PM confirms some charged with antisemitic attacks were paid

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“It is important that people understand where some of these attacks are coming from, and it would appear, as the AFP commissioner said yesterday, 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. Now it’s unclear who or where the payments are coming from.”

Law enforcement sources unable to speak publicly said police suspected a number of the perpetrators were paid and used anonymous messaging services to receive instructions. This information had led to a suspicion that overseas actors may be involved. However, the statement suggests police do not yet have solid evidence to substantiate the claim.

Opposition home affairs spokesperson James Paterson (left) with leader Peter Dutton.Credit: Justin McManus

The police statement went on: “We are looking into whether any young people are involved in carrying out some of these crimes, and if they have been radicalised online and encouraged to commit antisemitic acts.”

“Regardless, it all points to the same motivation: demonising and intimidating the Jewish community.”

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke rebuked Patterson for demanding more information on the investigation, describing his opposition counterpart’s demand as naive.

“The Australian Federal Police will have very deliberate reasons for what they put out in the public and when they do it, and they operate independently as they should.

“My only interest in what they put out is that they make decisions that are designed to advance investigations. I’m not able to add to anything that that’s been put out there, but I certainly would not join in what I thought was a surprising and potentially naive call from Mr Patterson just randomly saying, oh, we need more information on this.

They should put out the information that they think helps with the investigation. That’s how the Australian Federal Police should operate.”

The prospect of foreign involvement would challenge the argument, made most forcefully by Paterson and the Coalition, that Labor’s allegedly weak leadership had fanned the blame of domestic antisemitism.

Albanese rejected the repeated criticism of the Israeli government that Australia’s support in the UN for a ceasefire, and its criticisms of Israel, had contributed to rising antisemitism in Australia.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel on Wednesday told the ABC: “the attitude of the current Australian government towards Israel is inflaming a lot of these emotions and giving, I guess, some acceptance when you do not fight it.“

Albanese said this criticism “denies agency of the actual perpetrators. It denies agency. It is an attempt to turn away from those people engaged in these hate crimes towards it being a political issue, and I tell you what should happen. Australia should come together, not look for difference. Look for unity of purpose. That is absolutely what we need at a time where those perpetrators of these actions do so in order to divide our country. That is what they are trying to do. We should not succumb to that. We should unite. Look for common purpose.”

So far, the arrests that have been made include a 44-year-old western Sydney man charged with making threats online to kill Jewish leaders. A 34-year-old woman from western Sydney, Tammie Farrugia, was charged after police found she allegedly sought jerrycans in the lead up to an antisemitic attack in Woollahra on December 11. On Wednesday morning, a man was charged for allegedly attempting to set fire to a synagogue in Newtown in Sydney’s inner west earlier this month.

ASIO raised the terror threat level from possible to probable in August based in part on tension stemming from the war in Gaza, with spy chief Mike Burgess warning of new mixes of “twisted” ideologies – including anti-government conspiracy theories, racism, Islamist extremism and neo-Nazism – blending with social media-fuelled personal grievance, intolerance, loneliness and mental ill health.

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