Jewish Australians call for national anti-hate unit
A Victorian task force will examine police powers after a spate of anti-Semitic incidents in Melbourne in recent days, including an alleged arson on the East Melbourne Synagogue that forced 20 worshippers inside to flee.
Sydney man Angelo Loras, 34, has been charged over the fire, which occurred seven months after the city's Adass Israel Synagogue was damaged in what authorities have alleged was arson.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, an umbrella group for the nation's Jews, feared further anti-Semitic attacks and said more than state-based action was needed.
It urged the federal government to adopt a 15-point action plan including the establishment of a national task force to clamp down on anti-Semitism.
"I don't know where the next attack will be or when or how, all I can say is that it is statistically likely that it will occur," the council's president Daniel Aghion said.
"So far, we have been lucky in that no one has died."
He urged Victorian authorities to disallow weekly pro-Palestine protests in their current form and bring in protest zones, after a group on Friday night damaged an Israeli restaurant following a rally.
In that incident, a restaurant window was smashed, tables flipped and chairs thrown as police directed the group to leave the area.
One person was arrested for hindering police.
The Jewish Council of Australia denounced the synagogue attack but said it was "irresponsible and inflammatory to link this anti-Semitic act with separate protest actions".
"Such language inaccurately conflates Jewishness with support for Israel, and undermines the fight against real anti-Semitism," executive council member Ohad Kozminsky said.
Late on Friday, a group spray-painted cars with anti-Semitic "inferences" then set them alight in the city's northeast.
A fourth incident involved stencils used to spray paint offensive images on pillars and walls near a Holocaust museum in the suburb of Elsternwick.
Victorian police have not declared the incidents as related to terrorism but are working alongside counter-terrorism officers.
The attacks, which have draw the ire of Israel, were condemned by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who said those responsible must face the full force of the law.
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