Australian PM jeered at firebombed synagogue

Anthony Albanese was told his words were ‘cheap and late’ after announcing government support for rebuilding Adass Israel.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was jeered during his visit to a firebombed synagogue in Melbourne Tuesday in which he promised financial support for rebuilding the seriously damaged building.

Hecklers called out that his words were “cheap and late” in coming to express solidarity four days after the Friday arson attack.

At least one man referred to Albanese having played tennis the next day, apparently showing indifference to their plight. Some in the crowd pointed to his toleration of antisemitic speech, with one heard shouting, “Does the prime minister condemn calls for an intifada against Jews?” and another yelling, “Go live in Gaza.”

One man told The Chronicle that while it was “great” that the prime minister had come, “his visit misses the mark. Australia’s Jewish community don’t want to live behind walls, or armed guards or under surveillance…. What we should be doing is living together harmoniously with the rest of Australia as we have for hundreds of years.”

“The prime minister must address those that are inciting hate with their words,” he continued, and that those “here on visas, look to cancel those visas and deport them. That’s the only way to restore harmony in our country.”

As he stood outside the gutted building with his Hasidic hosts, wearing a knitted skullcap, he called out the attack as “an act of terrorism that was fueled by antisemitism, and it was stoked by hatred.”

He told the gathered journalists that the government would provide “whatever support is necessary financially, [and] make sure that those who perpetrated this evil crime do not receive any benefits, that they get the message that Australia is not a country that will tolerate such an act.”

There has been an explosion of anti-Israel demonstrations and antisemitic incidents in Australia and worlwide, against both people and property, since October 7, 2023, when Gazan terrorists led an invasion of Israeli communities, massacred 1,200 people, and took 251 hostages, all of which sparked the Israel-Hamas war.

Albanese has often been criticized for his lack of support for both Australia’s Jewish community and Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu going so far as to charge after the most recent incident that “sadly, this deplorable act cannot be viewed in isolation from the Labor government’s extreme anti-Israeli stance.” The Israeli leader noted Australia’s support of the recent United Nations resolution calling on Israel to leave what it terms “Occupied Palestinian territory” in eastern Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and its refusal to grant a visa to former justice minister Ayelet Shaked because she opposed a Palestinian state.

The Albanese government rejected the charge.

The prime minister announced the formation of a federal counter-antisemitism task force on Monday, hours after the Adass Israel attack was officially declared a “likely terrorist incident” following “significant progress” in the investigation, the police said.