Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called a cabinet meeting with state and territory leaders to respond to a wave of anti-Semitic attacks. Photo: AFP / David Gray
Israel has accused Australia's government of letting anti-Semitism bubble in the country, as Australian Federal Police say they are investigating whether overseas actors have paid local criminals to carry out a growing number of attacks.
Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called a cabinet meeting with state and territory leaders on Tuesday, after a Sydney childcare centre was set alight and sprayed with anti-Semitic graffiti.
Federal police told the meeting they were "building evidence" about a rising spate of anti-Semitic hate crimes, of which there had been a noticeable uptick since the Gaza conflict began in October 2023.
Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw told the ABC intelligence, including whether Australians had been paid using cryptocurrencies to carry out attacks, was being used to inform investigations.
Australian leaders agreed to improve data collection on attacks at the snap meeting, and "stamp out" anti-Semitism in the country.
A new national database would be set up to track anti-Semitic crimes, incidents and behaviours, they said in a joint statement.
Albanese's government had previously resisted calls for a meeting, but rapidly changed tack following the childcare centre attack.
A police officer walks past a torched car being removed in front of anti-Israel graffiti written on a wall in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra in December 2024. Photo: AFP / Handout / Australian Broadcasting Corporation
In an exclusive interview with the ABC, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel accused Australian authorities of being too slow and too cautious in investigating incidents across the country.
Haskel said that had allowed the problem to get worse. "Obviously the attitude of the current Australian government towards Israel is inflaming a lot of these emotions and giving, I guess, some acceptance when you do not fight it," she said.
Words were not enough, Haskel told the ABC. "The Jewish community needs actions, and only through that, through deterrence, through investigation, prosecution - you have to fight it," she said.
"I mean, what are they waiting for? For someone to die? For someone to be murdered?"
Haskel had previously lived in Australia for six years, and said the scenes she was seeing from the country were not indicative of the Australia she remembered.
Hate crimes and attacks referring to the Middle East had become prominent in Australia in the last 15 months.
The severity of attacks had also increased after a Melbourne synagogue was set alight in a terror attack on 6 December.
In the six weeks since, there has been an attempted arson at a Sydney synagogue, vandalism at the former home of a Jewish community leader and several more cases of anti-Jewish vandalism of homes and cars.
The offices of members of the federal parliament had previously been been targets of vandalism and protest, and several people had been investigated for flying Hezbollah flags at Australian protests in Victoria and New South Wales as well.
Under Australian law, Hezbollah is a designated terror organisation, and it is illegal to publicly display prohibited terror symbols in some circumstances.
Online hate researchers said in August there had been a "significant" increase in anti-Semitism and Islamaphobia in Australia.
The Australian-based Online Hate Prevention Institute tracked offensive posts globally on 10 social media platforms following the start of the Gaza conflict in October 2023.
Lead author and institute chief executive Andre Oboler told the ABC hate speech targeting both groups was "up significantly on every single platform".
A national cabinet meeting was first called for by the Opposition more than a year ago, following the outbreak of the conflict in Gaza and pro-Palestinian protests outside the Sydney Opera House.
But Albanese largely resisted the calls until now.
In July, he named Jewish lawyer and business leader Jillian Segal as Australia's first anti-Semitism envoy.
Her appointment was for three years, and came with announcement that the government would also appoint a special envoy on Islamaphobia.
Aftab Malik, New South Wales government staffer for community engagement and countering violent extremism and a UN global expert on Muslim affairs,was later appointed to the role.
In the past week, Segal added her voice to the calls for a national cabinet meeting on anti-Semitism.
Anti-Semitism was fast becoming a key issue ahead of Australia's federal election in May.
The Opposition coalition, consisting of the Liberal and National parties, told the ABC it would create mandatory minimum jail time for anti-Semitic offences if elected in this year's national election.
The New South Wales government also indicated it would be reviewing state legislation.
- RNZ / ABC
