Unwelcome signs
Graffiti threatening Jews at a market in the Melbourne suburb of Wantirna was removed promptly after the Anti-Defamation Commission intervened this week.
The offending graffiti
“The best Jew is a dead Jew,” read the paint scrawled in a public toilet with a picture of hanged stick figure.
The graffiti was discovered on the weekend in a men’s public toilets at the Wantirna Trash and Treasure market last weekend and reported to the ADC first thing on Monday morning. ADC arranged for market management to have the sign painted over.
ADC Chairman Anton Block said there had been an increase in cases of anti-Jewish graffiti in Melbourne over the past six months and it was essential the community had an organization that could act promptly to have this material removed.
“We know graffiti prompts copycat crime when it hangs around. Owners of private property are generally agreeable to removing it when asked by ADC but they don’t get around to it otherwise.
“We need to be active and vigilant and be aware that unfortunately the people who hate us are out there and we need to defend ourselves.”
He said every week ADC dealt with cases of Jews being abused, threatened or subject to prejudice.
Very few Jews live in Wantirna which is situated about 10kms from Melbourne’s Mt Scopus College.
