Sydney synagogue daubed in anti-Semitic graffiti in latest attack on Australian Jews
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The police will deploy a special task force to investigate the attack on the Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
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SYDNEY – A synagogue in Sydney was daubed in anti-Semitic graffiti on Jan 10, the police said, the latest in a spate of incidents targeting Jews in Australia.
The police will deploy a special task force to investigate the attack on the Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah that took place in the early hours of Jan 10, New South Wales state Police Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna told a news conference.
“The people who do these sorts of things should realise we will be out in force to look for them, we will catch them and prosecute them,” he said.
Television footage showed multiple swastikas painted on the building, along with a message reading “Hitler on top”.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, during a news conference, said: “(There is) no place in Australia, our tolerant multicultural community, for this sort of criminal activity.”
The incident is the latest in a series of anti-Semitic incidents in Australia in the past year, including multiple incidents of graffiti on buildings and cars in Sydney, as well as an arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne that the police have ruled as terrorism.
Australia has seen an increase in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and Israel launched its war on Gaza. Some Jewish organisations have said the government has not taken sufficient action in response.
The country launched a task force in December 2024 following the Melbourne synagogue blaze, focusing on threats, violence and hatred towards the Australian Jewish community.
Australia’s ice hockey federation said on Jan 7 that it had cancelled a planned international qualifying tournament
