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Jewish Children Terrorized on Sydney School Bus

Drunk teens boarded yelling ‘Heil Hitler,’ threatened to cut students’ throats

by
Stephanie Butnick
August 06, 2014
(ValeStock / Shutterstock.com)
(ValeStock / Shutterstock.com)

A school bus driving children home from three Jewish private schools in Sydney, Australia today was boarded by eight drunk teens who proceeded to yell “Heil Hitler” and “Kill the Jews,” threatening to cut the children’s throats before disembarking, Australia’s Daily Telegraph reports. The disturbing incident was reported by Jacqui Blackburn, whose three children, ages 8, 10, and 12, were on the bus.

She described the panicked call made to her by one of her children. “She said: ‘Hey Mummy, please help us, there are eight strange men who have been let on to a school bus and they are screaming ‘Heil Hitler! Kill the Jews!’ they want to cut out our throats’.”



“Then the phone cut off and I couldn’t hear anything.’



The next thing her friend Noah Stanton called me and said “Jacqui it’s bad, it’s really bad. Get hold of my mum. Please help us!” she said.

The bus was carrying young children from Mount Sinai, Moriah College Primary School, and the Emanuel School in Bondi, a suburb of Sydney.

This is the first such incident reported from Sydney, and is believed to be related to the war in Gaza—the men reportedly also said ‘Palestine must kill you Jews’ and ‘stop taking over Palestine.’ Their timing, however, seems to be a bit off: Israel removed all its forces from the Gaza Strip yesterday and a cease fire—the conflict’s eighth—appears to be holding.

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that drunk men boarded the bus and taunted the students. The suspects, five of whom have been arrested, were teenagers.

Stephanie Butnick is chief strategy officer of Tablet Magazine, co-founder of Tablet Studios, and a host of the Unorthodox podcast.