Estate agent targeted over Israel support
A MELBOURNE real estate agent has been accused of "supporting 62 years of terror" after erecting a sign backing Israel ahead of Yom Ha'atzmaut.
NAOMI LEVIN
A MELBOURNE real estate agent was accused of “supporting 62 years of terror” last week after erecting a sign backing Israel ahead of Yom Ha’atzmaut.
The slur was made in an anonymous letter sent to LJ Hooker Elsternwick.
The letter also called the agents “traitors” and included the threat, “take that board down or your business will suffer”.
Director of the family run company Alex Flamm, who together with his sons, Oren and Golan, are the faces of the agency, said the company has never been targeted like that before. He added he would not bow to pressure and take down the sign because it stood for something he strongly believes in.
“[I feel] absolutely ropeable, angry and infuriated by the ignorance of the idiot that sent it,” he said. “The person who sent the letter is voicing his patriotism the only way they know how and that is by threats, while at the same time accuse the Jewish people of having achieved statehood by using “terror”.”
Flamm said he is not “paranoid” about anti-Semitism, rather, he is proud of his Jewish heritage and disappointed about the “few morons” who “are capable of writing hate mail filled with their version of terrorism and threats under the guise of their patriotism”.
Flamm has reported the letter to the police and Community Security Group.
While the anonymous nature of the threat makes it difficult for the police to act on, Senior Constable Deryn Boote from Caulfield Police Station has referred the matter to the Divisional Intelligence Unit based at Moorabbin Police Station.
That unit was set up in recent years to gather information on anti-Semitic and Israel-related offences in Victoria.
LJ Hooker is one of a handful of real estate agents who are active in supporting the local Jewish community and Israel.
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