Antisemitic vandals set fire to the office of a Jewish Member of Parliament in Australia.
The Melbourne office of Labor MP Josh Burns was targeted early Wednesday morning. The vandals smashed windows and set a fire at the front of the office. The words ''Zionism is fascism" were written on the office wall in red paint.
Burns called the vandalism a "politically motivated attack."
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the attack on Burns' office.
"This is an escalation of the attacks that we've seen. We've been talking about this. We've got to dial this down," Albanese told ABC Radio.
"For some people, they feel very strongly about issues in the Middle East. But it's no reason to target MPs half a world away in Australia, and in particular the targeting of a Jewish MP is very distressing,"
"This has got to be seen as an attack on someone who's a Jewish MP, someone who is running an office that looks after people's interests," he added. "How people think that they advance their cause through activities like this is beyond me. It does nothing. It undermines the cause that people purport to represent."