Dozens of posters of one of the alleged terrorists in last month’s Chanukah mass shooting on Bondi Beach, Sydney, have appeared in Melbourne.
The posters were of alleged jihadist Naveed Akram, 24, who on Dec. 14 was seen with his father, Sajid Akram, shooting men, women and children attending the Chanukah by the Sea event, where 15 people were murdered. Law enforcement killed Sajid on the scene.
The image had the text “Aussie” under it, a reference to the well-known “Aussie” poster series by Adelaide artist Peter Drew, which celebrates racial diversity. It was not immediately clear whether the posters, on which a crosshair was superimposed on Akram’s image, were meant to criticize Muslim extremism or to laud the alleged shooter.
The Melbourne City Council and Victoria Police are investigating the appearance of the unauthorized posters, J-Wire, a Jewish Australian news site, reported on Wednesday.
Around 40 prints were spotted on walls and structures in the central business district and inner suburbs of Melbourne in the last few days, with reports citing locations including Princes Bridge and a bridge in Richmond, J-Wire reported.
Council workers removed the material under a policy requiring racist or hateful content to be taken down within an hour of being reported. CCTV footage is being reviewed as part of the inquiry, J-Wire reported.
Separately, a former staff member of the University of Sydney pleaded not guilty on Monday at a court hearing on stalking charges, The Australian newspaper reported. Rose Nakad was filmed accosting Jews celebrating Sukkot in October and fired on Dec. 19 in connection with her actions.
“Are you a Zionist?” Nakad asked a group of Jews in a video. “In your name, they’re shredding children bit by bit. … You should be making it stop. You’re disgusting. You are depraved. … You are depraved baby-killers,” she continued.
In Melbourne, prosecutors indicted a man for hate crimes after he allegedly directed a Hitler salute at a group of Jewish schoolchildren, The Advertiser newspaper reported on Tuesday. The Australian Federal Police said the man, 23 and from Greenvale in the city’s north, allegedly performed the act in front of the children in a terminal at Melbourne Airport on Monday, the report said.
He then allegedly left the terminal before the matter was reported to the police. Officers reviewed CCTV footage and spoke to witnesses in order to identify the man, and attended a home in Greenvale later on Monday.
In another case, an Australian judge on Wednesday sentenced a man who threatened to kill the CEO of the Australian Jewish Association, Robert Gregory—and then-AJA President David Adler—to 14 months of community service. The threats were made ahead of a Senate committee appearance by the Jewish community leaders, with the offender threatening to kill them if they proceeded with their appearance, according to the AJA.
“The AJA, like many in the Jewish community, receives an alarming number of threats, the vast majority of which go unpunished. We therefore welcome this outcome,” Gregory said in a statement.
The number of antisemitic incidents recorded in Australia rose to 495 in 2023, the highest tally in a decade. That figure more than quadrupled to 2,062 in 2024, dipping mildly in 2025 to 1,654, according to figures published in December by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
