‘Zionist scum’ daubed on Perth Jewish school
VANDALS struck at Perth’s Carmel School early last Friday morning, daubing a message of hatred on a wall.
VANDALS struck at Perth’s Carmel School early last Friday morning, daubing a message of hatred on a wall.
When staff and students arrived at Carmel on Friday morning, they discovered the words “Zionist scum” scrawled in black paint on the brick wall.
Robin Cohen, operations manager of the Jewish Community Council of Western Australia’s Community Security Group (CSG), told The AJN the vandals appeared to have struck around 4am on July 25.
“The person or persons that did it did a good job of concealing themselves and all the CCTV in the area wasn’t able to identify the vehicle they left in. Unless they come back or go somewhere else, the chances of actually catching them are limited,” he said.
The daubing has since been scrubbed away but Cohen said “there are some nervous parents” trying to see what additional measures can be taken to protect the school.
He said the WA CSG has ramped up security in line with the eastern states after the outbreak of the Gaza war.
“It’s just awful, it’s just absolutely awful,” a shaken parent told Perth’s Nine News. “I don’t know why anybody would be filled with so much hate that they would target a school” another parent said.
Principal David Taylor refused to comment on the incident but JCCV WA president David Denver said the defacement seemed to be related to the Gaza conflict and described it as “another example of anti-Semitic activity that’s currently happening around the world”.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Robert Goot said: “There can be little doubt that the perpetrator or perpetrators intended to intimidate young children at the school and their parents. This is criminal behaviour which has nothing to do with politics or humanitarian concerns of any kind.”
Zionist Federation of Australia president Dr Danny Lamm said the daubing “is a warning to Australia that there are elements right across the country who don’t recognise multiculturalism, who don’t recognise the rights of other people to have a different point of view and who are prepared to infringe on those rights and perpetrate their hate and their violence”.
Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Dr Colin Rubenstein said the attack “demonstrated the levels of hatred whipped up by opponents of Israel’s legitimate military campaign in defence of its citizens and is especially disturbing as the intention was clearly to intimidate children”.
PETER KOHN
The hate message scrawled on a wall of Carmel College in Perth. Photo: The Maccabean.
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