a gun at a synagogue on Sydney’s north shore, according to police quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald.
Police alleged a man inside a moving car made a gun gesture with his hands, “aiming” it towards a man in St. Ives on Shabbat, January 4, in the early morning hours.
According to the report, the same perpetrator also made the same gesture towards a man at a synagogue a short time later.
Police arrested a suspect in connection with the case late Monday night, shortly after the antisemitic epithet was spray-painted in Queens Park.
The 20-year-old suspect was taken into custody in North Turramurra and charged with stalking or intimidating, intending fear of physical harm, before being released on bail.
“Yet another appalling incident that shows the levels of hatred felt towards our community and a willingness to publicly express it,” Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said in a statement in response to the incident.
“Unless there are severe consequences in terms of both the law and social exclusion for anti-Jewish racists, this will get worse and worse.”
Is Australia still safe for Jews?
A dozen cars were spraypainted or torched overnight by antisemites in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs. pic.twitter.com/3bIPKu9poU— Daniel (@VoteLewko) November 20, 2024
Pro-terror protesters — primarily Middle Eastern-appearing men — gathered last month in Sydney’s Western suburbs to shout ‘Khaybar, Khaybar, ya yahud’.
The slogan recalls a series of seventh-century battles between Mohammed and local Jews during the first few years of Islam’s establishment in Khabar, an historic Arabian oasis north of Medina in present-day Saudi Arabia.
The chant commemorates the massacre of Jews during those battles and is heard at numerous anti-Israel demonstrations around the world.
Large crowds of Middle Eastern men gather and shout antisemitic chants in Sydney's Western Suburbs as children look on.
The chant 'Khaybar, Khaybar, ya yahud' commemorates a massacre of Jews and has featured in Islamic terrorist attacks.
Australia's immigration system has… pic.twitter.com/sOnjHuvFcp
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) December 8, 2024
There have been other antisemitic events in Sydney as well.
Insane
Anti-Jewish protest outside the Great Synagogue in Sydney.
Police stand by as a Jewish education-themed event is targeted.
A Jew was detained by police after they spotted him with a flag of the Jewish state. pic.twitter.com/EFmgrll49v
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) December 4, 2024
In November 2024, anti-Israel graffiti was spray-painted on cars and some buildings, and at least one car was set ablaze in the nearby suburb of Woollahra, home to a large Jewish population. Two men were arrested in connection with the incident.
Days after a Melbourne synagogue was firebombed, a Sydney suburb was graffitied and a car torched in a neighborhood with a lot of Jewish families.
Wake up Australia. Your country is turning into a cesspool of Jew-hatred. pic.twitter.com/aAI2vhWYMv
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) December 10, 2024
In fact, there are antisemitic incidents in Sydney nearly every month, sometimes several times in a month.
The government has done little to protect the Jewish community in the city, and it’s not clear how or if that situation is likely to change anytime soon.
