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Australian police probe claims of ‘paid actors’ in anti-Semitic attacks

January 24, 2025 at 2:04 pm

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia on March, 13, 2023 [Tayfun Coşkun/Anadolu Agency]

In the latest case suggesting incidents of anti-Jewish racism may be deliberately orchestrated to create moral panic, Australian authorities are investigating claims that overseas actors have been paying local criminals to carry out anti-Semitic attacks. The investigation comes as similar patterns of anti-Sematic incidents have emerged in other countries to justify crackdowns on pro-Palestine activism.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed that some recent incidents appeared to be “being perpetrated by people who don’t have a particular issue, aren’t motivated by an ideology, but are paid actors.” He acknowledged that “it’s unclear who or where the payments are coming from.”

Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Reece Kershaw confirmed that authorities are probing whether “criminals for hire” were behind some recent incidents, with investigators examining possible cryptocurrency payments from overseas sources. The federal police taskforce has received 166 reports of anti-Semitic incidents, with only 15 currently under investigation.

“These investigative lines of inquiry are looking at whether some individuals have been paid to carry out some antisemitic acts in Australia,” Kershaw is reported saying. “We believe criminals for hire may be behind some incidents.”

Kershaw went on to say: “Part of [our] inquiries include who is paying those criminals. Where those people are, whether they are in Australia or offshore, and what their motivation is.”

The investigation comes amid growing scrutiny of anti-Semitism allegations globally. Pro-Israeli lobby groups for example reportedly fabricated accusations of anti-Semitism on US college campuses in order to incite official crackdowns against Palestine solidarity activism.

In another case, Israeli embassy officer Julia Reifkind is said to have engaged in deception by suggesting that Palestinian students were behind an anti-Semitic incident on campus according to the Electronic Intifada. In January 2015, painted swastikas were found on a Jewish frat house at the University of California, Davis. Reifkind was then president of the student group Aggies for Israel and had yet to be directly employed by the embassy.

Read: Source of pro-Israel guerrilla warriors on social media exposed

Contrary to what Reifkind told journalists at the time, in the leaked Al Jazeera footage, Reifkind admits that the racist graffiti had almost certainly not been done by pro-BDS students, but was likely the work of white supremacists from off campus.

The scale of arrests in Australia is significant, with 36 people charged with anti-Semitic-related offences in New South Wales and 70 arrests made in Victoria. However, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has defended the government’s cautious approach to releasing information about the investigations, calling demands for more details “potentially naive.”

The government has responded by establishing a national database to track anti-Semitic incidents, while Commissioner Kershaw cautioned that “intelligence is not the same as evidence” and the investigation could be prolonged.