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The 21-year-old man was charged with intimidation intended to cause fear of physical harm.
By MICHAEL STARR FEBRUARY 3, 2025 17:26 Updated: FEBRUARY 3, 2025 17:38
Police officers and detectives inspect the area where anti-Israel graffiti was written on a wall in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra on December 11, 2024.
(photo credit: DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images)
An Australian man was set to face charges of intimidation on Monday following the antisemitic abuse of a woman in a Sydney suburb on Saturday, the New South Wales Police Force announced.
Officers attached to Strike Force Pearl, a task force established in December to address antisemitic crime in the Sydney area, when they were flagged by a woman reporting the antisemitic abuse.
The 21-year-old man was charged with intimidation intended to cause fear of physical harm. He was also charged for damaging a Newtown property in an unrelated January 15 incident, as well as breach of bail. The suspect also had two unrelated outstanding warrants for domestic violence and shoplifting.
Jewish women pelted by eggs in the same area on Saturday. According to the police, it was believed that they had been targeted due to their appearance. The vehicle used in the incident was found abandoned with egg cartons and a petrol can.
The man arrested for intimidation was the twelfth to be charged under Strike Force Pearl; the eleventh being a man arrested on Friday in Kingsford for defacing a wall "with a number of drawings and writings, including a Nazi symbol and a swastika."
Vandalism spree
The charges against the Kingsford vandal came after a Saturday vandalism spree in the Kingsford and Randwick Sydney suburbs. The weekend saw other incidents of vandalism in other states.
In the Melbourne area a home was defaced with graffiti on Friday. Over Saturday night in the Perth area, a home, a 'for sale' sign, and a traffic sign was graffitied with antisemitic graffiti, according to the Western Australia Police Force.
Shadow Home Affairs Minister and Senator James Paterson criticized the ruling Labor-government for the wave of graffiti that hit three cities, mocking that the incidents could be logged into a new antisemitic crimes database announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on January 21.
"So far there is no evidence being added to an excel spreadsheet will deter antisemites or criminals for hire," Paterson said on X Sunday. "Only real action can do that."
Paterson called on the Albanese government to reform legislation for incitement to violence, mandate minimum sentences for terrorism sentences and display of terrorist symbols, and to establish a multi-agency federal counter-antisemitism task force.
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Strike Force Pearl's increase in resources came into effect on Saturday, after having originally been announced the same day as the antisemitism database. An additional 20 investigators were deployed under the task force, doubling its manpower.
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