MELBOURNE — Australian detectives are investigating whether foreign actors are paying criminals to commit antisemitic attacks in the country, police said on Wednesday.
Australia Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw was meeting on Wednesday with state police chiefs to discuss an increase in antisemitic crime in Australia since the war between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 7, 2023.
“We believe criminals-for-hire may be behind some incidents,” Kershaw told reporters in the national capital, Canberra.
“So part of our inquiries include: Who is paying those criminals, where those people are, whether they are in Australia or offshore, and what their motivation is,” Kershaw added.
He did not take questions from reporters.
Kershaw told federal and state government leaders on Tuesday in a briefing on antisemitism that detectives were investigating 15 serious allegations of antisemitic crime.
“We are looking into whether overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs,” Kershaw said after Tuesday’s meeting.
“We are looking at if—or how—they have been paid, for example in cryptocurrency, which can take longer to identify,” he added.
Police were also investigating whether young people were involved in antisemitism and if they had been radicalized online and encouraged to commit antisemitic acts, Kershaw said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday declined to comment on who might be paying for antisemitic crime in Australia.
“It is important that people understand where some of these attacks are coming from and it would appear … that some of these are being perpetrated by people who don’t have a particular issue, aren’t motivated by an ideology, but are paid actors,” Albanese told reporters.
An arson and graffiti attack on a childcare center near a Sydney synagogue on Tuesday is the latest in a spate of targeted attacks in Australia’s largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, which are home to 85% of the country’s Jewish population.
The fires and other attacks have targeted buildings, businesses and cars. One person suffered burn injuries in a fire that was set at a Melbourne synagogue in December.
After the childcare center fire, New South Wales Police said the number of detectives working for Strike Force Pearl, which was formed to investigate antisemitic crime, had been doubled from 20 to 40.
Strike Force Pearl detectives arrested a 33-year-old man on Tuesday night and charged him with attempting to burn down a synagogue in the inner-Sydney suburb of Newtown on Jan. 11.
A liquid accelerant burned out without the building catching fire. Red swastikas were also painted on an exterior wall.
Police say the man’s alleged accomplice was expected to be arrested soon.
