Australia’s PM launches anti-Semitism taskforce after synagogue arson. religion news
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the task force as police say they are treating the attack as ‘terrorism’.
Australia’s Prime Minister has announced the launch of a police task force on anti-Semitism following a string of attacks targeting Jews, 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 south-eastern suburbs as “terrorism”.
“Our world-class agencies will provide all the assistance necessary to hunt down these criminals and ensure they face the full force of the law,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra.
The attack on the Adas Israel synagogue on Friday was the third arson attack targeting the Jewish community so far this year, following the bombing of a Jewish Labor MP’s electorate office in Sydney and the setting on fire of a car.
Under Australian law, designating a crime as “terrorism” gives 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 strained Australia’s relations with Israel, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing Albanese’s Labor Party government of encouraging such attacks with its anti-Israel policies.
“Unfortunately, this criminal act cannot be separated from the anti-Israel sentiment being fueled by the Labor government in Australia,” Netanyahu wrote on Twitter on Friday.
Netanyahu’s comments came after Australia voted with 156 other countries at the United Nations to call on Israel to end its “illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territory as soon as possible.”
Australian Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, who is Jewish, said on Monday that Netanyahu was “absolutely wrong” to link the attack to government policy.
Dreyfus told the national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, “Australia remains a close friend of Israel, as we have been since the Labor government recognized the State of Israel when it was created by the United Nations.”
“Now, the same situation persists.”
