Police are investigating parallels between the antisemitic attack in Woollahra in the early hours of Wednesday and organised crime hits that have dogged Sydney for the past six years.
Vandals thought to be aged in their late teens sprayed anti-Israel messages on two homes and a footpath in the upmarket suburb of Woollahra around 1am.
“Death 2 Israiel” [sic] and “Kill Israiel” [sic] were scrawled across the garden walls of homes on Magney Street, with messages also sprayed on the footpath outside.
A small red hatchback, which police believe to be stolen, was also set alight.
That car has given investigators pause for thought. Police too are concerned about the cloned number plates seized from the vehicle.
Both the vehicular fire and the cloned plates – a duplicated numberplate from another car of the same make, model and colour – are hallmarks of underworld shootings.
Public place shootings began in earnest in 2018 with the assassination of Mick Hawi outside a Rockdale gym, and continue as part of the battle to control the city’s drug trade.
The most recent, the execution of Nadal Acherkouk at a Surry Hills petrol station on a busy Friday night, was three weeks ago.
Police are throwing considerable resources at the Woollahra attack, including detectives from the city’s Central Metropolitan Command and the State Crime Squad’s engagement and hate crime unit.
The eastern suburbs will also see “extra car crews conducting high visibility patrols and community engagement”, police said on Thursday.
Last month, police created Strike Force Mylor after antisemitic graffiti was scrawled on Matt Moran’s Chiswick restaurant and surrounding vehicles, and a ute was set alight. Two men were charged over the incident and remain before the courts.
Politicians condemned Wednesday’s graffiti attack in Woollahra, which came one week after an arsonist firebombed a synagogue in Melbourne that police have described as a likely terrorist attack.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the incident as “an outrage” and visited Sydney’s Jewish Museum to reassure the community of his support.
“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.
“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.”
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the attack was a disgusting display of antisemitism.
“This isn’t just a random act of destruction,” he said. “This was specifically designed to, in my view, incite hate and intimidate the Jewish community in Sydney.”
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