Sydney cars, houses sprayed with antisemitic graffiti in latest attack on Australian Jews

SYDNEY — Cars and houses in Sydney were daubed in antisemitic graffiti, police said on Sunday (Feb 2), the latest in a string of incidents targeting Jews in Australia's biggest city.

The spate of attacks in recent months has alarmed the country's Jewish community, drawn criticism from Israel and placed pressure on the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who faces re-election in polls that must be held by May.

In the latest incident, police said on Sunday that vehicles and residences were damaged with antisemitic graffiti in Sydney's east, an area with a significant Jewish community, overnight.

"Crime scenes have been established," police said in a statement, a day after they doubled to 40 the number of officers in a special taskforce set up in December to target antisemitic crime in the country's most populous state of New South Wales.

David Ossip, president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, said in the attack on Sunday "cars and homes were defaced with hate speech for the sole purpose of intimidating and terrorising the Jewish community and destabilising Sydney's social harmony".

On Thursday, antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on three sites including Mount Sinai College in the city's east, one of almost a dozen incidents in the city of around five million in recent months that police say appeared to be coordinated.

Police said on Wednesday they found explosives in a caravan, or trailer, in Sydney that could have created a blast wave of 40 metres (130 feet), and may have been intended for a mass casualty attack on Jews.

Albanese, previously criticised by the conservative opposition coalition as weak for failing to prevent hate crimes against Jews, has repeatedly condemned antisemitism, saying there is no place for it in Australia's "tolerant multicultural community".

Australia has seen an increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and Israel launched its war on Gaza.

ALSO READ: Jews in Australia up security, conceal identity after spate of antisemitic attacks