Sydney According to authorities, a Sydney child care center was set on fire early Tuesday and had antisemitic graffiti scrawled on the wall. This is the most recent in a string of attacks in Australia that target the Jewish population.
The incident, which happened at around 1 a.m. (9 a.m. Monday ET), caused significant damage to the child care center, which is close to a Jewish school and synagogue in the city’s east, but no casualties were reported, according to police.
It was Sydney’s second antisemitic property attack in four days, and it coincides with a wave of similar crimes against the Jewish population in the country’s most populated city.
As public dissatisfaction over the lack of arrests following prior antisemitic incidents develops, New South Wales state Premier Chris Minns declared that the offenders would be apprehended and that the police had increased their resources to investigate hate crimes.
At a media briefing, Minns stated, “It is absolutely disgusting for people to attack a fellow Australian they don’t know because of their race or religion. These bastards will be rounded up by the police.”
Since Israel launched a war on Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, which has killed tens of thousands of people, antisemitic and Islamophobic acts have increased throughout Australia. In Sydney alone, at least six incidences have been reported in the past two months.
The most recent incident was characterized as a heinous crime by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Antisemitism is expected to be a major issue in Albanese’s national election, which is scheduled for May. The opposition has criticized him as weak for not doing enough to stop hate crimes against Jews.
A task group has been formed by the Australian Federal Police to look into threats and acts of violence against the Jewish community in reaction to the recent wave of attacks.
Last Monday, the task force filed its first charges against a 44-year-old man for allegedly threatening to kill members of a Jewish group.