Fresh anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney’s east prompt calls for tougher penalties

Anti-Semitism is ‘an evil still spreading in our neighbourhoods’ said the Anti-Defamation Commission chair, as multiple vehicles and properties were plastered with graffiti in Sydney’s eastern suburbs overnight.

Anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed on See Lane in Kingsford on Saturday. Picture: Supplied

Anti-Semitic graffiti has been plastered on multiple homes and cars in Sydney’s east overnight.

Police said that about 7am today, officers from Eastern Beaches Police Area Command attended See Lane, Kingsford and King Lane, Randwick, after receiving reports that multiple vehicles, garages and properties had been spray painted.

Multiple vehicles, garages and properties were targeted. Picture: Supplied

Police have established crime scenes at both locations and investigations have commenced under Strike Force Pearl, which has been conducting investigations into other anti-Semitic attacks in NSW.

Last night’s incident comes as similar slurs were spray-painted on a school property and a nearby home in Maroubra on Thursday, the day after it was revealed that police had discovered a caravan laden with explosives on the side of a road on the outskirts of Sydney.

More than 100 police have been thrown into the investigation after the caravan was found packed with Powergel explosives suspected to have been stolen from a mine site and containing a note with the addresses of Jewish targets.

The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies on Sunday said penalties for anti-Semitic graffiti attacks “must be strengthened so that any would-be assailant is deterred” following the defacement of cars and homes in Randwick and Kingsford.

The statement said the hate speech was written “for the sole purpose of intimidating and terrorising the Jewish community and destabilising Sydney’s social harmony”.

“There have been more than 10 publicly reported serious incidents of antisemitic vandalism, arson and worse in the last three weeks alone - a figure that doesn’t include the graffiti appearing on our streets on a daily basis or the abuse and harassment that goes unreported.”

The group said it was “incumbent upon society ... not to become desensitised to this campaign of domestic terrorism.”

Police investigate the latest Anti-Semitic graffiti attack. Picture: NewsWire / Simon Bullard

“To find our way back, every Australian must call out this behaviour, the terrorists perpetrating and arranging these crimes must be apprehended and penalties must be strengthened so that any would-be assailant is deterred. The Jewish community is not asking for any special treatment - only a return to normality.”

Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission Dr Dvir Abramovich said anti-Semitic graffiti was an “instrument of fear”.

“Another morning, another day when Jewish families wake up to find hateful slurs defacing homes and cars. This is a vicious reminder that anti-Semitism is no relic of the past but an evil still spreading in our neighbourhoods. These spray-painted words are instruments of fear, calculated to shatter the sense of safety that every Australian deserves,” he said.

“The knowledge that someone, under cover of darkness, took the time to craft this message of exclusion and intimidation is enough to send a chill down the spine of any community. This is a calculated assault on belonging, an attempt to make Jewish Australians feel like outsiders in their own country.”

“Every slur, every symbol of hate, chips away at the collective trust that binds us together. Acts like these demand more than condemnation—they demand action, an unequivocal stand against those who seek to poison our society with bigotry. Today, the paint may dry, but the scars left behind will not fade quickly. The fight against antisemitism is, at its core, a fight for the soul of our nation.”

The strike force’s Commander Detective Superintendent Darren Newman, will address the media this afternoon.