Albanese has blamed Iran for orchestrating at least two of the antisemitic attacks late last year, after ASIO claimed it had tracked responsibility back to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
It says they directed the firebombing of the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne and a Sydney restaurant, and possibly other attacks.
There are still questions about this given Iran would surely have understood that antisemitic attacks here would play into the hands of Albanese and supporters of Israel. Iran has, however, organised attacks overseas before.
The government’s swift expulsion of the Iranian ambassador also highlighted its failure to act against Israel. The Israeli government is carrying out far worse crimes in Gaza yet its ambassador still sits comfortably in Canberra pumping out lies to defend the genocide.
But the admission a foreign state was responsible puts the lie to claims at the time that the wave of antisemitism was due to the protests for Palestine. Albanese’s antisemitism envoy said the protests were “intimidatory”, and claimed without any evidence that they were “attacking the Jewish community”.
But the antisemitic attacks were carried out by petty criminals who were paid for the work and directed from overseas. None of those arrested for their involvement in Sydney were motivated by antisemitism, NSW police deputy commissioner David Hudson has admitted.
Yet in NSW Premier Chris Minns responded with new anti-protest laws that banned rallies near religious institutions and targeted hate speech. Albanese blamed supporters of Palestine for threatening “social cohesion”.
The movement for Palestine is a movement against genocide and racism—and has never tolerated antisemitism. The smears against it now have less credibility than ever.
