Australia’s prime minister has announced the launch of a police task force on anti-Semitism following a spate of attacks aimed at Jewish people, including an arson attack at a synagogue.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made the announcement on Monday as police said they were treating a fire at a synagogue in Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs as “terrorism”.
“Our world-class agencies will provide all the support necessary to find the perpetrators and ensure they face the full force of the law,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra.
The attack on the Adass Israel synagogue on Friday was the third incident of arson aimed at the Jewish community so far this year, following the firebombing of a Jewish Labor MP’s electorate office and the torching of a car in Sydney.
Under Australian law, designating a crime as “terrorism” grants authorities additional resources and expanded powers.
Australian police said on Monday they were searching for three suspects in the case and had made “significant progress” in their investigation.
The synagogue arson has placed Australia’s relations with Israel under strain, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing Albanese’s Labor Party government of encouraging such attacks with anti-Israel policies.
“Unfortunately, this criminal act cannot be separated from the anti-Israel spirit blowing from the Labor government in Australia,” Netanyahu wrote on X on Friday.
Netanyahu’s remarks came after Australia voted with 156 other countries at the United Nations to call for an end to Israel’s “unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible”.
Australian Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, who is Jewish, on Monday said Netanyahu was “absolutely wrong” to link the attack to government policy.
“Australia remains a close friend of Israel as we have been since the Labor government recognised the state of Israel when it was created by the United Nations,” Dreyfus told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the national broadcaster.
“Now, that remains the position.”
