Australia declares synagogue arson a terror attack as police hunt for three suspects
Move gives authorities more resources to manage probe into Friday blaze that gutted Melbourne house of worship; government sets up special taskforce to deal with antisemitic attacks
Australian police said Monday they were hunting for three suspects over an arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue, and designated it a terrorist act in a decision that increases resources available to the investigation.
Authorities also announced the formation of a federal taskforce to crack down on antisemitism, which the country’s leader warned was on the rise.
Several mask-wearing attackers set the Adass Israel Synagogue ablaze before dawn on Friday, police said, gutting much of the building.
A congregant inside the single-story building suffered minor injuries and the incident has strained relations between Australia and its ally Israel, as well as between Australian authorities and the local Jewish community.
Police have “three suspects in that matter, who we are pursuing,” Victorian police chief commissioner Shane Patton told a news conference Monday.
Patton said investigators had made “significant progress,” but declined to detail that progress.
Witnesses reported seeing two masked men spreading a liquid accelerant in the synagogue before the fire. Police have not revealed what role the third suspect played. Police have also not revealed if they know the identity of any suspect.
The synagogue fire was the first declared terrorist incident in Australia since April, when a 16-year-old boy allegedly stabbed a bishop and priest in a Sydney Assyrian church while a service was being streamed online.
Arson squad detectives have been investigating the blaze, but the investigation was taken over on Monday by the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team, which involves Victoria State Police and Australian Federal Police as well as the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the nation’s main domestic spy agency.
“The decision… to transition the Adass Israel Synagogue fire attack to the Victorian Joint Counter-Terrorism Team is a crucial turning point in this investigation,” Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Krissy Barrett told reporters.
“I want to thank Victoria Police investigators for the significant information they have gathered so far, which has helped lead us to believe that this is likely to be a politically motivated attack. This is now a terrorism investigation,” Barrett added.
The declaration gives investigators more resources, information and legal powers to pursue the three suspects, police said.
“We have the best resources, best-skilled investigators, people who are expert in this field, and we will throw everything we can at this investigation to resolve it,” Patton said.
Authorities did not specify what issue motivated the attack, which is widely suspected to be tied to anger around Israel’s military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon against terrorist groups attacking the country. In a statement, police said the fire was not thought to have been linked “to further matters” and that investigators were treating it as an isolated incident.
Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization, said there was no information to suggest further attacks were likely, with Australia keeping its terror threat assessment at “probable.”
Patton said police were nonetheless stepping up patrols of Jewish areas in Melbourne in order to reassure the community there.
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.
Some lawmakers had been calling for the arsonists to be charged with terrorism offenses so that they could potentially face longer prison sentences.
The blaze appeared to be an escalation in targeted attacks in Australia since Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, which killed 1,200 people, saw 251 abducted, and prompted the war in Gaza. Cars and buildings have been vandalized and torched around Australia in protests against Israel that have often targeted the Jewish community.
In a separate initiative, Australian Federal Police announced on Monday the formation of Special Operation Avalite to target antisemitism around the country.
The investigators were brought together in response to the synagogue blaze and arson attacks on Jewish lawmaker Josh Burns’s Melbourne office in June and on a car in a Sydney street last month that was related to antisemitic vandalism.
“Special Operation Avalite will be an agile and experienced squad of counter-terrorism investigators who will focus on threats, violence, and hatred towards the Australian Jewish community and parliamentarians,” Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw said. “In essence, they will be a flying squad to deploy nationally to incidents.”
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.
Announcing the taskforce, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has denounced the synagogue attack as an “outrage,” said antisemitism was a “major threat” that is on the rise.
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, who is Jewish, said his government was striving to make the Jewish community “feel safe.”
“We’ve experienced in Australia, in the last year, the highest level of antisemitism that I’ve experienced in my lifetime. That’s a common reaction from members of the Australian Jewish community,” Dreyfus said.
The Victorian government on Friday offered 100,000 Australian dollars ($64,300) to help repair the synagogue and said there would be an increased police presence in the area.
On Sunday, the federal government offered the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella body representing more than 200 Jewish organizations, AU$32.5 million ($20.8 million) to enhance security at community sites including synagogues and schools.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Australia on Saturday, saying the attack could not be separated from the “anti-Israel sentiment” of Canberra’s policies, including support of a recent UN motion backing a Palestinian state.
“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 antisemitism.”
Dreyfus rejected Netanyahu’s accusations on Monday.
“He’s absolutely wrong. I respectfully disagree with Mr. Netanyahu,” Dreyfus told national broadcaster ABC. “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.”
