Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: Alex Ryvchin
Police examine a car torched in front of a home in Woolhara, Australia on Dec. 10, 2024
(JNS) — Days after the torching of a synagogue in Melbourne, Australia’s Jewish community on Wednesday reported another antisemitic arson, this time near Sydney.
In the latest incident, two suspects set fire to a car in the suburb of Woollahra and sprayed anti-Israel graffiti reading “Kill Israel” on the garage door of a residential building, according to Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
“The Jewish community again wakes to scenes of terror and devastation. More burning cars and broken glass. Another act intended to terrorise us, drive us from our country and make our fellow Australians fearful of associating with us,” Ryvchin wrote on social media.
Police are investigating the Sydney incident, AFP reported. The suspects are believed to be in their late teens, and were seen fleeing the scene in the vehicle they arrived in, the news agency reported. They also allegedly defaced another car, two buildings and a footpath.
On Monday, people demonstrating against the regime of Bashar Assad, the deposed president of Syria, chanted about killing Jews at a rally, Ryvchin added, including footage showing them shouting: “Khaybar, Khaybar, o Jews, the armies of Muhammad are coming.”
Khaybar is the name of a Saudi city where, according to Islamic teachings, Mohammed’s army killed many Jews.
“The Syrian revolution has no connection to Jews but to some, it’s always about the Jews. This is the hatred the anti-Israel movement has brought to our cities,” wrote Ryvchin.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns condemned the Woollahra attack, calling it “shocking” and vowing the perpetrators would face justice. “This is not the Sydney we want. These racist attempts to divide our city will not work,” he stated.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also denounced the incident, labelling it “an outrage and another antisemitic attack.” Expressing solidarity with Australia’s Jewish community, he reaffirmed that “there is no place for hatred or antisemitism in our country.”
Australian counter-terror police are still searching for three suspects in the torching on Friday of Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue. Albanese visited the site on Tuesday, describing the arson as “evil” and urging Australians to unite against hatred.
His visit ended discordantly, as hecklers shouted angrily at him on his way to his car, footage on social media showed. “Your words are cheap and late, you let this happen,” one woman shouted.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the Albanese government of helping to ignite antisemitism with its “extreme anti-Israelism.”
Penny Wong, Australia’s foreign minister, has defended her country’s voting in April at the United Nations in favor of increasing the level of participation by the Palestinian Authority in the forum. She has demanded Israel stop its attacks on Hamas in Gaza in the wake of the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
“Innocent Palestinians cannot continue to pay the price of defeating Hamas,” she said in August. On Dec. 4, Australia flipped its position at the United Nations, supporting a resolution condemning Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria as “occupation.”
