Australian Member of Parliament Andrew Wallace. Photo: Screenshot

Vandals targeted the campaign yard signs of Australian parliamentarian Andrew Wallace in the country’s Sunshine Coast this past weekend, drawing black swastikas over his face on the blue and yellow Liberal National Party ads.

In addition to speaking out forcefully against antisemitism, Wallace serves as deputy chair of the Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee and chair of the Australia-Israel Allies Caucus. He previously worked as Speaker of the House of Representatives and led the campaign that resulted in the criminalization of publicly displaying Nazi symbols, including performing the Sieg Heil salute.

“I have never seen antisemitism as widespread and prevalent on the Sunshine Coast as we are experiencing today,” Wallace said after his campaign signs were vandalized. “Online and on our streets, we are confronting an antisemitism crisis – and it’s only getting worse.”

Wallace said that during the previous nine years he “had plenty of my election signs damaged and defaced, which is in itself a criminal offense, but this is beyond the pale and an affront to the dignity of Jewish Australians who have a right to live their lives in peace. We are better than this.”

Describing how he felt “absolutely appalled by this behavior,” Wallace said “Australia’s antisemitism crisis demands strong leadership, and [Prime Minister] Anthony Albanese, supported by his Teal and Green allies, has proven incapable and in fact, unwilling, to stand up to antisemitism and hate.”

Going further, Wallace urged for listeners to “ask yourself how we got here. The answer is simple: weak leadership, poor decisions, and wrong priorities from Anthony Albanese.”

Following the vandalism, the Australian Jewish Association said that Wallace “is a strong supporter of the Jewish community and Israel and a friend of the AJA.”

Wallace added that “it’s time for Australians to stand up, speak up, and show up for the Jewish community. Report graffiti and all forms of antisemitism to the police and stamp it out in conversation and online.”

Australia has seen a wave of crimes targeting Jews the last six months which authorities have linked to foreign actors paying with cryptocurrency for the antisemitic hate crimes. On March 11, police announced the arrest and charging of 14 people allegedly involved in an organized crime network behind some of the incidents.

“None of the individuals we have arrested … have displayed any form of antisemitic ideology,” New South Wales Police deputy commissioner David Hudson said. “I think these organized crime figures have taken an opportunity to play off the vulnerability of the Jewish community.”

However, Australian Jewish leaders have urged continued vigilance, expressing disappointment with what they described as law enforcement downplaying the severity of the recent spree of antisemitic crimes.

On March 20, police arrested an unnamed 41-year-old man for alleged involvement in the Jan. 29 vandalism of the Jewish day school Mount Sinai College in Maroubra, New South Wales. The graffiti included the phrases “Jew dogs” and “Jews are the real terrorists.”

In December 2024, an arsonist attacked the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, prompting a response from about 60 firefighters with 17 fire trucks. Albanese said at the time that “to attack a place of worship is an attack on Australian values. To attack a synagogue is an act of antisemitism, is attacking the right that all Australians should have to practice their faith in peace and security.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu linked the synagogue attack with Australian government policy toward Israel. “Unfortunately, it is impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia, including the scandalous decision to support the UN resolution calling on Israel ‘to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as rapidly as possible,’ and preventing a former Israeli minister from entering the country,” Netanyahu said.

Since its formation in December, the New South Wales Police Department’s Strike Force Pearl — created to counter antisemitic crime — has made at least 30 arrests.

In an interview with Sky News, Wallace revealed that the vandalism targeting his campaign signs had continued on Monday.

“It’s happened again last night as well — I’ve had reports that the same person it looks like has been out spraying the Nazi cross on my signs,” he said on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, what we’re seeing on the far left of politics and it has to be said on the far right of politics, are that these people are utilizing what happened on Oct. 7, 2023, for their own political purposes. This is a symbol that reflects the death of six million Jews.”

Thanks to Wallace’s efforts, display of that symbol in Australia can now result in a year’s imprisonment.

“I want people who are engaged in antisemitism to be held to account, to be charged, to be incarcerated,” Albanese said following the law’s passage in February.

The post Australian Politician Whose Signs Were Hit With Swastikas Says Time Has Come to ‘Show Up for the Jewish Community’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

El Al planes are seen on the tarmac at Ben-Gurion International airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, March 10, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Ronen Zvulun.

Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) has issued a warning for Israeli and Jewish individuals traveling abroad during the upcoming Passover holiday, citing potential threats from Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other extremist groups.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the NSC identified Iran as a key force behind global terrorism, stressing its ongoing support for operations targeting Israeli and Jewish communities worldwide.

“Iran is the main instigator of global terrorism against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world, both directly and through its proxies,” the statement read. “It continues to use terrorism as a key policy instrument, in response to and in revenge for the harm inflicted on high-ranking Iranian officials and senior Hezbollah and Hamas operatives in the Swords of Iron war.”

Over the past year, several Iran-led terrorist plots targeting Israeli diplomatic missions in countries such as Sweden and Belgium were prevented.

Officials also said there have been efforts by Iranian terrorist groups to engage with Israeli citizens abroad, aiming to harm or abduct them.

Amid the renewed fighting in Gaza, the NSC also issued a warning about potential attacks by Hamas on Israelis abroad, anticipating that the Palestinian terrorist group will intensify its efforts.

Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, security forces have intercepted several attacks on Israeli targets worldwide and uncovered Hamas-linked terror networks operating in countries such as Denmark, Germany, Bulgaria, and Sweden.

According to the NSC, Israel’s attempts to free the remaining hostages in Gaza and its renewed military campaign against Hamas are likely to intensify efforts against Jewish and Israeli interests overseas.

“With the collapse of the ceasefire and resumed fighting in Gaza, we are expecting to see an increase in attempted attacks against Israeli/Jewish targets abroad carried out by local initiatives or lone-wolf attackers,” the statement read.

The NSC also warned of threats from groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda, especially in Europe, while emphasizing that global jihadist operations and networks are primarily active in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

In addition to the increased terrorism threats, the advisory also highlighted the rising surge in hate crimes and antisemitic incidents targeting Jews and Israelis in countries such as Canada, Australia, and Germany.

“The bottom line is that the various terrorist entities (Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, Global Jihad) are still highly motivated and active in advancing attacks against Israelis and Jews around the world,” the NSC warned.

“The backdrop of the hate-filled general feeling towards Israelis and Jews in many countries because of the war continues to fuel motivation among terrorists to carry out attacks against Israelis and Jews abroad.”

The post Israel’s National Security Council Warns of Increased Threats to Jews Abroad Ahead of Passover first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Palestinians protest to demand an end to war, chanting anti-Hamas slogans, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, March 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer

Hamas kills Jews for being Jews, and kills Palestinians for wanting to live.

Uday Al-Raba’i wanted to live, so Hamas fixed him.

This is his story.

Uday used social media to criticize Hamas and its war. In response, Hamas took him and dragged him alive through the streets tied to the back of a car.

Hamas then returned him to his family as he took his last breaths. After he died, some Gazans who were sick of Hamas chanted “Hamas, out, out!” at his funeral.

Uday’s family was livid and called for immediate retaliation against Hamas.

Below are excerpts from a graphic video shared by his family, and a link to the video can be found at this link. Warning: Viewer discretion is advised due to the gruesome nature of the video.

Uday in hiding: Farewell video shortly before his murder

Uday Al-Raba’i: “I of course am done with this war, and now Hamas is attacking us. They want me, they want to shoot me. Before they wanted me and wanted to shoot me, they came to me recently also by surprise. A short while ago, they also shot my brother, and we still do not know who shot him. Masked men came to him — I figure they’re from [Hamas’] Qassam [Brigades], God knows — they shot him, and I’ve been running away since this morning

… And here Gaza is a ghost town, and I am running away through the streets. I don’t know where to go. I don’t know what exactly they want from us, I don’t know. They’ve brought us to annihilation. They’ve brought disaster on us, and I don’t know what they want from the young people, what they want from them — they all have metal pins in their legs [are injured]. I swear to Allah, none of us knows what to do. May Allah save us, and that’s it.”

Uday’s tortured body

⁠Uday’s funeral: “Out! Out! Hamas out! Hamas out!”

⁠Uday’s family demands retaliation: “A rogue group from [Hamas’] Al-Qassam Brigades, a group of sinners, kidnapped my unjustly murdered son, Uday Al-Raba’i, under despicable and false pretexts. They dragged him and tortured him to death with everything they had, without caring about the sacred prohibitions — nor about his mother nor about the family’s feelings.

They took him treacherously, and murdered him. Therefore, they must be struck with an iron fist, these evil criminals who took this man, a Muslim, and murdered him unlawfully… Retaliation against the murderers. The only consolation will be retaliation against these evil murderers, even if it takes time. We ask Almighty Allah to inflict suffering upon them and to punish them severely … We demand that all human rights [organizations] and institutions stand in support of the residents of Gaza against [Hamas] these criminal evildoers.”

[Fatah-run Awdah TV, Telegram channel, March 30, 2025]

Itamar Marcus is the Founder an Director of Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this story first appeared. 

The post Hamas Tortured and Murdered a Gazan Who Dared to Speak Out Against Them first appeared on Algemeiner.com.