The alleged mastermind behind several antisemitic attacks across Sydney and his alleged accomplice in the defacement of a synagogue in Allawah were charged following an investigation by the Strike Force Pearl antisemitism task force, the New South Wales Police Force announced on Wednesday.
Tarek Zahabe, 27, identified by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), was charged on July 17 for participating in a criminal group to engage in unlawful activity after allegedly directing Kye Pickering, 26, to vandalize the Southern Sydney Synagogue on January 10.
The early morning incident, which drew outrage from the Jewish community and Australian political leaders such as NSW Premier Chris Minns, saw several swastikas and slogans spray-painted onto the house of worship.
“Hitler on top” and “Free Palestine” were written on the synagogue’s facade, as well as a mention of “Allah.”
Pickering was charged on June 26 for property damage greater than $2,000, the public display of a Nazi symbol, and participation in an unlawful group crime.
Zahabe has also been charged with two more accounts of crimes as part of an unlawful group, as well as directing a criminal group, in relation to the January 17 Dover Heights incident involving the former home of a Jewish leader, the January 20 arson and vandalization of a Maroubra kindergarten, and the January 29 vandalization of the Maroubra Mount Sinai College Jewish school.
The Dover Heights home, in which Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin used to live, was splashed with paint. Two nearby cars were set ablaze, and multiple more were graffitied with antisemitic slogans.
Three days later, a Maroubra kindergarten was set on fire in a suspected arson that caused extensive damage to the building. Antisemitic graffiti was also found at the site, though the child care center was not a Jewish community facility. This site was in close proximity to a synagogue, and Jewish groups believed that the vandals had sought to target a Jewish kindergarten attached to that house of worship.
A Jewish day school was vandalized nine days later in Maroubra. Mount Sinai College, an educational facility for kindergarten to grade six students, was vandalized with antisemitic slogans. A nearby home was also defaced.
Slogans spray-painted at the sites included “Jew dogs” and “Jews are the real terrorists.”
The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies thanked law enforcement for their efforts and determination in a Wednesday Facebook post.
“Many in the community will sleep more soundly in the knowledge that at least some of these attackers are no longer a threat,” the board wrote.
A potential criminal network of antisemitic crime
Other suspects were arrested in relation to the Mount Sinai College incident and were allegedly part of a criminal network orchestrating a series of antisemitic incidents across the state.
A 40-year-old Penshurst man was arrested and charged on March 10 as a suspect in the January 29 incident in a simultaneous police sweep that caught 14 people connected to the network.
A 41-year-old Eastlakes man was arrested on March 13 and charged on March 20 for his role in vandalizing the Jewish school and a home. The men were also suspected of debasing an Eastgardens shopping center and an Eastlakes home.
The criminal network these individuals were allegedly part of had supposedly conducted antisemitic attacks as part of what police said was a “con job.”
In this regard, according to the NSW police and the Australian Federal Police, the March 10 arrests revealed that over 15 incidents were not motivated by antisemitism; they were designed to distract police from other criminal endeavors.
The criminals also allegedly sought to reduce their criminal sentences in exchange for helping law enforcement with faux terrorist plots that they orchestrated, allegedly including the Dural explosive-filled caravan incident.
This theory was complicated on August 26 when the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) alleged that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was responsible for at least two antisemitic arson attacks in Australia.
One of these, notably, is associated with the October 20 Lewis’ Continental Kitchen arson attack in Sydney, which was also connected to the supposed “con job” network.
Two men were arrested in connection with the arson of this kosher eatery in the March 10 crime ring sweep. A man identified by the ABC as Sayed Moosawi had contracted the men to conduct the arson after two others had mistakenly set fire to a similarly named business.
ASIO had related in a press briefing with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that Iran had used criminal proxies to conduct antisemitic arson attacks in the country, and it was likely that the Islamic Republic of Iran was responsible for more incidents.