A police officer stands guard early Wednesday at the crime scene on Magney Street in Woollahra in Sydney’s eastern suburbs after anti-Israel slogans were daubed on properties and a car was torched. Photo by Mick Tsikas/EPA-EFE
Dec. 11 (UPI) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned an attack early Wednesday on a Jewish suburb of Sydney in which property was daubed with anti-Israel slogans and a car was set ablaze.
“The incident in Sydney is an outrage and another anti-Semitic attack,” Albanese wrote in a post on X ahead of being briefed on the incident in Woollahra by Australian Federal Police counterterrorism officers from a special task force set up to investigate threats, violence and hatred directed at the Jewish community and parliamentarians.
“I stand with the Jewish community and unequivocally condemn this attack. There is no place for hatred or antisemitism in our community,” said Albanese.
New South Wales Police launched an investigation and are looking for two masked suspects aged between 15 and 20 after graffiti including “Kill Israiel” [sic] was painted on the fences of two properties and cars, the second incident in the country in five days.
Firefighters attended the scene at around 1 a.m. local time to tackle a blaze in a car abandoned by the suspects, with police appealing for the public to come forward for information to help identify them.
Wednesday’s attack came just two days after the AFP confirmed a fire that gutted a synagogue in Melbourne last week in which one man was injured was being investigated as “a terrorist attack.”
The fire early Friday at the Adass Israel Synagogue on Glen Eira Avenue in the Ripponlea neighborhood is believed to be arson.
Witnesses told police that at least three people entered the synagogue and doused the floor with some type of liquid accelerant before setting it alight, but fled after being disturbed by a man arriving for morning prayers.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said Wednesday’s incident specifically aimed to “intimidate the Jewish community in Sydney.”
“If the question is can we do more? I think the answer is yes, and I’m not closing the door to changes to the law,” he told a press briefing.
Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, condemned what he called a “rising tide of anti-Semitism.”
“Yesterday, I visited the charred remains of the Adass Israel Synagogue. This morning, another despicable attack targeting Jews in Woollahra. This rising tide of anti-Semitism must end now,” he said in a post on X.
Maimon said he had spoken with Minns and took heart from his “commitment to fighting antisemitism and safeguarding the Jewish community” in the state.
New South Wales police are also investigating an earlier incident in Woollahra last month in which properties and 10 cars were attacked, one of which was set ablaze, and graffiti was daubed on three buildings.
Police, who are looking for three suspects, said they did not believe the two Woolhra incidents were connected — although the descriptions of the suspects in both incidents are very similar.
An Executive Council of Australian Jewry report released Sunday details more than 2,000 anti-Jewish incidents in the year ended Sept. 30, an increase of 316% from the same period in 2022-2023.
