AFP Suggests Foreign Actors Are Paying Locals to Commit Antisemitic Crimes

The insinuations linking the much-demonised local pro-Palestinian movement that formed in opposition to the Israeli state-perpetrated Gaza genocide to a spate of antisemitic attacks in NSW and Victoria appear to be dissipating, as AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw suggested on Tuesday that foreign interference could be the motivation.

“We are looking into whether overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs,” the top cop said in a 21 January 2025 statement.

“We are looking at if – or how – they have been paid, for example in cryptocurrency, which can take longer to identify.”

The first major attack that was labelled “antisemitic” involved the burning of a car and anti-Israel graffiti sprayed upon buildings on Gadigal land in Sydney’s Woollahra last November, with another similar attack having transpired in that same suburb the following month.

Many of the earlier attacks featured messaging targeting Israel, however, this has morphed into Jewish hate graffiti. And the torching of the Addas Israel Synagogue of Melbourne in early December took these attacks to another level, and they’ve continued ever since at an exponential rate.

The Australian federal police assertion that its investigations have led to the understanding that a foreign government or organisation may be behind the attacks broadens the possible aims the instigators are attempting to achieve in the commission of the series of crimes, and it lends further credence to assertions that the perpetrators are not part of the local pro-Palestinian movement.

Indeed, opposition home affairs spokesperson James Patterson – or Peter Dutton 2.0 – stated on Wednesday that the suggestion of foreign interference was a “gravely serious claim” and he called on prime minister Anthony Albanese to brief the public in more detail on what is known.

“Antisemitism is a disease”

Following another antisemitic attack targeting a childcare centre in Maroubra in the early hours of last Tuesday, Albanese convened a meeting of national cabinet later that day, which came on the back of loud calls last week from antisemitism envoy Jillian Segal to hold the meeting to contemplate uniform national laws targeting antisemitic crimes in particular, with harsher penalties imposed.

Kershaw briefed national cabinet, which comprises of the PM, state premiers and territory chief ministers, on the progress of Operation Avalite, which is a federal taskforce targeting antisemitic crimes established in December.

The AFP commissioner told national cabinet on 21 January that Avalite had received 166 antisemitic crime reports, with 15 incidents under investigation, while The Australian reported that same day that 13 antisemitic incidents have occurred in the Sydney and Newcastle regions since 5 January.

The foreign interference scenario suggests circumstances involving foreign actors motivated by an unknown outcome that’s achieved by the commission of antisemitic attacks in this country, and they are employing local criminal elements to carry out these acts of vandalism, with the perpetrators likely not even holding any personal motivation to commit the crime besides financial reward.

“All lines of inquiry are open to the investigations – including what anonymising technology, such as dedicated encrypted communication devices – have been used to commit these crimes,” Kershaw set out on Tuesday.

“We are looking into whether overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs.”

Further discrepancies

Along with the foreign interference intel, there’s other information that tends to diffuse the initial idea that a group of pro-Palestinian supporters were perpetrating an antisemitic fear campaign. And the reason such a scenario has been long disputed is the movement has been clear in targeting Israel over its genocide and not Jewish people, who make up large numbers within its ranks.

The Australian reported on Wednesday that Guy Finnegan and Craig Bantoft have been convicted over an arson attack on a Bondi brewery last October, which was supposed to target a nearby Jewish deli with the same name. These men have testified that they were paid to perpetrate the crime over messaging app Signal by an anonymous Australian-based person going by the name ‘James Bond’.

NSW Greens member for Newtown Jenny Leong explained in a 22 January statement that she’s been briefed by NSW police on the 11 January graffiti attack upon Newtown Synagogue and she’d been told that one person was arrested and another would be shortly, while she added that she’d “also been informed that no people who have been arrested have political or religious motivations.”

Motivations unknown

The Herald reported on Wednesday that Abraham Cooper, an American rabbi, who works on hate crimes and terrorism at the US Simon Wiesenthal Centre, called upon Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd to relay to the Albanese government that he considers the pro-Palestinian protests in the Naarm-Melbourne CBD should be brought to an end in light of the antisemitic attacks.

However, the logic behind this act of foreign interference on the part of Cooper is flawed now that foreign actors are being raised, with the motivation for such a campaign becoming increasingly unclear.

NSW premier Chris Minns has doubled down on his usual solution to crime, which is simply to pass another law. At a presser with the PM on Sunday, the Labor leader was suggesting law changes that would lower the threshold at which point the motivation of hatred towards a group would ensure sentences are more severe, as well as implementing a ban on protests at places of worship.

Established to “investigate hate crimes with an antisemitic focus”, NSW police Strike Force Pearl has had its ranks doubled to 40 officers this week by NSW police commissioner Karen Webb, in response to the arson attack on the Maroubra childcare centre on Tuesday morning.

And with this new potential foreign interference explanation for the ongoing spate of antisemitic attacks in the community, the question that’s still left unanswered is, what kind of foreign actor might benefit from it appearing that the Australian community is itself initiating a spate of antisemitic attacks?