Antisemitic vandal’s surprising vow after Bondi attack

A vandal who spearheaded an antisemitic rampage has vowed to seek retribution for the Bondi terror attack on behalf of the Jewish community, a judge has been told.

Mohommed Farhat led a 41-minute campaign of destruction through Woollahra, a heartland for Australia’s Jewish community, in the dead of the night on November 20, 2024.

The 21-year-old and his accomplice, Thomas Stojanovski, also 21, left 10 cars covered in graffiti, burned two, and vandalised four buildings in the eastern Sydney suburb.

“F*** Israel” and “PKK coming” – a reference to the terror-designated Kurdistan Workers’ Party – were among the slurs emblazoned across the cars and buildings.

Farhat was jailed in November for up to 1 year and 8 months after pleading guilty to a raft of charges, including multiple counts of property damage.

He was due to be released in December, but the State Parole Authority revoked his bail before his release, finding that he posed a serious and identifiable risk to community safety.

Ahead of an appeal against the severity of his jail sentence, the state government prepared for the possibility of Farhat’s release by making an urgent application for a supervision order.

The 21-year-old poses a risk of committing a terrorism offence if he isn’t supervised in the community, barrister Trish McDonald SC told the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday.

He has been linked to the son of the late Comancheros national president, Mick Hawi, and to an alleged Alameddine associate, as well as others associated with his offending, she said.

Ongoing communication with those negative peer influences raises concerns about whether he has cut ties so as to lessen the threat of reoffending, Ms McDonald noted.

Farhat – who has a tattoo of a Hezbollah symbol on his neck – was motivated by violence against the Jewish community, and his risk factors didn’t appear to have been resolved in prison, the prosecutor said.

But Farhat’s barrister Peter Lange SC said he has shown remorse for his actions and expressed sympathy for the Jewish community following the Bondi Beach massacre.

In a prison phone call, the court was told Farhat said he would kill those responsible for gunning down 15 people on the evening of December 14.

“It demonstrates a complete lack of ideology if he can be persuaded from one side of the political divide to the other,” Mr Lange said.

The absence of an ideology meant Farhat was less likely to reoffend, he said.

The “hypothetical risk possibilities” identified by the prosecution could not be elevated to highly likely probabilities and are insufficient to demonstrate the need for supervision, he argued.

A risk assessment found Farhat had a need for belonging.

If exposed to an ideology in the Jewish community that justified retribution and the use of violence, he would likely be unable to refuse an offer to join, it found.

Justice Peter Hamill declined to make the interim supervision order on Thursday but granted permission for an urgent application if Farhat’s appeal is successful.

The appeal will be heard on Friday.

By: Adelaide Lang/AAP