Melbourne — Australian police said Monday they are looking for three suspects in an arson attack at a synagogue in Melbourne, calling it an act of terrorism. Masked attackers set fire to the Adass Israel synagogue before dawn on Friday, police said, destroying much of the building. Some congregants were inside the one-story building at the time, but no serious injuries were reported.
The fire drew international condemnation, including from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Police have “three suspects in this matter, who we are pursuing,” Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton told a news conference.
Investigations over the weekend had made “significant progress,” said Patton, who declined to provide further details of the operation.
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Officials from the federal and state police, as well as the Australian intelligence agency, met on Monday and concluded the fire was “likely a terrorist incident”, the police chief said.
“Based on that, I’m very confident that we’ve now had an attack, a terrorist attack on this synagogue,” Patton said.
Australia’s response to ‘rising’ anti-Semitism
Anti-terrorist police have joined the investigation. Under Australian law, a terrorist act is one that causes death, injury or serious property damage in furtherance of a political, religious or ideological cause and is intended to intimidate the public or a government.
The official designation unlocks help from other federal agencies for the investigation, Australian National University terrorism researcher Michael Zekulin said.
“You basically get additional resources that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to get,” he told AFP.
There was no information to suggest further attacks and Australia’s terror threat assessment remained at “probable”, said Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation. intelligence
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has denounced the synagogue attack as an “outrage”, announced the creation of a federal police task force led by antisemitism.
“Anti-Semitism is a major threat and anti-Semitism has been on the rise,” Albanese told a news conference, citing the synagogue fire and recent vandalism.
The task force will be made up of federal police who will be deployed across the country as needed, officials said. They will focus on threats, violence and hatred towards the Jewish community and parliamentarians.
The war in Gaza has sparked protests by supporters of Israel and the Palestinian people in cities around Australia, like much of the world.
In January, Australian lawmakers introduced one series of new laws in an attempt to tackle the rise in anti-Semitic acts, including a ban on Nazi salutes in public and the display or sale of Nazi hate symbols such as the swastika. The new laws also made it a crime to glorify or praise acts of terrorism.
Australian Attorney General Mark Dreyfus he said at the time that the laws sent “a clear message: there is no place in Australia for acts and symbols that glorify the horrors of the Holocaust and acts of terrorism”.
Israeli and Australian leaders “respectfully disagree” on the definition of anti-Semitism
Netanyahu attacked the Australian government’s stance before the fire.
“This heinous act cannot be separated from the anti-Israel sentiment emanating from the Australian Labor government,” he said after the attack, declaring that “anti-Israel sentiment is anti-Semitism.”
Australia last week voted in favor of a UN General Assembly resolution demanding an end to Israel’s “illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
New Zealand, Britain and Canada were among 157 countries that voted in favor of the resolution, with eight against, including the US.
Australian Attorney General Mark Dreyfus rejected Netanyahu’s accusation.
“He’s absolutely wrong. I don’t agree with Mr. Netanyahu,” Dreyfus told national broadcaster ABC on Monday. “Australia remains a close friend of Israel, as we have been since the Labor government recognized the State of Israel when it was created by the United Nations. That remains the position now.”