Australian police yesterday said they were hunting for three suspects over an arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue, designating it a terrorist act.
Mask-wearing attackers set the Adass Israel Synagogue ablaze before dawn on Friday, police said, gutting much of the building.
Some congregants were inside the single-story building at the time, but no serious injuries were reported. The fire sparked international condemnation, including from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Police have “three suspects in that matter, who we are pursuing,” Victorian police chief commissioner Shane Patton told a news conference.
Investigations over the weekend had made “significant progress,” he said, declining to provide further details of the operation.
Officials from the federal and state police, as well as Australia’s intelligence agency, met yesterday and concluded that the fire was “likely a terrorist incident,” the police chief said.
“Based on that, I am very confident that we now have had an attack, a terrorist attack on that synagogue,” he said.
Counterterrorism police have joined the probe. Under Australian law, a terrorist act is one that causes death, injury or serious property damage to advance a political, religious or ideological cause, and is aimed at intimidating 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.
“Basically you get additional resources that you might not otherwise get,” he said.
There is no information to suggest further attacks are likely and Australia’s terror threat assessment will remain at its current level of “probable,” said Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation Director-General Mike Burgess, who has denounced the synagogue attack as an “outrage,” announced the creation of a federal police taskforce targeting anti-Semitism.
“Anti-Semitism is a major threat and anti-Semitism has been on the rise,” Albanese told a news conference, citing the synagogue blaze and recent vandalism.
The taskforce will be made up of federal police to be deployed across the country as needed, officials said.
They will focus on threats, violence and hatred toward the Jewish community and parliamentarians.
The war in Gaza has sparked protests from supporters of Israel and Palestinians in cities around Australia, as in much of the world.
Netanyahu attacked the Australian government’s stance in the run-up to the fire.
“This heinous act cannot be separated from the anti-Israel sentiment emanating from the Australian Labor government,” he said after the attack.
“Anti-Israel sentiment is anti-Semitism,” he said.
Australia last week voted for a UN General Assembly resolution that demanded the end of Israel’s “unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus rejected Netanyahu’s accusation.
“He’s absolutely wrong. I respectfully disagree 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. Now that remains the position,” he said.
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