A chilling act of antisemitic hate has erupted in the heart of Melbourne, with the words “Death to Israel” scrawled outside the State Library of Victoria, one of the city’s most iconic public spaces.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chair of the Anti-Defamation Commission, said: “This is not graffiti. This is a call for death. Right in the heart of our city, in broad daylight, someone has written a message that does not just target a country, it targets a people. ‘Death to Israel’ is a slogan soaked in blood. It is a threat. It is incitement. It is antisemitism, stripped bare and screaming in plain sight.
If you are Jewish in Melbourne today, you walk past this and you don’t see paint on a wall. You see a warning. A message that says: you are not safe. And we have already seen where this road leads. We saw it in Bondi, when fifteen innocent people were murdered at a Hanukkah celebration. That kind of evil does not appear out of nowhere. “