Anti-Israel Graffiti Sprawled On East Meadow Properties: Supervisor

EAST MEADOW, NY — Anti-Semitic graffiti was spotted on fencing across several homes in East Meadow, Town of Hempstead Supervisor Don Clavin said.

The PVC fence on Merrick Avenue sits on the backyard of at least four homes, Clavin said.

The graffiti said “Free Palestine,” “Stop the Genocide,” “Zionism is Nazism.” The fence was also lined with an expletive toward Israel.

“It’s something I’ve never seen before,” Clavin told Patch. “It was such a brazen, anti-Semitic and disgraceful wording written along a fence line.”

He said the graffiti filled up at least 20 feet of fencing.

“We’ve seen anti-Semitic remarks. We’ve seen things scrolled, scratched it, [but] nothing to this extent,” Clavin said. “It’s a wake-up call.”

The first call he received was from Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly. He said her office is working with police to investigate it as a hate crime, to “find these cowards and prosecute them,” Clavin said of the actions, which were first discovered by homeowners on Monday morning.

Clavin said they will check with neighbors for any useful video that might show who drew the graffiti.

The location just south of Front Street sees “thousands of cars drive this every single day and this is what they were greeted with,” he said.

While this type of anti-Semitic graffiti is unchartered territory for Clavin here, “I’ve read about this kind of stuff; generally [it] happened in the ’30s and ’40s in Germany,” Clavin said.

To supplement the Nassau police, Clavin is increasing public safety patrols at Jewish houses of worship as Passover begins next week.

“Residents should rightfully be concerned,” Clavin said. “But they should know that law enforcement [is] going to find these people and we are going to hold them accountable.”