Following a snap cabinet meeting on antisemitism in Australia on Tuesday, officials said that the recent spate of antisemitic incidents could, in part, be attributed to “overseas actors” hiring locals to carry out attacks.
“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. We are looking at if—or how—they have been paid, for example, in cryptocurrency, which can take longer to identify,” Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said at a press conference after the meeting, 9 News reported.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese convened the meeting after a Sydney child-care center was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti and set on fire early on Tuesday. No one was injured in the attack.
Police have received 166 reports in recent weeks about antisemitism, with 15 under investigation. Prosecutors have charged 36 people with “antisemitic related offenses” in New South Wales, and 70 arrests had been made in Victoria, Kershaw also said.
Iran is believed to have paid criminals in Europe to carry out attacks on Jews and in Israel to perpetrate acts of vandalism and psychological warfare.
“The prime minister, state premiers and chief ministers unequivocally condemn antisemitism and reaffirmed to stamp it out in Australia,” a statement from Albanese’s office read, adding that leaders were “united in working together to stamp antisemitism out—and keep it out.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton suggested Albanese, a Labor Party leader, was not genuinely interested in addressing the situation.
“This is a national crisis. We are having rolling terrorist attacks in our community, and the prime minister is being dragged kicking and screaming to hold a meeting of our nation’s leaders,” Dutton said at a rally on Tuesday.
Australia has seen at least eight major cases of antisemitic vandalism since June, featuring the torching of a synagogue and cars in heavily Jewish neighborhoods, sometimes accompanied by antisemitic graffiti.
Albanese’s left-wing Labor government has been accused of pursuing anti-Israel positions. Following the arson attack of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on Dec. 6, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that these positions helped ignite attacks on Jews.
“There has been a worrying rise in antisemitism, but we call it out, and we call it out consistently, and we work with the community to work through these issues,” Albanese said after the attack on the synagogue.
