SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia has been grappling with a spate of antisemitic attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war in late 2023.
Authorities have designated some of the incidents as terrorism and vowed to crack down on the perpetrators amid concerns of further escalation, with half a dozen incidents occurring across Sydney in the past month alone.
Police in the state of New South Wales, that has Sydney as its capital, have arrested forty people for antisemitic offences and eight relation to arson.
Here are some key events:
May 25, 2024: Australia’s largest Jewish school graffitied in Melbourne.
Oct 13: Antisemitic graffiti on Jewish bakery in Sydney, with note left for owner reading “be careful”.
Nov 21: Cars torched, buildings vandalised in Sydney’s east, an area with a large Jewish population.
Dec 6: Adass Israel Synagogue torched in Melbourne’s south, treated by police as a suspected terror attack.
Dec 7: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says antisemitic attacks in Australia linked to the government’s position at the United Nations on Palestine.
Dec 9: Federal police taskforce on antisemitism launched.
Dec 11: Cars torched, buildings vandalised in Sydney’s east.
Jan 7, 2025: Man charged after allegedly threatening worshippers near the Chabad North Shore synagogue in Sydney’s north.
Jan 10: Allawah Synagogue in Sydney’s south graffitied with swastikas.
Jan 11: Graffiti and attempted arson of the Newtown Synagogue in Sydney’s west.
Jan 11: Cars and house vandalised with antisemitic graffiti in Sydney’s west.
Jan 12: New South Wales Premier Chris Minns calls Jan. 11 synagogue attack an escalation in antisemitic crime.
Jan 16: Federal antisemitism taskforce makes first arrest, charging a Sydney man over alleged death threats and vandalism.
Jan 17: Cars torched, building formerly owned by a Jewish community leader vandalised in Sydney’s east.
Jan 19: Minns announces laws to strengthen hate speech laws and ban protests outside places of worship.
Jan 21: Childcare centre set alight and graffitied in Sydney’s east. Police charge woman over the Dec. 11 attack. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announces a national cabinet meeting in response to an escalation of antisemitism.
(Compiled by Christine Chen in SydneyEditing by Alasdair Pal and Michael Perry)
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