A Jewish woman in Australia was shocked to find that vandals painted a swastika on her son's car last week.
"I felt quite unsafe that someone was targeting my son as a racial thing. Because if they’re crazy enough to do that, you don’t know what they can do," she told Australian Jewish News.
The mother of three, who asked to remain anonymous, says that the incident left her shaken, even though the family lives in a Melbourne suburb. "There’s enough hate in the world. You don’t want to be persecuted; you want to be able to walk the streets and feel safe," she explained.
The B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission has called the crime a "craven and repugnant display of intolerance," adding that "This cowardly vandalism reminds us that hate still remains strong right in our own neighbourhoods [sic], and how important it is to continue our fight against the growing problem of anti-Semitism."
Local police, though, deny that the family's car was targeted, and pointed out that several other cars on the same street were also graffitied. They did not specify what was drawn on the other cars.