Home Australia First Australian is charged by anti-Semitism taskforce after federal police announced a nationwide crackdown on ‘abhorrent’ attacks

First Australian is charged by anti-Semitism taskforce after federal police announced a nationwide crackdown on ‘abhorrent’ attacks

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Pictured is one of the cars set alight in Dover Heights, eastern Sydney, on Friday morning.

A Sydney man is the first person to be charged by an anti-Semitism task force after he allegedly sent death threats to a Jewish community.

The 44-year-old has been charged with one count of using a carriage service to threaten to kill and using a carriage service to threaten, harass or offend.

New South Wales police will allege the man, from Blacktown in Sydney’s west, posted death threats on the social media page of a Jewish association.

He was granted bail and is due to appear at Downing Center Local Court on February 26. If convicted, he could face a maximum of 10 years behind bars.

Australian Federal Police Counterterrorism and Special Investigations Command deputy commissioner Stephen Nutt said anti-Semites “should be on notice.”

‘It is abominable that people are persecuted and threatened because of their race or religion. “If you engage in anti-Semitic conduct, you will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” he said.

The anti-Semitism task force, Special Operation Avalite, was formed following the bombing of Melbourne’s Adass Israel synagogue in December.

This came after earlier arson attacks on cars in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra and the constituency office of Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns.

Pictured is one of the cars set alight in Dover Heights, eastern Sydney, on Friday morning.

Growing threats against the Jewish community in Australia have prompted the creation of an anti-Semitism task force (pictured, police inspect a car set on fire on December 11).

Growing threats against the Jewish community in Australia have prompted the creation of an anti-Semitism task force (pictured, police inspect a car set on fire on December 11).

Nutt said the public could expect more arrests to be made and that several people are still under investigation.

The unprecedented arrest comes as cars in the affluent Sydney suburb of Dover Heights were painted with anti-Semitic slogans and two were set on fire in the early hours of Friday.

Australian Jewish Representative Jillian Segal has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to host a national cabinet meeting to respond to anti-Semitic attacks.

Segal said the incidents were not just about social media threats, graffiti and fire damage, but were designed to send a message of fear to the community.

“If we don’t stop it, we’re really undermining democracy, and I think they haven’t realized yet that they’re taking it on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong did not say whether a national meeting of governments would be coordinated, but agreed Australia must respond to the issue.

“I think Jillian Segal is absolutely right in pointing out that this is not just a problem for the Jewish community, but it is an attack on all of us and who we are,” Senator Wong told ABC Radio National.

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