Police are hunting vandals responsible for vile antisemitic and homophobic graffiti at a Jewish-owned golf course in Melbourne.
Cranbourne Golf Club’s management said staff and members found the graffiti on the club’s fourth green on Wednesday morning.
Vandals had damaged the green by spray-painting Nazi swastikas, a homophobic slur and drawings of penises on the turf.
Jewish golfers founded the club, in Melbourne’s south-east, in 1953 to accomodate minority groups banned from other clubs because of their religion.
Management said the club welcomes everyone “regardless of race, religion, faith or gender”.
“It is for this reason more than any other that we find this vandalism abhorrent in its nature and unacceptable in any forum, at any time,” they said.
Staff at the club have painted over the swastikas and slurs with turf paint.
Michael Barnett, co-convener of Jewish LGBTIQ group Aleph Melbourne said the vandals’ act showed “profound immaturity and insensitivity”.
“As a support group for LGBTIQ+ Jews we feel the pain doubly,” he said.
“We’re targeted for being Jewish. We’re targeted for our sexual orientation.
“We hope that the perpetrators are brought to justice. More than that, we hope that they come to understand the nature of their crime and make amends for their actions.”
Read the report by Jordan Hirst in QNews.