Police investigating whether ‘overseas actors’ behind anti-Semitic attacks

Federal police are investigating if “overseas actors” are paying local criminals to carry out an escalating number of violent, anti-Semitic acts.

Federal police are investigating with “overseas actors” are paying local criminals to carry out an escalating number of violent, anti-Semitic acts in Sydney and Melbourne.

Following a snap national cabinet meeting – convened by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese just hours after a Sydney daycare centre was firebombed and defaced with hateful slurs – Australia’s top cop said there is “no doubt” anti-Semitism is rising across the country.

In a statement shared on Tuesday evening, AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said that such attacks are “changing the movements and behaviour of a community that is in fear” and causing Jews to “self-segregate or hide to stay safe”.

“Anti-Semitism is a disease in our community, and it needs to be aggressively attacked because history shows what happens when action is not taken against those who fuel fear and terrorise others,” Commissioner Kershaw said.

Police are now considering whether “overseas actors or individuals” are paying Australians in cryptocurrency, “which can take longer to identify”, to target Jewish suburbs.

A childcare centre in Maroubra was set on firebombed and defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti on Tuesday morning. Picture: Supplied

Federal police are investigating whether ‘overseas actors’ could be behind the escalation of such attacks. Picture: Supplied

Police are also investigating whether the acts have been committed by young people, and if so whether they have been “radicalised online and encouraged to commit anti-Semitic acts”.

“Regardless, it all points to the same motivation: demonising and intimidating the Jewish community,” Comm Kershaw said.

“Intelligence is not the same as evidence. We are building evidence, and I want to reiterate, more charges are expected soon by the AFP.”

Special Operation Avalite, established by the AFP to target high-harm antisemitism, has received 166 reports of crime since it was established in December, 15 of which are under investigation. To date, one person has been arrested.

The AFP is in contact with its counterpart agencies in the Five Eyes nations of New Zealand, Canada, United States and United Kingdom, Comm Kershaw said.

He will meet with State Police Commissioners on Wednesday to “raise whether there are other tactics or matters we can consider”.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been repeatedly urged to take action. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Nikki Short

At Tuesday’s national cabinet meeting, state and territory leaders agreed to establish a national database tracking anti-Semitic crime, which had been requested by Jewry peak body, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

“The purpose of one national reporting system is to better inform and co-ordinate responses to anti-Semitic incidents,” a joint statement from the Prime Minister, Premiers and Chief Ministers read.

“National cabinet agreed that commonwealth, state and territory attorneys-generals will work to ensure best practice is shared across jurisdictions, with Victoria and NSW leading this work.”

Despite Mr Albanese’s vow that the childcare attack “will lead to action”, no further initiatives have yet been announced.

The Prime Minister had previously resisted calls to convene state leaders, stating as recently as Monday that Australians don’t want “more meetings (about antisemitism), they want to see more action”.

Police and fire forensic investigators at the Maroubra childcare centre. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Julian Andrews

While Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim welcomed the announcement, he said it was “deeply saddening” the commitment came in the wake of “an arson attack on a childcare centre”.

“We look forward to national cabinet providing federal, state and territory governments with the leadership and direction needed for them to attack the problem of anti-Semitism with a co-ordinated whole of government approach,” he said.

Examples of policy initiatives previously put forward by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry is a “no mask” law for participants at public demonstrations, uniform laws to ban demonstrations outside places of worship, mandatory education on anti-Semitism, racism and bigotry, and the creation of a national database for hate-motived crime based off of existing models in the UK, US and Canada.

Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich said the meeting could not “be another talkfest”, and urged action.

“Australia is on the brink of a moral reckoning, and the gathering of state and territory leaders is not just overdue — it’s an act of national triage to stop the bleeding before it’s too late,” he said.

“The agenda must be clear: nationwide legal reforms to make anti-Semitic crimes punishable by the harshest penalties, zero-tolerance enforcement that removes ambiguity, and a commitment to education so unyielding that no Australian grows up ignorant of the Holocaust or blind to the dangers of prejudice.”

Originally published as Police investigating whether ‘overseas actors’ behind anti-Semitic attacks