Then on January 21, Only About Children on Storey Street in Maroubra was set alight and sprayed with anti-Jewish messages. Premier Chris Minns called it a “vicious hate crime”.
One week later, Mount Sinai, a Jewish primary school on Runic Lane in Maroubra, was also graffitied.
The Only About Children childcare centre on Storey Street in Maroubra which was damaged in an antisemitic attack in mid-January.Credit: Kate geraghty
Both men will front Downing Centre Local Court next month, Pickering on October 21 and Zahabe on October 30.
The development comes a month after Australia’s spy agency, ASIO, claimed a firebombing at Lewis Continental Kitchen, a Jewish business in Bondi Beach, in October 2024, and a second at Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue, weeks later, were the work of Iran.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps had allegedly enlisted bikie Sayed Moosawi, who had in turn allegedly enlisted other men to carry out the attack in Sydney.
Moosawi denies the allegations, and ASIO said other attacks may be linked to Iran.
Police do not allege the attacks allegedly attributed to Zahabe were carried out on behalf of Iran.
The former home of prominent Jewish Australian Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin was targeted.
Police would also not confirm if Zahabe was allegedly acting on behalf of an offshore criminal mastermind – alleged drug runner Sayet Akca.
It was during the wave of attacks now allegedly attributed to Zahabe that police found a caravan packed with explosives on a roadside in Dural, along with directions to Sydney’s Great Synagogue.
Pearl’s investigators accused Akca of orchestrating more than a dozen of the antisemitic attacks – including the caravan – from a hideout in Turkey.
Police claim Akca planned to turn in the caravan to influence his own prosecution for drug running, sources said in March.
In an interview with ABC’s Four Corners, Akca admitted to the caravan plot, but denied involvement in the other attacks.
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