Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has held a meeting of state and territory leaders to tackle a wave of antisemitic attacks across the country, the latest involving the suspected firebombing of a childcare centre in Sydney.
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Albanese convened the National Cabinet on Tuesday afternoon following weeks of appeals by members of the Jewish community for the prime minister to take steps to counter the growing number of antisemitic incidents.
A childcare centre in Sydney’s east was set on fire and sprayed with antisemitic graffiti in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The prime minister visited the site hours later, describing it as a “hate crime” when he spoke with reporters.
“How you could think that something like this would advance any alleged cause that people might have? The only objective which will be achieved by this crime is the fulfillment of these people being caught, charged and facing the full force of the law,” Albanese said in Sydney.
In a statement after the meeting on Tuesday evening, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said the agency was investigating whether overseas groups had paid for local crime organizations to carry out the attacks, possibly paid in cryptocurrency.
Australia’s state and territory leaders agreed to put together a national database of information on antisemitic attacks at Tuesday’s meeting, which they said in a statement would “better inform and coordinate responses” to the incidents.
Australia has faced mounting social tensions since Oct. 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas operatives crossed into Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250. Israel responded with a punishing assault that has killed more than 46,000 people in the Gaza Strip, according to Hamas authorities, and laid waste to vasts stretches of the region.
Australia has a large Jewish community and many citizens from Middle East nations including Lebanon, which was also caught up in the conflict.
Albanese has appointed national envoys to combat both antisemitism and Islamaphobia in the wake of the tensions. However, the rising number of attacks on Jewish-affiliated institutions and properties in Sydney and Melbourne, where the community is concentrated, has increased pressure on him to do more to protect it.
Recent antisemitic attacks have included:
- The firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne on Dec. 6, which was labeled a likely terrorist incident
- Anti-Israel graffiti and cars vandalized in central Sydney on Dec. 11. A woman has since been charged with alleged involvement
- An attack on the former home of a Jewish leader in Sydney in early January that included antisemitic graffiti and cars torched
Australia’s centre-right opposition has called for a national cabinet meeting on antisemitism for weeks, though until now Albanese had resisted such a move.
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The meeting comes two days after a ceasefire began in Gaza. It’s due to last six weeks and see 33 hostages freed and the release of 1,900 Palestinian prisoners, as well as Israeli forces withdrawing to the outskirts of the strip.