The Biased Political Response to the Synagogue Arson Attack Promotes Social Division

The firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue of Melbourne, in the city’s southeastern suburb of Ripponlea at around 4 am last Friday, 6 December, has rightfully been condemned. Indeed, all violent attacks upon places of worship should be shunned.

The Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCCT) is now searching for three suspects thought to be involved in the torching of Naarm-Melbourne’s oldest synagogue, following PM Anthony Albanese having held a joint presser on Monday, with the attorney general, the home affairs minister, the AFP commissioner and the ASIO director, at which point he declared it’s being investigated as terrorism.

Besides there being suspects, not a lot is known about the synagogue fire. But what is clear is that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu warned this country about a potential terror attack the night prior to it, which he considers has been prompted by our government having voted in favour of a 3 December UN resolution calling on the Israeli state to vacate the occupied Palestinian territory.

Another odd aspect to the firebombing is that the Adass Israel congregation doesn’t support the state of Israel or the settler colonial Zionist project at its foundation.

And the reaction to the burning of the synagogue has since overshadowed the gravity of the crime.

As soon as the news broke, the expectation was that political gain would be progressed as a result of the destruction. This involved the PM and other officials immediately decrying it as an act of antisemitism, which slots quite nicely into the campaign to demonise the burgeoning local pro-Palestine movement, as it’s been inferred that its members could be the perpetrators.

And in following the pattern they’ve established over the course of the Israeli-perpetrated genocide upon the Palestinians of Gaza that’s now in its 15th month, the authorities are prioritising the synagogue attack in a manner that hasn’t been applied to recent Islamophobic incidents. And while pollies bang on about social cohesion, this reaction is likely to stoke division.

Capitalising on tragedy

“Today, we have had a meeting of the National Security Committee,” the PM told reporters at the Monday press conference, and “as confirmed by authorities an hour and a half ago, the Melbourne attack will be investigated as a terrorist incident.”

“I can also announce that we have established AFP Special Operation Avalite for Antisemitism,” Albanese continued. This “Commonwealth-led taskforce” will investigate three arson attacks perpetrated against the synagogue, Jewish Labor MP Josh Burns’ office in June, as well as the burning of a car in Woollahra last month, which was accompanied by anti-Israel graffitiing.

The definition of terrorism in federal law is an act of violence or the threat of it to advance a political, ideological or religious cause. And as explained when a terror designation was announced in response to a stabbing in Sydney earlier this year, investigating the incident as terrorism does not mean it is a terror act, but rather it opens up policing powers not available for regular crime.

Yet, concerns have been raised about social cohesion in respect of the reaction of the PM to the incident, as he went on a tweeting spree, posting six messages over a number of days condemning the synagogue attack as antisemitism and one of these posts featured a photo of himself standing at the door of the burnt synagogue, with the accompanying declaration, “It was terrorism”.

And while the act has not been proven to be terrorism as yet, neither has it actually been shown to have been perpetrated in the name of Jewish prejudice.

“Sadly, this appalling incident appears to embody the ugly dynamics that ASIO has been warning about. Politically motivated violence is now one of ASIO’s and this country’s principal security concerns. Politically motivated violence encompasses terrorism,” ASIO boss Mike Burgess added, during the presser, despite no genuine proof that the incident was politically motivated.

Sowing the seeds of discord

To be clear, the social discord that is occurring in the community is a result of the Israeli-perpetrated genocide upon the occupied and walled-in Palestinians of the Gaza Strip.

The Australian state has, until recently, shown unbridled support for the Netanyahu government in its illegal attempt to annihilate a group of people via mass slaughter and starvation.

Both antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents have been on the rise since October last year, however the authorities, as in the current case, have shown much more concern about the attacks purportedly against Jewish people, as they’ve been afforded much more attention in terms of coverage and law enforcement reaction, than have incidents concerning Muslims and Palestinians.

The dangerous conflation that’s underpinning this issue is the linking of opposition to Zionism and Israel to antisemitism, or prejudice towards Jewish people simply for being Jews.

Zionism is an 18th century European philosophy that advocates for the establishment of a Jewish state on Palestinian land and the ethnonationalist state of Israel is the result of this settler colonial project.

The other side of this equation has been the uptick in the diverse Free Palestine movement across this continent since October last year, which is made up of a sizeable grassroots group of people, of whom major party politicians have been attempting to demonise as antisemitic, despite the strong Jewish representation amongst its fold and that these people are actually opposing genocide.

Erasing the group and the prejudice

Highlighting the biased position on Israel and Palestine that most Australian major party politicians appear to harbour, Liberal Senator Dave Sharma went as far as to state in the wake of last week’s fire that “any time any senior minister mentioned antisemitism in the last 12 months, they also mentioned a fictitious Islamophobia which was not going on.”

Yet, this is clearly not the case. An SBS article lists numerous incidents that the Islamophobia Register has recorded over the last year.

While a further two arson attacks on Adelaide mosques in October 2023, didn’t receive a similar political outcry to the present incident, even though foreign minister Penny Wong condemned the crimes, and neither did the dumping of a dead kangaroo outside an Adelaide mosque in August this year, receive any outpouring of concern from Canberra, in fact, the incident went largely unnoticed.

Another peculiar aspect to the recent Adass Israel Synagogue attack is that the orthodox Hasidic sect that congregates there does not support Zionism or the Israeli state.

The recent arson attack on the synagogue is not the first such incident that’s occurred at this specific place of worship either, as the premises was the subject of a similar arson attack in January 1995.

So, while the suggestion has been that last week’s firebombing may be the work of pro-Palestinians, those making up the ranks of the Free Palestine movement do tend to be privy to the fact that not all Jewish people are pro-Israeli or pro-Zionist expansion, especially as the movement comprises of many Jews. Indeed, it would be out of character for it to attack non-Zionist Jews.

And while the identities of the three suspected arsonists involved in the torching of the synagogue may never be clear, what is becoming increasingly apparent is the Australian government has been propagating the conflation of anti-Israel sentiment with antisemitism to limit the voice of those speaking out against the wholesale massacre that’s been playing out for 15 months now.

For the many multifaith Palestinians and their supporters in the community, they’re learning that the governing duopoly only represents a certain sector of the constituency, and as both major parties appear to be incapable of doing anything else but sowing division amongst it, it’s likely that the divide this bias is leading to on the ground, is only set to get broader and further entrenched.