Second synagogue in Sydney, Australia defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti

Australia has seen a series of anti-Semitic incidents in the last year, including graffiti on buildings and cars.

A synagogue in Sydney has been daubed in anti-Semitic graffiti, police said, a day after the anti-Semitic vandalism of a separate synagogue in the New South Wales state capital.

According to police officials, vandals spray painted red swastikas outside the entrance to an inner-city synagogue early on Saturday, while a house in Sydney’s affluent east was daubed with anti-Jewish slurs.

The incident comes a day after an attack on the Southern Sydney Synagogue in the suburb of Allawah in the early hours of Friday morning. A special police task force was set up to investigate the incident later on Friday.

“[There is] no place in Australia, our tolerant multicultural community, for this sort of criminal activity,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Friday, referring to the Southern Sydney Synagogue incident.

“These people are determined to divide our community in two,” added state Premier Chris Minns.

“We will always call out these acts for what they are – monstrous and appalling.”

Australia has seen a series of anti-Semitic incidents in the last year, including graffiti on buildings and cars in Sydney, as well as an arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne that police have ruled as “terrorism”.

The December attack on the Melbourne synagogue prompted the government to create a federal task force targeting anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents in the country have increased since Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 and Israel launched its war on Gaza.

Some Jewish organisations have said that the government has not taken sufficient action in response.

The incidents have also strained Australia’s relations with Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Albanese’s Labor Party government of encouraging such attacks with “anti-Israel” policies.

“Unfortunately, this criminal act cannot be separated from the anti-Israel spirit blowing from the Labor government in Australia,” Netanyahu wrote on X in December, referring to the arson attack at a synagogue.

Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, who is Jewish, said Netanyahu was “absolutely wrong” to link the attack to government policy.

“Australia remains a close friend of Israel as we have been since the Labor government recognised the state of Israel when it was created by the United Nations,” Dreyfus told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the national broadcaster last month.

“Now, that remains the position.”