PM lashes ‘evil’ antisemitic attack as police boost Sydney patrols

Warning: Offensive Content

Police will increase patrols across Sydney to deter antisemitic attacks after vandals again targeted the Jewish community in the city’s eastern suburbs on Wednesday morning.

But NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said it would take more than just police to stop crimes motivated by hate after a spate of attacks across Australia, including the firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne last week, which has been deemed a likely terrorist incident.

The incidents come amid heightened community tensions in Sydney after 14 months of deadly conflict in the Middle East involving Israel, Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In Sydney’s east on Wednesday, Jewish residents were left shaken and upset after learning vandals believed to be aged between 15 and 20 had sprayed anti-Israel messages on two homes and a footpath in the upmarket suburb of Woollahra.

“Death 2 Israiel” and “Kill Israiel” were scrawled across the garden walls of homes on Magney Street at about 1am, with messages also sprayed on the footpath outside. A car at the scene, which police believe was stolen, was also set alight.

It was the second such attack in Woollahra in a matter of weeks. Cars were damaged and anti-Israel slogans were sprayed on the doors of Matt Moran’s nearby Chiswick restaurant last month. Two men are in custody facing charges over that incident.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called for an end to “evil” antisemitism in Australia, adding that attacks like that in Woollahra “diminish us as a nation”.

“To awake to this latest attack just a matter of kilometres from here, in Woollahra … [it] is completely abhorrent to who we are as Australians,” he said during a visit to the Sydney Jewish Museum on Wednesday afternoon.

“They are acts which are aimed at promoting fear in the community, and that, by any definition, is what terrorism is about.

“We need a whole of government, a whole of society [effort], as well, to make sure this is stamped out.”

Anthony Albanese addresses media at the Sydney Jewish Museum on Wednesday.Credit: Oscar Colman

Premier Chris Minns condemned the attack as “a disgusting display of antisemitism” designed to put fear into the hearts of those who live in Sydney’s east, noting Woollahra has a large Jewish population.

He said he was also open to introducing tougher laws to stop hate crimes.

“This isn’t just a random act of destruction,” he said. “This was a targeted attack in Sydney’s eastern suburbs … directly after the burning down of a synagogue.

“We cannot have a situation where we are importing conflicts around the world onto the streets of Sydney and saying, ‘Well, it’s just inevitable because something happened on the other side of the world’. That’s not going to be the case in Australia.”

Webb said Operation Shelter, which police set up after last year’s October 7 attacks in Israel, would be scaled up, with increased patrols targeting suburbs where there was community concern, noting there had been “an increase in reports of hatred in the eastern area of Sydney”.

But Webb said preventing crimes motivated by hate required broader community action and not just more policing.

“We need families to have discussions with their children, their young ones, with whole of community, to say, ‘This is not on. It’s not acceptable to use violence, damage property. If there’s hate, then you can’t express your hate by hurting other people and damaging property.’”

An emotional Kellie Sloane, the Liberal MP for Vaucluse, visited Magney Street on Wednesday morning and said Woollahra residents felt vulnerable and under attack.

“It feels like this is a pattern of intimidation and hatred against a community that is trying to go about their everyday lives peacefully.

“There’s a lot of emotion in the community this morning. People are both deeply upset and emotional. There are people in tears.

“There are also people expressing incredible anger, anger that this continues to happen.”

The attack in Woollahra follows the announcement on Monday of a new AFP antisemitism taskforce, Operation Avalite, to investigate threats and violence towards the Australian Jewish community.

“There are also people expressing incredible anger – anger that this continues to happen.”

The president of Woollahra’s Emanuel Synagogue, Grant McCorquodale, said the attack had left people “genuinely scared” and fearful about “what is going to happen next”.

“This is a beautiful suburb, a beautiful part of Sydney, and the whole suburb has been desecrated,” he said. “Every neighbour, everyone in Woollahra, is just sick of it. Every Australian is sick of it.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the Jewish community had again woken to “scenes of terror and devastation”.

“More burning cars and broken glass. Another act intended to terrorise us, drive us from our country and make our fellow Australians fearful of associating with us,” he said, adding that he expected the AFP’s new antisemitism taskforce “to bring the perpetrators swiftly to justice”.

Police are investigating antisemitic graffiti painted on the walls of an Arncliffe construction site.Credit:

On Monday, police travelling on the Princes Highway at Arncliffe spotted antisemitic graffiti painted on the walls of a construction site. The graffiti was being painted over on Wednesday afternoon.

“Hitler was right,” part of the graffiti read.

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