(Bloomberg) -- Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested the Australian government’s “extreme anti-Israeli” stance helped incite an apparent arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue this week.
The fire at the Adass Israel synagogue in the early hours of Friday in the suburb of Ripponlea was “an abhorrent act of antisemitism,” Netanyahu said in a statement posted on X. Victoria police are still searching for three people in connection with the blaze, which drew about 60 firefighters.
Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was quick to condemn the attack, which occurred just days after his government switched a long-standing position by supporting a United Nations resolution demanding that Israel end its occupation of the Palestinian Territories.
“I expect the state authorities to use their full weight to prevent such antisemitic acts in the future,” Netanyahu said in the statement. “Unfortunately, it is impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia, including the scandalous decision to support the UN resolution.”
“I respectfully disagree with Prime Minister Netanyahu on this matter,” Murray Watt, minister for employment and workplace relations, said at a media briefing on Saturday. “The Albanese government has taken a range of strong actions to stand against antisemitism and to stamp it out from our community.”
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Anti-Jewish incidents in Australia soared by 316% in the year that followed the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. Peter Dutton, leader of the main opposition Liberal Party, has stepped up his criticism of the government’s handling of relations with the Jewish community since the UN vote.
“Anti-Israel sentiment is antisemitism,” Netanyahu said in the statement.
(Updates with government comment in 5th paragraph)
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