Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Australia’s support for a UN motion calling for Israeli settlers to be removed would invite anti-Semitic terrorist attacks – only a day before a Melbourne synagogue was fire bombed.
Two people were injured early on Friday morning after the Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea was attacked.
Rabbi Gabi Kaltmann said ‘two thugs’ had smashed the synagogue’s windows before throwing petrol on the floor and setting it alight as Jewish worshippers were preparing to pray, shortly after 4am.
The worshippers were forced to flee the building, with two people suffering minor injuries in an attack Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described as a ‘shocking incident’.
‘It should be unequivocally condemned – there is no place in Australia for an outrage such as this; to attack a place of worship is an attack on Australian values,’ he said.
‘To attack a synagogue is an act of anti-Semitism, is attacking the right that all Australians should have to practise their faith in peace and security.’
The latest anti-Semitic attack occurred just three days after Australia joined 156 other nations at the United Nations in calling for Israel to remove settlers from the West Bank and Gaza and ‘end its unlawful presence’ in the occupied Palestinian territories ‘as rapidly as possible’ – with Labor undoing two decades of bipartisan consensus.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Australia its support for a UN motion on Palestine statehood would invite anti-Semitic terrorist attacks – only days before a Melbourne synagogue was fire bombed
Two people were injured early on Friday morning after the Adass Israel synagogue in Ripponlea was attacked
The motion also called for a conference to be held in New York to facilitate an ‘irreversible pathway’ towards a Palestinian state.
A day before the synagogue attack, Mr Netanyahu told The Australian that Australia’s support for that UN motion would ‘invite more terrorism’ and ‘more anti-Semitic riots’ on Western campuses and city centres, ‘including in Australia’.
Mr Netanyahu’s office slammed Australia for rewarding Hamas for slaughtering 1,200 people in southern Israel and taking another 254 hostage during a rampage that also included torture and rape.
‘To the contrary, they have embraced those atrocities that included the rape, murder and beheading of Jews. It’s a shame that the current Australian government wants to award these savages with a state,’ his office said.
Mr Netanyahu’s message was directed at Mr Albanese, who was previously the secretary of Australian Parliamentary Friends of Palestine, and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
Israel is frustrated at Labor for overturning two decades of bipartisanship where both sides of politics had abstained from motions calling on the Jewish state to withdraw from the West Bank.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Labor had ‘sold out the Jewish community’ to shore up its support in western Sydney electorates with a higher Muslim vote.
A day before the synagogue attack, Benjamin Netanyahu told The Australian that Australia’s support for that UN motion would ‘invite more terrorism’ and ‘more anti-Semitic riots’
Australia was not one of eight nations that voted against the UN motion, putting it on the opposite side of key defence ally the United States, Israel, neighbour Papua New Guinea, along with Argentina, Hungary, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru and Palau.
Australia instead joined key US allies Canada, the UK and New Zealand in backing the motion critical of Israel.
Senator Wong argued Palestinians should not continue to suffer because of Hamas.
‘Australia supports and has historically been a friend of Israel, and Australia supports a two-state solution,’ she said in New Zealand.
‘We have been clear that we want to see the cycle of violence that we are all witnessing, end.
‘We want to contribute in the ways we can with partners, to peace and to towards a two state solution.
‘We’ve been clear that Palestinian civilians cannot continue to pay the price of defeating Hamas.’
Senator Wong and her New Zealand counterpart Winston Peters released a statement on Friday criticising Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza.
‘They respected Israel’s right to defend itself, but noted the right of self-defence was not unconstrained and needed to comply with international law, including international humanitarian law,’ they said.
‘Ministers expressed alarm at the humanitarian situation in Gaza and called on Israel to do more to enable safe, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access.
‘They underlined that civilians, as well as humanitarian and health workers must be protected.’
As recently as September, abstained on a motion calling for Israel to end its ‘unlawful presence’ in Gaza and the West Bank within 12 months.
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