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Anti-Semitic graffiti defies Australian values: PM

Jack GramenzAAP
The prime minister has condemned the latest round of anti-Semitic graffiti in Sydney's east. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)
Camera IconThe prime minister has condemned the latest round of anti-Semitic graffiti in Sydney's east. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS) Credit: AAP

A rise in hate speech and racism around Australia has been criticised amid condemnation of another instance of anti-Semitic graffiti.

"F*** the Jews" was painted on a white Volkswagen parked in Queens Park, in Sydney's east - the latest in a string of inflammatory slogans sprayed around the city.

NSW Police are investigating the graffiti which was believed to have been sprayed between 7am Sunday and 5.45am Monday and have appealed for anyone with information to contact authorities.

Other anti-Semitic slogans were sprayed on buildings and footpaths in nearby Woollahra and "cancel Islam" was written on an advertising board in the western Sydney suburb of Sefton in December.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday there was no tolerance for anti-Semitism, labelling it a "scourge".

"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," he told reporters.

The December graffiti in Sydney's east came shortly after the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne's southeast was firebombed, prompting federal police to set up a special operation investigating threats towards the Jewish community and parliamentarians.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip said whoever sprayed the graffiti should face the full force of the law.

"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 neighbourhood," he said.

Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich said the latest graffiti was part of a pattern forming a "toxic mosaic of prejudice" designed to make Jewish people feel unsafe.

Dr Abramovich said it could not be allowed to continue.

"Australia is a nation where compassion crushes hatred, where solidarity silences division and where the merchants of bigotry will always meet defeat," he said in a statement.

High-visibility patrols and community engagement are being conducted and additional police have been assigned to combat a rise in deeply alarming anti-Semitic incidents, NSW Premier Chris Minns said.

"The NSW government is committed to blunting this appalling increase in hateful and violent acts against the Jewish community," Mr Minns said in a statement.

"We are sending the message that this is not only intolerable - it is an outrage.

"Jewish people expect and deserve to feel safe in their own city."

NSW Opposition Leader Mark Speakman called the graffiti a "vile act".

"It strikes at the heart of the inclusive and multicultural society we cherish in NSW," he said in a statement.

The rise of hate speech and intimidation in Australia has been linked to the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman in December said anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and racism against Arabs and Palestinians had dramatically increased.

He has called for a society-wide response to address the structural problems he says are allowing racism.

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