{"id":364968,"date":"2025-12-22T17:54:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T17:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364968\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T17:54:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T17:54:17","slug":"queensland-man-arrested-following-dozens-of-antisemitic-graffiti-offences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/364968\/","title":{"rendered":"Queensland man arrested following dozens of antisemitic graffiti offences"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Coolum Beach man has been arrested following months of alleged antisemitic graffiti across Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.<\/p>\n

Police have charged the man with 25 counts of wilful damage after he was arrested last week.<\/p>\n

It is alleged the 27-year-old spray-painted the antisemitic graffiti onto public property in multiple locations between February and December.<\/p>\n

Police believe there could be more graffiti across the region that has not been reported, which could lead to further charges.<\/p>\n

The man is expected to appear in the Maroochydore Magistrates Court on January 12.<\/p>\n

Sunshine Coast-based Rabbi Oshy Goodman commended police for the arrest.<\/p>\n

“I want to thank the police for acting decisively and for taking this seriously \u2014 it’s a big deal,” Mr Goodman said.<\/p>\n

“We’re very grateful as a community.”<\/p>\n

\"Four<\/p>\n

Rabbi Oshy Goodman (centre) has thanked police for making the arrest. (Supplied: Sunshine Coast Council)<\/p>\n

Mr Goodman said it was concerning to see antisemitic incidents on the rise across the country.<\/p>\n

“Our response as a community can’t just be enforcement, it has to also be about strengthening goodness and decency and education,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It is concerning, but at the same time we do see more goodness, neighbours are standing together and people are reaching out in solidarity in incredible numbers, which really does outbalance the hate.<\/p>\n

“I think that is the real story of the Sunshine Coast.”<\/p>\n

Hate speech reform<\/p>\n

The arrest comes days after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced plans to reform hate speech laws<\/a> in the wake of the deadly Bondi Beach terror attack.<\/p>\n

Shadow attorney-general and federal member for Fisher Andrew Wallace said he was alarmed by the arrest.<\/p>\n

“If he is found to have committed the offences, my hope is that the court throws the book at this individual,” Mr Wallace said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve lived on the Sunshine Coast for 32 years and until the Federal election in May this year, I had never seen any kind of antisemitic graffiti.”<\/p>\n

\"middle<\/p>\n

Andrew Wallace had several campaign corflutes vandalised with antisemitic symbols during the election this year. (Supplied: Andrew Wallace)<\/p>\n

During the election, Mr Wallace had Nazi symbols scrawled across his campaign trailer and corflute signs.<\/p>\n

“That’s the first time that has ever happened to me,” Mr Wallace said.<\/p>\n

“Where people are identified to have committed these offences, the courts need to send a very strong message to deter others from doing the same.<\/p>\n

“It is un-Australian.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Coolum Beach man has been arrested following months of alleged antisemitic graffiti across Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[198317,2324,22057,9903,64,63,192749,89155,19601,29180,26763,15858,44,4106,198316],"class_list":["post-364968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-andrew-wallace","tag-anthony-albanese","tag-antisemitic","tag-antisemitism","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bondi-attack","tag-bondi-beach","tag-graffiti","tag-hate-speech","tag-jewish-community","tag-law-reform","tag-news","tag-queensland-police","tag-rabbi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}