Eggs and verbal abuse have been hurled at five young women near Bondi Beach and more cars and buildings spray-painted in the latest anti-Semitic attacks.
Police said they believed the offenders were three young men in a silver Mazda that crashed onto a kerb with the engine running on Saturday night. The car contained a carton of eggs and an empty jerrycan.
Strikeforce Pearl commander Detective Superintendent Darren Newman said investigators are treating the matter as an anti-Semitic incident with the young women’s clothing possibly identifying them as targets.
“We’re looking at hundreds and hundreds of hours of CCTV, we’re trying to track vehicles and persons in all of these matters. We will make sure that we go after every single person involved in those offences,” he told reporters on Sunday.
“We will track you down. What you’ve done last night is highly offensive – it’s criminal.”
Vandals also sprayed cars and garage doors in Sydney’s eastern suburbs with anti-Semitic obscenities, mirroring previous graffiti attacks in the city’s east.
Det Supt Newman said under his command 11 arrests have been made, 66 charges laid and 12 investigations commenced in recent months, with some of the attacks linked.
He ruled out any link between the incidents on Saturday night and a caravan found on Sydney’s northwest outskirts that contained explosive material and addresses of Jewish targets.
Since December a synagogue has been firebombed, multiple cars torched and swastikas and anti-Semitic language painted on vehicles and buildings in Jewish communities.
The Australian Federal Police is investigating whether overseas actors paid local criminals to carry out the anti-Semitic attacks.
As the latest incidents came to light, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton slammed major tech companies over concerns young people are being radicalised online.
“If there is terrorist-related advocacy and spreading of that hate message, they (tech companies) have the algorithms,” he told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.
“As (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general) Mike Burgess would point out, a young person sitting in front of a computer screen can be indoctrinated over a week or two because of the constant videos and bombardment of propaganda,” Mr Dutton said.
He also accused the prime minister and universities of not being strong enough in condemning anti-Semitic conduct.
“The prime minister did nothing about it, the marches on the streets that went on for months and months, waving flags of terrorist organisations, all of that allowed people to believe that there was no red line that could be crossed and there’s no consequence.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has repeatedly and unequivocally condemned acts of anti-Semitism and called for perpetrators to be hunted down and prosecuted.
Federal and state police have investigated and charged people over the waving of terrorist flags at protests.
Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth accused Mr Dutton of playing politics with a serious issue.
“It’s unacceptable that there are people of Jewish faith feeling unsafe in this country but for the government it’s about being responsible and making sure people are actually safe, not playing politics,” she told Sky News.
Mr Dutton has called for mandatory minimum prison time for terrorist offences to be included in hate speech laws set to come before the parliament in the coming days.
Doubt has been cast by the legal fraternity, human rights groups and the government about the effectiveness of mandatory minimum sentencing.
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