Police are investigating an arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne, South Australia, early Friday morning, which Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described as an “anti-Semitic” act.
Detective Inspector Chris Murray of the Arson and Explosives Brigade said the fire broke out at about 4:10 a.m. local time at the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne's southeast.
“We believe it was deliberate. We believe it was targeted. We just don’t know why, and we’ll get to the why,” Murray said, noting that a witness testified that he saw two people wearing masks who appeared to be “spreading some type of accelerant inside the premises.”
The fire caused significant damage to the building, though no one was seriously injured despite an undetermined number of members of the congregation being inside for morning prayers, Benjamin Klein, a board member of the Adass Israel synagogue, told Australian public broadcaster ABC.
In “unequivocally” condemning the attack, the Australian Prime Minister stressed that this “deliberate and unlawful” incident endangered human lives and “is clearly aimed at creating fear in the community.”
“Obviously the nature of this, and this is clearly an act of anti-Semitism,” Albanese said in an interview today with an ABC station in Melbourne, insisting that it is an “outrage against a place of worship.”
The Jewish community represents 0,4% of Australia's population of more than 26 million.
Attacks against Australian Jews have been reported since the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic terrorist group Hamas began in October last year.
The Canberra government has repeatedly expressed concern about the division created in Australian society following the war against Hamas in Gaza, and has even created two special posts to combat growing anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the southern nation. Aurora and EFE