‘I fear the next attack will be worse’: former Labor minister’s warning on antisemitism

Attacks on Australia’s Jewish community could turn deadly, a former Labor frontbencher has warned as he backed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim that the Albanese government’s actions had fuelled a surge in antisemitism.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday he personally believed Friday’s firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue was a terrorist attack, as he hit back at claims he had failed to tackle antisemitism and announced new funding for Jewish community groups to combat a rise in security threats.

However, one of the nation’s peak pro-Israel groups, the Zionist Federation of Australia, essentially endorsed Netanyahu’s attack by declaring Labor’s policy shifts had “undoubtedly contributed to a significant rise in Jew-hate in Australia”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government would provide an extra $32.5 million to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry over the next 18 months to increase security for Jewish communities.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett will meet in Melbourne on Tuesday with her Victoria Police counterparts to discuss whether to designate the arson attack on the Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea as terrorism. Law enforcement sources said they expected authorities to classify it as an act of terrorism, but it would ultimately be a decision for Victoria Police.

Albanese told reporters in Perth: “If you want my personal view, quite clearly terrorism is something that is aimed at creating fear in the community, and the atrocities that occurred at the synagogue in Melbourne clearly were designed to create fear in the community and, therefore, from my personal perspective, certainly fulfil that definition of terrorism.”

While NSW Premier Chris Minns also branded the fire a terrorist attack, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said she did not want to risk compromising the police investigation by prematurely labelling the incident.

Mike Kelly, who served as defence materiel minister in the Gillard government, said: “People could already have died in this fire and I fear the next attack will be worse.”

Kelly, the co-convenor of Labor Friends of Israel, said he agreed with Netanyahu that there was a link between recent government votes against Israel at the United Nations and the arson attack.

“We had abstained on these motions in the past because they do not advance the peace process one iota and only fuel the obsessive demonisation and de-legitimisation of Israel,” he said.

“The government’s pattern of voting at the UN is being interpreted by extremists as an outcome of their activities.

“Every time another step is taken in voting for these anti-Israel motions, it encourages them to escalate even further.”

In a scathing social media post on Saturday, Netanyahu directly linked the attack to Australia’s UN voting record and the recent decision to deny a visa to a prominent former Israeli cabinet minister.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton described the synagogue attack as a “national disgrace” and an “act of terrorism”, blaming the Albanese government’s “grotesque stance” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for creating a hostile climate for the Jewish community.

Dutton noted Israel had provided Australia with intelligence advice in 2018 that saved the lives of Australian Defence Force personnel and prevented a plot to blow up an airliner flying out of Sydney.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus hit back at Dutton for wrongly claiming on Sunday that the government had not passed anti-doxxing laws when it did so last month without the Coalition’s support.

Minns, who has announced a move to ban protests outside places of worship in his state, said the clear intent of the synagogue attack “was to strike terror into the hearts of the Jewish population of Australia”. The Victorian government confirmed late on Sunday it would consider a similar ban.

Speaking at a pro-Palestine protest in Melbourne, Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni was critical of the Israeli PM’s intervention and the Coalition’s response.

“To suggest that this attack, as abhorrent it is, is somehow linked to this movement, a movement where we have Jewish brothers and sisters here standing with us, is beyond shameful,” Mashni said. “And the fact that our alternative government is seeking to score cheap political points on the devastation of a place of worship is really beneath them and is disgusting.”

Albanese said the government would provide an extra $32.5 million to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry over the next 18 months to increase security for Jewish communities. An initial $25 million funding allocation for the Jewish community had been almost entirely spent, Albanese said.

Defending his record on tackling antisemitism, Albanese said his government had banned the Nazi salute and symbols, appointed the nation’s first antisemitism envoy and passed the anti-doxxing legislation following the release of personal details of the members of a Jewish community WhatsApp group.

He insisted Australia had voted in line with the vast majority of countries, including four of the five members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, in a UN vote last week calling for Israel to end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as soon as possible.

Independent MP Zoe Daniel, whose Melbourne seat of Goldstein has a large Jewish population, called on the government to do more to combat antisemitism by creating a joint federal-state task force and passing hate-crime legislation.

Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said: “We are not suggesting the federal government is intentionally inflaming antisemitism, but the practical consequence of the government’s big shifts in policy, and failure to call out incitement from the outset, has undoubtedly contributed to a significant rise in Jew-hate in Australia.”

Mashni said it was too early to know who was responsible for the attack and what their motive was.

With Michael McGowan and Michael Bachelard

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