In the Courts

The Syrian immigrant population living under the White Australia Policy allegedly had a much lower crime rate than other ethnicities at the same time. They were known within certain circles of authority, particularly the Department of External Affairs, as “almost without exception, reliable and trustworthy.”[1]

The following collection has brought together a few instances of when Syrian immigrants were involved in the Australian legal system. Note that most of these incidents did not involve white Australian citizens, but were mostly either disputes between Syrians or direct punishments of Syrian immigrants. For example, there are two items relating to the shooting of Abraham Khaled and consequent sentencing of Joseph Chehab; both of these men were Syrian immigrants. The same applies for the David-Malouf case regarding the requisitioning of an estate.

The only article included in this collection that does not involve only Syrian perpetrators is the Bendigo Independent, which involves a Syrian and a Chinese man. The article makes a direct reference to the White Australia Policy, explaining that the police force involved acted out of a desire to maintain a white Australia, which it appears to support as a noble cause.