Robert Bandanza
February 18th, 2008, 05:58 AM
COMMUNAL leaders have condemned an attack on a young Orthodox Jewish man on his way to work in St Kilda East.
The man, who does not wish to be identified, was physically assaulted and verbally abused, as he travelled to his CBD workplace last Monday morning.
St Kilda Police have interviewed the victim and are investigating, but there are now growing concerns within the Jewish community, as well as outside, that the State Government is not doing enough to deal with race-hate crimes.
Wearing a kippah, the man was walking along Lansdowne Street around 7.15am on his way to a tram stop on Dandenong Road, when he was attacked.
Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) Community Security Group director Gavin Queit said the victim had noticed three young males around 18 years of age, who appeared to be intoxicated and were shouting abuse at passers-by.
“When they noticed his kippah, they started shouting abuse at him.”
He broke into a jog, trying to distance himself from the scene, but the trio pursued him, Queit said.
The group shouted anti-Semitic vitriol at the man and called him a “f*****g Jew”.
At the corner of Dandenong Road, he turned to face them, and was knocked to the ground and elbowed in the face twice, sustaining cuts and bruising.
Another Jewish man tried in vain to pull his car in to shield the victim, but he “put himself at risk, even if it was a very brave thing he did”, Queit said.
The attack, which lasted around a minute-and-a-half, spilled out into the peak-hour traffic of Dandenong Road, and motorists had to brake to avoid hitting the group.
Nobody got out of their car to help the victim, Queit said.
Queit added that the victim was not only under physical attack, but was in danger of being run down by cars.
After striking the man a number of times, the thugs ran off. Queit said he believed they probably realised the police would be on their way. “There were hundreds of witnesses, the traffic was stopped on Dandenong Road”.
JCCV president Anton Block called on the State Government to take stronger action against the perpetrators of hate crimes.
“That a young man on his way to work in suburban Melbourne can be assaulted for his religion, indeed for anything at all, is unacceptable,” he stated.
B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission chair Michael Lipshutz expressed his organisation’s concern at the growth of anti-Semitic violence.
“We do not want to get into a situation as in some parts of the world where Jews fear wearing traditional Jewish items such as skullcaps, as it may lead to them becoming targets.”
Caulfield MLA Helen Shardey last week called on the State Government to follow the lead of New South Wales and to introduce a police race-hate crime unit.
“The most obvious race-hate crime of assault has not been dealt with under the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act,” she told State Parliament.
“I am told that the reason is that Victoria Police, despite all the evidence, does not believe racially-based hate crime is occurring in this state.”
Shardey was backed by Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu, who said: “This appalling attack against an innocent Jewish pedestrian is a clear example of racially motivated violence that must not be tolerated in our society. We need a decisive and sustained response by law enforcement to address this problem.”
http://www.ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=4949
The man, who does not wish to be identified, was physically assaulted and verbally abused, as he travelled to his CBD workplace last Monday morning.
St Kilda Police have interviewed the victim and are investigating, but there are now growing concerns within the Jewish community, as well as outside, that the State Government is not doing enough to deal with race-hate crimes.
Wearing a kippah, the man was walking along Lansdowne Street around 7.15am on his way to a tram stop on Dandenong Road, when he was attacked.
Jewish Community Council of Victoria (JCCV) Community Security Group director Gavin Queit said the victim had noticed three young males around 18 years of age, who appeared to be intoxicated and were shouting abuse at passers-by.
“When they noticed his kippah, they started shouting abuse at him.”
He broke into a jog, trying to distance himself from the scene, but the trio pursued him, Queit said.
The group shouted anti-Semitic vitriol at the man and called him a “f*****g Jew”.
At the corner of Dandenong Road, he turned to face them, and was knocked to the ground and elbowed in the face twice, sustaining cuts and bruising.
Another Jewish man tried in vain to pull his car in to shield the victim, but he “put himself at risk, even if it was a very brave thing he did”, Queit said.
The attack, which lasted around a minute-and-a-half, spilled out into the peak-hour traffic of Dandenong Road, and motorists had to brake to avoid hitting the group.
Nobody got out of their car to help the victim, Queit said.
Queit added that the victim was not only under physical attack, but was in danger of being run down by cars.
After striking the man a number of times, the thugs ran off. Queit said he believed they probably realised the police would be on their way. “There were hundreds of witnesses, the traffic was stopped on Dandenong Road”.
JCCV president Anton Block called on the State Government to take stronger action against the perpetrators of hate crimes.
“That a young man on his way to work in suburban Melbourne can be assaulted for his religion, indeed for anything at all, is unacceptable,” he stated.
B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission chair Michael Lipshutz expressed his organisation’s concern at the growth of anti-Semitic violence.
“We do not want to get into a situation as in some parts of the world where Jews fear wearing traditional Jewish items such as skullcaps, as it may lead to them becoming targets.”
Caulfield MLA Helen Shardey last week called on the State Government to follow the lead of New South Wales and to introduce a police race-hate crime unit.
“The most obvious race-hate crime of assault has not been dealt with under the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act,” she told State Parliament.
“I am told that the reason is that Victoria Police, despite all the evidence, does not believe racially-based hate crime is occurring in this state.”
Shardey was backed by Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu, who said: “This appalling attack against an innocent Jewish pedestrian is a clear example of racially motivated violence that must not be tolerated in our society. We need a decisive and sustained response by law enforcement to address this problem.”
http://www.ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=4949