Affront to the community

Antisemitic sticker defaces Lupton poster

Prahran by election candidate targeted

Prahran by election candidate Tony Lupton says his stance against antisemitism could have made him a target.
Prahran by election candidate Tony Lupton says his stance against antisemitism could have made him a target.

An independent candidate for the Prahran by-election has had one of his campaign posters defaced by an antisemitic sticker.

Tony Lupton, who was the former Labor Party MP for the Victorian State seat has condemned the appearance of the stickers being part of a broader pattern of intimidation affecting the local Jewish community.

The stickers, produced by Free Palestine Printing, were a mock-up of the Israeli flag with the Magen David replaced by a toilet and the word “Shitrael.”

“If you’re comparing Israel as a country to something that should be flushed down the toilet, you’re really saying that’s the sort of thing that should happen to Jews,” Lupton said.

He said the stickers have been found on multiple surfaces throughout the area.

“They are around on lamp posts and signposts and things like that. And of course, having a by-election on at the moment, there are political signs around that also just give them an opportunity to put their appalling stickers on those as well,” he said.

Lupton says he is known for his stance against anti-Semitism, which might have made him a specific target.

However, he believes the issue extends beyond personal targeting.

“I’m not taking it as a personal affront. It’s an affront to the community,” he said.

A member of the public who saw the sticker on Lupton’s election poster ripped it down.

“We have a Jewish community in this area who are being subjected to intimidation, and it has now spread to the point where people who aren’t connected with the Jewish community are also feeling that the whole sense of chaos and division has just got out of control,” he said.

Lupton is particularly critical of the Greens for their role in social division in Australia.

“They are part of these pro-Hamas protests that are going on continually. They won’t condemn Hamas. They won’t condemn terrorism,” he said, adding that recent comments by Greens’ federal leader Adam Bandt referring to “Israel’s invasion of Gaza” were “the kind of language that stokes division and antisemitism in the community.”

read more:
comments