WorthyNews: Israel Condemns Australia’s Antisemitism Attacks

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By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

JERUSALEM/SYDNEY (Worthy News) – Israel has urged Australia to do more to halt an “epidemic of antisemitism” after police said they had foiled an attack involving explosives in a suburb of Sydney, Australia’s biggest city.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government was doing all it could to combat attacks that he told include domestic terrorism.

Besides a discovered planned attack targeting Jews, a Jewish school and two other properties in Sydney were sprayed with antisemitic slurs, authorities said on Thursday.

Earlier, police in New South Wales state, which includes Sydney, said Wednesday they had found explosives in a caravan, or trailer, that could have created a blast wave of 40 meters (130 feet).

There was some indication the explosives might be used in an antisemitic attack that could have caused mass casualties, police warned without elaborating.

Prime Minister Albanese, who faces a national election by May, has been criticized by the conservative opposition coalition as “weak” for “failing” to prevent hate crimes against Jews.

However, Albanese said his Labor government was “doing everything we can” to tackle what he called an act of terrorism against the Jewish people, adding that an undisclosed number of arrests were made. “The fact that people are being detained, arrested, charged, kept in the clink without bail, indicates that that’s the case,” [we take it seriously] he told ABC Radio.

10 ARRESTED

New South Wales police said they had arrested 10 people over the past 10 days for alleged antisemitic attacks. The explosives were discovered on January 19 in the suburb of Dural. The vehicle’s owner was in custody on unrelated matters, said New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb.

“This represents undeniably an escalation in race-filled hatred and potential violence,” state Premier Chris Minns told a press conference. “We’re very concerned about it.”

It underscores the escalating series of attacks on synagogues, buildings, and cars since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began in October 2023, adding to fear among Australia’s 115,000 Jewish people, noted Jewish representatives.

The New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies called the incident “a matter of the gravest” possible consequence.

“We have been saying for weeks now that the Jewish community is the target of an ongoing campaign of domestic terrorism. This is now beyond dispute,” it stressed in a statement.

Israel agreed. “The epidemic of antisemitism is spreading in Australia almost unchecked. We expect the Australian government to do more to stop this disease!” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on social media platform X.

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