‘F*** the Jews’ scrawled on car in Sydney, drawing condemnation from Australian PM
Jewish community leaders speak out against what they say is a rising tide of attacks; unlike previous incidents, graffiti not couched as criticism of Israel
A car in Sydney was spray-painted with an obscene anti-Jewish slogan overnight Sunday, prompting Australia’s prime minister to speak out against the latest incident of antisemitic hate to roil the country in recent weeks.
The vehicle, which was parked in the heavily Jewish neighborhood of Queens Park, was daubed with “Fuck the Jews.”
The vandalism followed similar incidents in which anti-Israel messages were scrawled on cars in the nearby Woollahra neighborhood in November and December. Unlike those cases, the spray-paint discovered early Monday specified Jews, further alarming local residents, the Australian Jewish News reported. The owner of the car is not Jewish.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the incident.
“There is no tolerance for antisemitism in Australia, from my government, nor should there be tolerance from anyone else,” he said.
“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.”
Police opened an investigation into the incident, which came after a spate of attacks targeting the Jewish community last month that included the torching of a synagogue in Melbourne.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said he was “horrified” by the “abhorrent” act.
The state government “is committed to blunting this appalling increase in hateful and violent acts against the Jewish community,” he said. “Jewish people expect and deserve to feel safe in their own city.”
“To whoever committed this act – you will be found, and you will face the full force of the law,” Minns vowed.
No arrests have been announced, and there was no comment from a federal task force set up last month to tackle mounting antisemitic attacks across Australia.
Will Nemesh, mayor of the neighboring area of Waverly, also spoke out against the spate of incidents. “It is disturbing and shocking to see yet another example of brazen antisemitism targeting our local community.”
The vehicle’s owner, Stuart Veron, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the vandalism is “madness” and “disgusting.” He told ABC that he is not Jewish.
“Whoever did this is a rat,” he said. “There’s no place for this in our community or anywhere in Australia.”
Sharon Greenberg told the Australian Jewish News that she noticed the graffiti on the car, parked outside her Henry Street home, when she went out for a morning walk with her daughter.
“We’d just reached the street, and suddenly my daughter stopped in her tracks – she completely froze – and said, look!” Greenberg recalled. They then alerted the police.
“Seeing that graffiti was like a cricket bat to your head – that’s what it felt like,” she said.
Sydney. Again. Another suburb with a large Jewish community and multiple Jewish communal facilities. No one just vandalises a car with a racist slogan. It is the product of endless incitement, demonisation and a belief that such attitudes are freely permitted, even celebrated. pic.twitter.com/KPxRTpf1bK
— Alex Ryvchin (@AlexRyvchin) January 5, 2025
“Many of our neighbors – when they saw what had happened, came outside too, and were all very shocked,” Greenberg said.
“As a Jewish community, we have a very deep, triggered responses from our collective experience of persecution, so you just can’t help but be triggered by this,” she said. “It’s really disturbing.”
David Ossip, president of the Jewish Board of Deputies in New South Wales, told local media he was “appalled and saddened.”
“It is unacceptable that Jewish Australians and Australians of all backgrounds have had to wake up yet again and see messages of hate prominently displayed in their neighborhood,” he said. “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.”
Attacks on Australia’s Jewish community have proliferated since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, which killed 1,200 people, saw 251 abducted, and prompted the war in Gaza. Cars and buildings have been vandalized and torched around Australia in protests against Israel that have often targeted the Jewish community, and in December a synagogue was set on fire in Melbourne in what authorities described as a terrorist act.
That blaze along with arson attacks on Jewish lawmaker Josh Burns’s Melbourne office in June prompted Australian Federal Police to announce a special operation in December aimed at stemming antisemitism around the country.
Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, said a “rising tide of antisemitism… has swept across our nation since October 7.”
“This is not an isolated incident — it’s part of an alarming pattern, a relentless drumbeat of hate that is growing louder with each passing day,” Abramovich said in a statement.
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said on social media platform X, “No one just vandalizes a car with a racist slogan – it is the product of endless incitement, demonization, and a belief that such attitudes are freely permitted, even celebrated.”
Woollahra this morning. pic.twitter.com/p2SgiKtTve
— Claire Lehmann (@clairlemon) December 10, 2024
The vandalism comes less than a month after a car was set on fire and two homes were graffitied in Woollahra on December 11. That occurred weeks after a vehicle in the area was torched and graffitied with “Fuck Israel.”
On December 20, a group of men held a neo-Nazi demonstration on the front steps of Victoria’s Parliament House in Melbourne.
Some Jewish organizations have said the government has not taken sufficient action in response.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish human rights group, has scolded the Australian government for failing to do enough to stamp out antisemitism.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the Australian government of harboring “anti-Israel sentiment” over what is seen as a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel stance taken by the Albanese government.
