Nadine Osman
A pro-Israeli man from Bury who vandalized cars outside homes in Prestwich, Manchester, displaying Palestinian flags has been given a community sentence on March 14. Elliot Kersh, 64, caused £3,500 worth of damage during the targeted hate campaign conducted between October and December last year.
Kersh, whose social media pages feature the Israeli flag and several pro-Israel posts, was arrested, and admitted to damaging the cars and a garden wall. However, he denied being a racist. Instead, he told police he committed the offenses because he found the Palestinian flag ‘offensive and intimidating.’
The chartered surveyor received a 12-month community order and a year-long restraining order from Manchester Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to three counts of racially aggravated criminal damage. He was also mandated to perform sixty hours of unpaid work.
However, one of the neighbours affected told the Mail they were “disappointed” Kersh had not been jailed, saying they had suffered ‘many sleepless nights’ because of his actions.
The woman said: “The worry of it all left us living in fear. I kept on expecting a brick or something to come through the window.
“We have lived here for 33 years, and we’ve never experienced any type of racism, racial abuse, or anything like that. We’ve always got on well with our neighbours and help each other all the time.”
He noticed a Palestinian flag outside a residence in the town in October.
On October 26, a BMW was found with scratches on the front, side, and rear. The following day, the car owners noticed additional scratches on the back and bumper of their car. By December 6, every panel, except the bonnet, had deep scratches on it.
Meanwhile, on a nearby road, Kersh spray painted a garden wall and spray painted and scratched the bonnet of a VW Golf overnight between December 6 and 7. Both homeowners had Palestinian flags in their windows. Some of the offences were captured on CCTV after Kersh arrived at the scene in a car.
Kersh acknowledged doing damage but insisted he was not racist. However, Joseph Seale, Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS Northwest, said, “The CPS take incidents of hate crime very seriously and we are dedicated to bringing perpetrators to justice, which is why we asked the court to apply an uplift to Kersh’s sentence to reflect the racial aggravation of the offences he committed. Everyone has the right to exercise peaceful freedom of expression without fearing they will be targeted.”
He added that Kersh “has caused considerable upset and fear by deliberately targeting property belonging to homeowners who had Palestinian flags displayed in their windows.”
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