2025-12-14T20:05:34+00:00
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Shafaq News – Canberra (Updated at 00:19)
Australia has recorded at least 14 antisemitic
incidents since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 8, 2023, a rise
that peaked on Sunday with an attack on a Jewish gathering at Sydney’s Bondi
Beach.
The Bondi attack—which, according to New South Wales police, killed 16 people, injured 40 others, and triggered a nationwide
terrorism investigation—followed a steady escalation in
targeting Jewish communities. Synagogues, schools, businesses, and private
property were repeatedly hit. In May 2024, Australia’s largest Jewish school in
Melbourne was defaced with graffiti. Later that year, a bakery in Sydney was
threatened after a warning was spray-painted on its exterior.
***IMPORTANT INFORMATION***Police can confirm 16 people have died and 40 people remain in hospital following yesterday’s shooting at Bondi.More information will be made available soon.
— NSW Police Force (@nswpolice) December 14, 2025
The pattern hardened in early 2025. In mid-January,
synagogues in southern and western Sydney were vandalized with antisemitic
slogans, and one was targeted in an attempted arson attack. New South Wales
Premier Chris Minns described the incidents as a serious turning point. Within
days, vehicles were set ablaze and the home of a Jewish community leader in
eastern Sydney was damaged. A nearby childcare center was later vandalized and
burned. Police then uncovered a trailer packed with explosives in northwest
Sydney, later identified as a criminal diversion plot designed to resemble an
attack on a synagogue.
Authorities in February widened their response beyond
physical attacks. On February 12, police opened a criminal investigation after
a nurse and a midwife at a Sydney hospital were suspended over a TikTok video
in which they allegedly threatened Jewish patients and refused them treatment.
Arson attacks followed in Bondi, where the entrance of
the Curly Lewis brewery was set alight, followed by a fire at the nearby
Jewish-owned Louis Continental Kitchen. In March 2025, police charged a former
motorcycle gang member, alleging he coordinated the attacks to divert law
enforcement resources.
The violence continued into mid-2025. On July 4, an
arson attack forced 20 people to flee a synagogue dinner in eastern Melbourne.
Police arrested a suspect that night while also responding to unrest at an
Israeli restaurant elsewhere in the city.
Diplomatic Fallout with Iran
The domestic security crisis soon spilled into foreign
policy. On August 26, 2025, Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador, accusing
Tehran of directing two antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne. The move
marked Australia’s most significant diplomatic expulsion since World War II.
Prime Minister Albanese said intelligence agencies
believed further plots may have been planned. Canberra responded by suspending
operations at its embassy in Tehran, relocating diplomatic staff to a third
country, and designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a
terrorist organization, aligning with the United States and Canada.
Australia later joined 14 Western countries, including
the US, the UK, and France, in condemning Iran for what they described as an
expansion of covert operations abroad involving threats, abductions, and
targeted violence.
Iran rejected the accusations, with the Foreign
Ministry stating that antisemitism “has no place in Iranian culture.”
