A car was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti in a Sydney neighborhood on Monday, according to Australian politicians and Jewish organizations.
“F**k the Jews” was sprayed in black on the vehicle in the Queens Park suburb, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Australian Jewish Association said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned antisemitism when asked about the incident at a press briefing.“There is no tolerance for antisemitism in Australia from my government, nor should there be tolerance from anyone else,” said Albanese.
“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 by, overwhelmingly, Australians.”
New South Wales opposition leader Mark Speakman said on X/Twitter that Jewish Australians had a right to feel safe in the country.
“Yet another vile act of antisemitism, and it strikes at the heart of the inclusive and multicultural society we cherish in NSW,” he said.
The New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies said it was unacceptable that Jewish Australians had to wake up again to vandalism in a city in which vehicles had been defaced several times by antisemitic vandals.
“It is intolerable that Australians are having to go to bed fearful that their cars or properties will be defaced overnight with antisemitic hate speech,” said the NSW Jewish Board.
“We cannot allow ourselves to become desensitized to acts of Jew-Hatred and allow illegal conduct such as this to become normalized.”
The board called for laws to be “tightened” to address hate speech and incitement.
A product of incitement
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said the act was a product of incitement, demonization, and a belief that such sentiments were permitted.
“The Australian Jewish community awoke to another despicable hate crime vandalizing property in a suburb with a large Jewish community and multiple Jewish communal facilities. No one just vandalizes a car with a racist slogan,” said the ECAJ. “It also demonstrates how the racist targeting of Jews impacts wider society.”
The Australian Jewish Association blamed the Labor-led government, which has been critical of Israel’s conduct in the ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, for the ongoing antisemitic vandalism and violence.
“So tell us again how this is not antisemitism and just a protest by those who object to Israel’s actions,” the AJA posted on X.
This latest Sydney antisemitic attack follows incidents such as a car being set ablaze and two properties spray painted with anti-Israel messages in Sydney on December 11, according to Reuters. Additionally, several vehicles were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti, and one was set on fire in the Woollahra area in mid-November.