Vandals attacked a Jewish area of Sydney overnight, torching a stolen car and scrawling antisemitic words on walls, prompting a swift response from authorities who say antisemitism has no place in multicultural Australia.
The attack comes as police search for three suspects over an arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on Friday and follows other antisemitic attacks by vandals in Sydney.
The spate of attacks has prompted authorities to set up a special task force, Operation Avalite, to tackle antisemitism and increase patrols of Jewish sites including schools and synagogues.
Speaking Wednesday alongside the New South Wales Police Commissioner and Jewish community leaders, state Premier Chris Minns said the latest vandalism was “a deliberate attack designed to put fear into the hearts of the people that live in Sydney’s east.”
He said he’d spoken to Israel’s Ambassador to Australia, Amir Maimon, on Wednesday and assured him that authorities took the matter very seriously.
“I made it very clear to him that we regarded this as a disgusting display of antisemitism, and that the vast, vast majority of people that live in New South Wales are horrified by it and recognize Israel as an ally and friend of Australia,” Minns said.
Maimon also took to social media platform X to condemn the attack. “This rising tide of antisemitism must end now,” he said.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the attack had no place in Australia.
“Australians want to live peacefully side by side and Australians reject this abhorrent criminal behavior,” he told ABC Radio National. “This is not a political act. This does not change anything that is occurring on the ground in the Middle East. This is an attack against their fellow Australians.”
The Jewish community has reported thousands of antisemitic incidents in the past year, as tensions rise over Israel’s unrelenting offensive in Gaza following Hamas’ October 7 attack.
