Anti-Israel graffiti in Woollahra in Sydney
Anti-Israel graffiti in Woollahra in SydneyReuters/AAP

Australia's federal police are investigating potential links between "overseas actors or individuals" and a recent surge in antisemitic crimes across the country, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

Authorities are probing whether these foreign entities are paying local criminals to carry out such acts, according to the report.

In the latest incident, a childcare center in Sydney was set ablaze and defaced with anti-Jewish graffiti. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese responded to the growing concerns by convening an urgent cabinet meeting. Officials agreed to establish a national database to track antisemitic incidents, aiming to better understand and address the issue.

Since December, a federal police taskforce dedicated to investigating antisemitic crimes has received over 166 reports. Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Reece Kershaw revealed that the investigation is exploring whether criminals in Australia have been incentivized by overseas entities, possibly through cryptocurrency transactions.

"Cryptocurrency can take longer to identify," Commissioner Kershaw noted, while also highlighting the possibility that young people involved in these crimes may have been radicalized online. However, he warned that "intelligence is not the same as evidence," and confirmed that more charges are expected soon.

Albanese condemned Tuesday's attack on the childcare center in Maroubra, an eastern Sydney suburb, describing it as "as cowardly as it is disgusting" and labeling it a "hate crime."

"This was an attack targeted at the Jewish community. And it is a crime that concerns us all because it is also an attack on the nation and society we have built together," he wrote on social media.

The incident is the latest in a series of disturbing antisemitic attacks in Australia, which has seen a surge in antisemitic incidents since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

In early December, the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne was firebombed, in an incident that is being treated as an act of terrorism.

Days later, a car was set on fire, and two properties were vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra, which has a substantial Jewish population.

In another incident, the words "F— the Jews" were spray-painted on a car in Sydney.

Last Friday, the Southern Sydney Synagogue in Allawah, a suburb of the city, was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti.

A day later, the Newtown synagogue, located in Sydney’s inner west, was vandalized with red swastikas that were spray-painted across the building’s front wall.

Only several days ago, a home in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, previously owned by Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, was vandalized.