January 29, 2025 | Flash Brief

‘Potential Mass Casualty Event’: Australian Police Foil Possible Antisemitic Attack

January 29, 2025 | Flash Brief

‘Potential Mass Casualty Event’: Australian Police Foil Possible Antisemitic Attack

Latest Developments

  • ‘Blast Zone Could Have Been 40 Meters’: Australian police announced on January 29 that 10 days earlier, they had discovered a recreational vehicle laden with explosives in a suburb of Sydney. The vehicle had been by the side of the road for over a month. New South Wales Premier Chris Minns described the planned attack as a “potential mass casualty event,” while Deputy Police Commissioner David Hudson said the “blast zone could have been 40 meters.” Police found the address of a synagogue in the vehicle along with those of other Jewish targets.
  • Wave of Antisemitic Violence in Australia: The Executive Council of Australian Jewry reported over 2,000 antisemitic incidents between October 2023 and September 2024, more than quadruple the number over the previous 12-month period. Since then, vandals defaced a synagogue in Melbourne in late November with the phrases “Free Gaza” and “Jews kill babies”; burned down a different Melbourne synagogue in December; vandalized the former house of the CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and burned two cars outside of it in January; and torched and graffitied a Jewish childcare center in Sydney less than a week later.
  • Another Front in the War on Israel: Since Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, carrying out the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and initiating a multifront war on the Jewish state, Jews worldwide have suffered elevated levels of antisemitic violence, crime, and discrimination. Australia and Canada have been the epicenters of this epidemic, while Jews in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere have increasingly been targeted.

FDD Expert Response

“Increased attacks on Jews since the 10/7 massacre are stark reminders that antisemites are just as happy to attack Jews as they are to attack the Jewish state. Australia must act quickly and decisively to protect its Jewish citizens. Luck is the only thing standing between the Australian Jewish community and a backlog of funerals.” David May, Research Manager and Senior Research Analyst

“A little over 30 years after the horrific bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires, conceived and executed by Iran, Jews in Sydney have thankfully been spared a similar atrocity. Given Iran’s established record of attacking Jewish and Israeli targets around the world, the Australian police and security services must seriously investigate whether Tehran and its proxies were behind this latest terror plot.” Ben Cohen, Senior Analyst and Rapid Response Director

FDD Background and Analysis

Australia Launches Antisemitism Task Force After Terrorist Arson Attack on Melbourne Synagogue,” FDD Flash Brief

‘How Can You Do That to Children?’: Jewish Community Daycare Center Torched in Latest Antisemitic Outrage in Australia,” FDD Flash Brief

The Australian Government Allowed Hate Speech Against Jews and Israel; Then a Synagogue Was Burned,” by David May

Australia Shows That Hamas’ Terrorism Pays,” by David May

Issues:

Issues:

Israel Israel at War

Topics:

Topics:

Iran Israel Hamas Tehran Jewish people Canada The Holocaust Australia Buenos Aires David N. May Sydney Melbourne