A man was arrested overnight on Tuesday in connection with an antisemitic attack on Newtown Synagogue in Sydney, Australia, on Jan. 11, when vandals sprayed-painted swastikas and attempted to set the building on fire, the New South Wales Police Force announced on Wednesday.
Adam Edward Moule, 33, faces multiple charges, including arson and property damage, and has been denied bail.
Strike Force Pearl detectives apprehended the suspect in an overnight raid in Camperdown. The police force established Strike Force Pearl in December to investigate such hate crimes, already resulting in nine arrests.
A second arrest is expected soon, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said.
NSW police have arrested Adam Moule, 33 after an alleged attempt to set Newtown Synagogue on fire. Moule was charged with destroy etc property in company use fire, destroy/damage property in company, goods in personal custody suspected being stolen, and cultivate prohibited… pic.twitter.com/BYOttGyP7B
— Daniel (@VoteLewko) January 21, 2025
Examining potential international links
Chris Minns, premier of New South Wales, emphasized that the arrests are ongoing with Operation Pearl “just getting started.”
According to Webb, police have “strong leads” and are continuing their investigation with a team of 40 detectives.
This incident is part of a broader rise in antisemitic attacks across Australia, including other synagogue attacks and property vandalism.
Following a snap cabinet meeting on antisemitism in Australia on Tuesday, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said at a press conference that police had 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
Authorities are investigating potential international links and online radicalization.
“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,” Kershaw said.
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.
Australian leaders have vowed to strengthen legal measures and improve coordination in combating antisemitism.
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,” read a statement from Albanese’s office, 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,” he said at a rally on Tuesday. “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.”
Australia has seen at least eight major cases of antisemitic vandalism since June, including 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.
