Counterterrorism police have reportedly taken over all investigations related to an antisemitic incident at a synagogue in Sydney.
New South Wales premier Chris Minns said over the weekend that the painting of Nazi swastikas on the synagogue in the suburb of Newtown was “very concerning, not just for the Jewish community but for the wider community”.
Authorities said on Sunday that an arson attempt was also made on the Jewish place of worship.
Australia has witnessed a series of antisemitic incidents over the last year such as graffiti on buildings and cars in Sydney and an arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne that police later ruled as terrorism.
Acting premier Penny Sharpe said on Monday she was confident that the counterterrorism police had the resources and skills to find the perpetrators of the attack on the Newtown synagogue.
“They bring all of the intelligence that we have about activity that is out there,” she told ABC radio. “They are able to coordinate at the local level, at the broader level, they’re able to work very closely and do things like release CCTV.”
Barely hours before the Newtown incident, a house in Sydney’s east, a hub of the city’s Jewish community, has been daubed with antisemitic graffiti, police said on Saturday, adding that they were also investigating offensive comments on a street poster in the suburb of Marrickville.
The Australian government has promised to increase security for Jewish institutions and give extra resources to the community’s representative, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies.
David Ossip, president of the Jewish Board of Deputies, said on Sunday he welcomed extra resources promised by the government to investigate the recent incidents.
“The New South Wales government has also provided us with additional funding to enhance Jewish communal security,” Mr Ossip added.
The incidents happened amid Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023 following a Hamas attack that left some 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians dead.
The Israeli assault has killed over 46,000 Palestinians so far and displaced over 90 per cent of the Palestinian territory’s population of 2.3 million.
The acting premier said her message to the Jewish community was “we stand with you”.
“An attack on you is an attack on all of us and we will not allow it to go unanswered,” she said.
Police on Sunday released images of two people wearing lightcoloured shoes, black hoodies and dark clothing at the synagogue at about 4.25am local time. The images show the two spraypainting the fence and the building before attempting to set fire to it.
The fire died out on its own within minutes, NSW commissioner Karen Webb said.
“An accelerant of some type has been used and that is an escalation in the level of criminality as far as I’m concerned,” she said, adding that the ongoing investigation “is a concerted effort to make sure that all of these matters are given the consideration, thoroughness to exploit every avenue”.
Ms Webb appealed to anyone who knows “who has perpetrated these disgusting offences to come forward and tell police who they are”.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese said Australia’s “tolerant multicultural community” was “no place for this sort of criminal activity”.
