A white picket fence that exemplifies suburban streetscapes was found vandalized with spray paint on Monday morning with “Zionism is Nazism,” “Stop the Genocide” and “Free Palestine.” Facing the busy Merrick Avenue, its writer intended to share the anti-Semitic messages with a large audience.
LI Herald identified the fence’s owner as Debbie Habshoosh, who used the space to display laminated posters of hostages taken by Hamas on October 7. She said that in the six months since the war began, this was the first time that her fence had been vandalized. Local elected officials and law enforcement quickly gathered to express support for Habshoosh and her neighbors.
“I have never seen such a brazen attack on our friends of the Jewish faith,” Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin said at a news conference. “We should all be outraged, and we should all make a commitment that we are not going to stand for anti-Semitism in our communities.” Clavin and his colleagues stood alongside Rabbi Aaron Marsh of the East Meadow - Beth El Jewish Center, the Conservative synagogue that is closest to this crime scene. The community also has an Orthodox shul, Shaarei Zedek of East Meadow, and an eruv.
Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly said that pro-Palestine slogans scrawled on top of hostage posters can only have one motivation. “Hate crimes are not acceptable in our town. To our Jewish brothers and sisters, my heart hurts for you today. This is not something you should have to see,” she said. “If it was a misdemeanor, this moves it up to a class D felony. This is a clear-cut hate crime, and we will not put up with that.”
Nassau County Legislator Tom McKevitt, who lives in East Meadow, noted the demographics of the area. “This is a portion of East Meadow that has a very large Jewish community. It was designed to incite violence and hate, which we will not tolerate here.”
Around 1:40 a.m. on April 16, police announced that Sebastian Patino Caceres, 23, of East Meadow, was arrested in connection to the incident. Caceres was charged with seven counts of criminal mischief, possession of graffiti instruments, and seven counts of making graffiti. He was arraigned on Tuesday, at the First District Court in Hempstead.
By Sergey Kadinsky
