Antisemitism crackdown launched after synagogue fire
Police will gain extra powers to tackle antisemitism after a trio of arson attacks on Jewish targets raised fears from the community.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday, December 9, 2024. Pic: Dominic Giannini/AAP PHOTOS
Threats and violence against Jews will be probed by a special anti-Semitism taskforce after the firebombing of a synagogue drew widespread disgust and condemnation.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called for national unity as he unveiled Special Operation Avalite, led by specialists from the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.
Officers will be given expanded powers to investigate incidents like the arson at Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue, deemed a likely terrorist attack by Victoria Police and the AFP
It followed earlier arson attacks on cars in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra and the electorate office of Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns.
Twenty-one AFP officers and analysts will be deployed nationally to investigate instances of urging violence against members of groups, advocating terrorism or genocide and using communications services to menace, threaten or harass.
“Unfortunately, in Australia today, those of Jewish ethnicity or religion are being targeted because of who they are,” AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said on Monday.
“This is a crime. This needs to stop.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had called for an anti-Semitism taskforce earlier on Monday, criticising Labor and Mr Burns for failing to speak up against anti-Semitism.
“Josh hasn’t stood up to a weak prime minister, and the job for a Labor MP is to stand up to a prime minister who has put political interests of the Labor Party ahead of our national security interests,” Mr Dutton said.
Mr Albanese defended his government’s support of the Jewish community, including $32.5 million for community security announced on Sunday, banning Nazi salutes and hate symbols, appointing the nation’s inaugural anti-Semitism commissioner and criminalising doxxing.
“This is a time where the country should be looking for national unity, not looking for areas of distinction and difference over every issue,” he said.
“I would have thought that every Australian would be horrified by what occurred last Friday, and would be equally prepared to condemn it and oppose it. It’s un-Australian, I’ve said that. It’s designed to create fear in the community, and it should be opposed.”
The Jewish community previously expressed frustration over a perceived lack of action by authorities to stamp out anti-Semitism, with the Executive Council of Australian Jewry arguing Australia was at a “point of crisis” in a letter sent to Mr Albanese on Sunday.
“Many in our community now question their future in this country,” it wrote.
“We ask you, prime minister, to reflect on how this has been allowed to occur.”
Ex-federal Liberal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who is a member of Melbourne’s Jewish community, claimed “the government’s weakness (in calling out anti-Semitism) has emboldened those who hate and emboldened those who harm”.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess rejected suggestions the government was at fault for the synagogue attack.
“I think it’s a hard call to put something on the government to stop people doing the wrong thing in our society,” he said.
Mr Burns said the community needed to be supported and didn’t deserve to be used as a political football.
“This has been my life, my world, my community,” he told reporters in Melbourne.
“It doesn’t serve the Jewish community to be arguing amongst ourselves, it doesn’t serve the Jewish community to be fighting amongst the political class.”
Liberal senator and former ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma criticised the government for condemning anti-Semitism at the same time as decrying Islamophobia.
“Any time any senior minister mentioned anti-Semitism in the last 12 months they also mentioned a fictitious Islamophobia which was not going on,” he told Sky News.
“So they always had to create an equivalence.”
Islamophobia Register Australia reported a spike in Islamophobic incidents following October 7, 2023, with a 13-fold increase in reports in the weeks following.
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Anthony Albanese’s hand has been forced. Against what he really feels and thinks, I would say.