By Perry Duffin, Michael McGowan and Amber Schultz
NSW Premier Chris Minns has called the arrest of a man who allegedly tried to burn down an inner Sydney synagogue a “big breakthrough” in police efforts to track down those responsible for a spate of antisemitic attacks.
But the premier also slammed a 10-month jail sentence handed to one of the men involved in a separate fire at a Bondi brewery in October last year, saying it sent the “wrong message” and revealing NSW Police would appeal the sentence.
The string of antisemitic attacks in Sydney have sparked a national crisis and posed a major challenge for the NSW government and police as it seeks to reassure the city’s Jewish community.
The 33-year-old arrested on Wednesday is the ninth person charged under Strike Force Pearl, which is investigating the spate of incidents. Police are still searching for the second person allegedly involved in attempting to set the Newtown Synagogue alight.
“We will leave no stone unturned in combating rampant antisemitism and violence in our community. It will never be tolerated,” Minns said.
“[We] stand united against this kind of fear and intimidation, this deliberate attempt to strike terror into the hearts of people that live in this state and together as a community we will overcome it.”
Antisemitic graffiti at the Newtown Synagogue.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
Two masked and hooded men were captured on CCTV spraying swastika symbols on the Newtown Synagogue before pouring clear accelerant on the building and lighting it on the evening of January 11.
The fire burnt itself out, but it was the second attack on a Sydney synagogue in two days after another was targeted with graffiti referencing Adolf Hitler and swastikas in the southern suburb of Allawah.
Police from Strike Force Pearl, which includes counter-terrorism investigators, executed two search warrants on Tuesday evening at two homes on Pyrmont Bridge Road in Camperdown.
Adam Edward Moule was picked up in the raids and charged with destroying property in company by fire, property damage in company, stolen goods and cultivating a prohibited plant.
Moule did not appear on the video screen and made no application for release when his case was mentioned at Downing Centre Local Court. He is expected to re-appear before the same court on Thursday.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said a second man is expected to be arrested “shortly” in relation to the synagogue attack.
“The arrest this morning is 11 days on from that incident,” she said. “With very, very little information other than a very hazy CCTV image, and we’ve worked backwards from that tirelessly, methodically and now we have someone before the court and a second offender we are currently searching for.”
The number of detectives working on Strike Force Pearl was doubled from 20 to 40 following an antisemitic attack on a childcare centre in Maroubra in the early hours of Tuesday morning in which a building was set alight and graffitied with an offensive slogan.
Strike Force Pearl has put nine people before the courts after a string of suspected antisemitic attacks across Sydney, particularly in the eastern suburbs, where many Jewish residents live.
However, Minns was incensed by the 10-month sentence handed to one man this week over the fire at the Bondi brewery, which caused significant damage to the business on Campbell Parade.
“We need to send a strong and unambiguous message that you will face the full force of the law, and we expect, and we hope, that when police to the job of arresting these individuals and putting them before the courts, significant sentences are handed down,” he said.
“How else can we send a message to potential alleged offenders that this will not be tolerated, and also send an unambiguous message to the community that we’ve got your back, and if people commit hate crimes … the book will be thrown at them.”
Following a series of attacks against homes and businesses linked to Sydney’s Jewish community, the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday called a snap National Cabinet meeting with state leaders.
At the same time, the AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw issued an explosive statement revealing police were “looking into” the possibility that overseas actors or individuals had paid local criminals to perpetrate the attacks.
NSW Police Commissioner Webb refused to be drawn on that intelligence ahead of a meeting with the AFP and other state police commissioners on Wednesday afternoon.
“If the AFP and other jurisdictions have information relevant to our investigations, then we need to have that information,” she said.
Minns too said the government “can’t rule anything out and we need to keep an open mind, which we are doing”.
The premier has flagged plans to reform hate speech laws by creating a specific criminal offence for vilification – despite the NSW Law Reform Commission and numerous religious and legal groups warning against such a change.
While hate speech is unlawful in NSW, it is not a criminal offence. Minns said making it so would remove the burden from individuals to bring civil cases.
“Yes, this is driven by a completely unacceptable rise in antisemitic attacks in NSW, but it’s very important to make the point that this will apply to everybody across the board, anyone who preaches hate in our community, who sets about dividing Australian against Australian,” he said on Wednesday.
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