Police believe ‘overseas actors’ may be behind antisemitic attacks, paid for in crypto

Federal police are investigating whether malicious foreign actors are paying local criminals to carry out violent antisemitic acts in the streets of Sydney and Melbourne, forcing an urgent meeting of police chiefs after a wave of hatred that federal police chief Reece Kershaw said was causing Jews to hide at home.

As the prime minister and state leaders agreed to a new national antisemitism database during a late afternoon national cabinet meeting, Kershaw issued a striking statement floating the possibility that Australians were being paid in cryptocurrency to target synagogues and houses in Jewish suburbs.

AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos

“We are looking into whether overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs,” he said in a written statement, adding that he was talking to law enforcement agencies in Five Eyes nations of US, UK, Canada and New Zealand.

“We are looking at if – or how - they have been paid, for example in cryptocurrency, which can take longer to identify.

“We are looking into whether any young people are involved in carrying out some of these crimes, and if they have been radicalised online and encouraged to commit antisemitic acts.

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

Kershaw said the intelligence did not equate to solid evidence that could lead to immediate charges, but the potential of foreign interference has injected a new element into a charged debate over the political and law enforcement response to the string of arson and graffiti attacks. ASIO raised the terror threat level from possible to probable in August based in part on tension stemming from the war in Gaza, with spy chief Mike Burgess warning of new mixes of “twisted” ideologies – including anti-government conspiracy theories, racism, Islamist extremism and neo-Nazism – blending with social media-fuelled personal grievance, intolerance, loneliness and mental ill health.

Kershaw’s statement did not provide any detail about a hostile government or actor that might be behind the attacks. But law enforcement sources unable to speak publicly said police suspected a number of the perpetrators were paid and used anonymous messaging services to receive instructions, leading to a suspicion of overseas involvement.

Federal police have been under pressure to lay charges against offenders in incidents such as the Adass Israel Synagogue attack from early December. Kershaw’s statement was designed in part to explain the complexity of the investigations and unexpected factors that have emerged.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yielded to Coalition demands for an antisemitism crisis meeting of all state and territory leaders after a childcare centre neighbouring a synagogue was set on fire, the latest of a dozen such anti-Jewish attacks in Melbourne and Sydney.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with NSW Premier Chris Minns and senior police following the latest antisemitic attack in Sydney.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

A statement from Albanese and state and territory leaders after the meeting said scores of arrests had been made by Victorian and NSW police for antisemitic attacks since the start of the conflict in Gaza.

“National cabinet met virtually today to reaffirm that leaders are united in working together to stamp antisemitism out – and keep it out,” the statement said.

The torching of the Maroubra childcare centre, which came after last week’s arson at the former house of Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin, pushed the prime minister to convene a national cabinet only a day after he rejected calls for “more meetings”.

One senior Labor source said as the frequency and seriousness of the attacks worsened it left Labor with little option but to call the meeting, which had also been pushed for by Labor-appointed special envoy to combat antisemitism Jillian Segal.

Albanese called the Maroubra incident an “evil act” and said the hastily convened meeting would hear from the federal police and state leaders about new measures to clamp down on antisemitism, including a new police taskforce the prime minister helped establish, Operation Avelite, that arrested a 44-year-old western Sydney for making online threats to kill Jewish leaders.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who has twice written to Albanese calling for national cabinet talks, said the prime minister had been “dragged kicking and screaming to hold a meeting” to focus on what he called a campaign of “domestic terrorism”. Dutton and Jewish leaders said Albanese needed to deliver tangible outcomes from the meeting and a sense of optimism for Jewish Australians, who he said were living in fear.

Albanese announced Operation Avelite last year to combat antisemitism and banned doxxing and the Nazi salute, but the outbreak of racist incidents has continued, putting pressure on the prime minister to counter the violence as he has been trying to outline his election-year agenda.

By early afternoon on Tuesday, some state officials were yet to be briefed on the agenda for the meeting, reflecting the speed with which it was organised.

At a morning press conference after the childcare centre fire, NSW Premier Chris Minns referred to the perpetrators as “bastards” and “animals”, declaring that hate speech against Jews was likely fuelling the acts. Minns revealed this week he would push ahead with hate speech laws despite a bureaucratic review advising him against laws that may curtail freedom of speech, amid concerns about anti-Jewish hatred emanating from fringe Muslim preachers.

Alongside Minns, Albanese called the attack “evil”.

“Childcare centres are places of joy and harmony … This attack is the latest in a series of antisemitic hate crimes,” Albanese said.

Leading Jewish groups, including the Executive Council of the Australian Jewry and the Zionist Federation of Australia, welcomed the national cabinet meeting and called for action on anti-vilification laws, which the federal government and opposition have shunned due to free speech concerns, a tougher definition of antisemitism, permit and no-mask rules for protests, and clearer directions for police to prosecute violent hate speech.

There have been at least nine major antisemitic incidents in Sydney since the one-year anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks. Three – one in Dover Heights on Friday and two incidents in Woollahra – have involved cars being doused in flammable liquid before being set alight. An accelerant was also used in an attack on a Newtown synagogue. In October, two buildings at Bondi Beach, including a kosher restaurant, were set alight.

In Melbourne last year, the office of Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns had a fire set inside, and another fire mostly destroyed the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea.

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