After last Sunday’s terror attack at Bondi beach, members of the Jewish community have accused governments of failing to heed warnings about the rise of antisemitism over the past two years.
Speaking on Monday at the floral memorial to the 15 people who lost their lives by the Bondi pavilion, the president of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, David Ossip, said: “To those who’ve said over the past two years that antisemitism has no place in Australia, yesterday should have finally made it clear that antisemitism has well and truly found a place here in our beloved country.”
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, numerous antisemitic incidents have been reported across Australia. Some have been identified by the Australian federal police (AFP) as a “con job” perpetrated by criminals with no ideological intent, while Asio has alleged some were directed by the Iranian government.
This does not include the hundreds, or by some counts thousands, of incidents that do not make the news – verbal abuse and physical violence, offensive graffiti and acts of vandalism – which groups that track the extent of antisemitism say have risen sharply in two years, even if definitions differ.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, and the police minister, Yasmin Catley, have been criticised for overstating the number of incidents. Both have cited figures suggesting there had been more than 700 antisemitic incidents since 7 October 2023 as justification for hate speech and protest laws.
Catley told a Senate estimates committee in September she “may have had the figure wrong”, and in October it emerged NSW police had wrongly categorised a “significant” number of incidents as antisemitic.
“But quite frankly, there would be so many more [antisemitic] incidents than have been reported, and that I know for a fact,” Catley said.
As of August, police had laid 249 charges in relation to antisemitic incidents against 231 individuals, 44 of which related to offences involving physical violence.
Here are the high-profile antisemitic incidents of the past two years and what we know about them.
2023
9 October 2023
Sydney Opera House chants
Two days after the Hamas attack, pro-Palestinian protesters marched from Sydney Town Hall to the Opera House, which had been lit up in white and blue in solidarity with Israel after the 7 October attacks by Hamas.
It was reported by some media that chants at the Opera House included “Gas the Jews”, although NSW police later said an independent expert had analysed audio and visual files and concluded that the phrase used was “Where’s the Jews?”. The chant “Fuck the Jews” was also used.
The co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Alex Ryvchin, told the ABC at the time the chant identified by police was worse.
“‘Where’s the Jews?’, if that was indeed what was chanted, is in many ways far worse because it shows a desire to menace, threaten and find Jews and no doubt do some horrible things if they were able to find them,” he said.
The organisers of the march said those making antisemitic chants were not part of the original protest and had joined at the Opera House, which police echoed at a NSW inquiry into antisemitism in July.
The incident was widely condemned and formed part of the justification for the first of several moves by the NSW government to toughen hate speech laws, enabling police to prosecute offenders without the permission of the director of public prosecutions (DPP). No one has been prosecuted in relation to the incident.
2024
May-June 2024
MPs’ offices vandalised
On 31 May, the office of then federal attorney general Mark Dreyfus was vandalised, as were several of those of other Melbourne-based federal and state Labor MPs. Dreyfus’s Mordialloc office was covered with red paint and had “Who does AG Mark Dreyfus serve?” written on the pavement in front. No one has been charged in relation to the vandalism.
On 19 June, the windows of the St Kilda office of the MP for Macnamara, Josh Burns, were allegedly smashed and the front of the building set alight. An image of Burns was spray-painted with red horns and the message “Zionism is fascism”.
Two teenagers were charged a month later, but the charges were later dropped.
October 2024
Lewis’ Continental Kitchen attack
The Lewis’ Continental Kitchen kosher deli in Bondi was allegedly broken into on 20 October 2024 and set alight, causing an estimated $1m in damage.
In January, a 41-year-old man, Wayne Ogden, was charged with starting the fire. He has also been charged with participating in criminal activity as part of a group and is yet to a enter a plea.
In March, Sayed Moosawi, 32, a former chapter president of the Nomad bikies, was arrested and subsequently pleaded not guilty to three charges in relation to the attack, as well as an earlier arson at the Curly Lewis brewery, also on Curlewis Street, on 17 October 2024. He successfully applied for bail in August.
NSW police allege Moosawi knowingly directed the activities of a criminal group that was “organised and ongoing”, giving instructions through an encrypted messaging app in which he used the handle “James Bond”.
In August 2025, Anthony Albanese said Asio and the AFP had “credible evidence” that Iran had directed the attack, as well as the attack on the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne in December 2024.
Moosawi’s defence lawyer, Zemarai Khatiz, said his client denied any involvement with the Iranian government and disputed that he had “contacted, communicated with or been directed by them in any way”.
There is no suggestion that Ogden was aware of the alleged Iranian involvement.
6 December 2024
Adass Israel synagogue attack
The Adass Israel synagogue in south-east Melbourne, built by Holocaust survivors who fled Europe, was set alight in the early hours of the morning. About 60 firefighters and 17 trucks were called to the site at 4.10am.
Police alleged two masked arsonists spread an accelerant through the building before igniting it, causing significant damage and injuring a worshipper.
In November 2024 Giovanni Laulu, 21, was arrested and was charged with theft of a blue VW Golf. Police allege the vehicle was later used by those involved in the attack on the synagogue and other crimes.
A second man, Younes Ali Younes, 20, was charged in relation to the arson attack in August 2025. The crime was declared a terrorist act early in the investigation, but no terrorism charges have been laid.
Ali Younes and Laulu are charged with arson and reckless conduct endangering life.
There is no suggestion that either of the men were aware of Iran’s alleged involvement in the attack. Neither man has been required to enter a plea. They are expected to face court again in April 2026.
2025
November 2024-January 2025
Strike Force Pearl incidents
The attack on the Lewis’ Continental Kitchen was among a series of antisemitic incidents in Sydney across the summer of 2024-25, many in the eastern suburbs – home to one of Australia’s largest Jewish communities – and investigated by NSW police under Strike Force Pearl.
In Woollahra on 21 November a vehicle was destroyed by fire, and nine cars and three buildings vandalised with anti-Israel messages. Three men have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced in relation to the incident.
On 11 December, a car in Woollahra was set alight and buildings vandalised with graffiti which read “Death 2 Israiel” and “Kill Israiel”. A man and woman have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced in relation to the incident.
On 11 January, the Newtown synagogue was vandalised with swastikas and an attempt made to set it alight. Two men have pleaded guilty in relation to the incident.
On 10 January, the Allawah synagogue in southern Sydney was vandalised with swastikas. On 17 January, the former Dover Heights home of Alex Ryvchin was splashed with red paint and two cars outside were set alight. One vehicle was graffitied with the words “Fuck Jews”.
Three days later, a childcare centre in Maroubra located close to a synagogue, was subject to an arson attack and graffitied. Nine days, later Mount Sinai college, a Jewish school in the suburb, was graffitied with antisemitic messages, including the message “Fuck the Jews”.
A man was charged with orchestrating the attacks on 10, 17, 21 and 30 January. Another man was also charged in relation to the Allawah synagogue attack on 10 January. They have yet to enter pleas.
January 2025
Dural caravan plot
On 29 January, police said a caravan containing explosives with the potential to cause a “mass casualty event” had been found at a property in Dural, a semi-rural suburb in Sydney’s north-west.
The explosives had no detonator. There was a list of Jewish sites and a note that included the words: “Fuck the Jews.”
The two people charged in relation to the 11 December incident in Woollahra were named on a search warrant in relation to the Dural discovery, but were not charged.
In March, the then AFP deputy commissioner, Krissy Barrett, who took over as commissioner in October, announced police were confident the caravan was a “fake terrorism plot” and a “criminal con job” allegedly orchestrated by organised criminals.
Police at the time suggested the motivation was to distract police and divert resources away from organised crime, as well as to create plots that criminals could pass on to law enforcement as tip-offs, in an attempt to reduce their sentences.
Speaking alongside Barrett, David Hudson, a NSW police deputy commissioner, said police believed 14 other incidents investigated by Strike Force Pearl were organised by the same individuals.
The AFP announcement, which came before the Asio announcement of alleged Iranian involvement in the Lewis’ Continental Kitchen attack, did not identify which 14 incidents they were referring to.
In October, NSW police told parliament the 14 incidents were at the “higher end of offending, being attacks on synagogues, graffiti, firebombings, attacks on cars and attacks on houses”. Police said they still had “nil holdings in relation to Iran or [the] Iranian regime perpetrating these incidents”.
February 2025
Bankstown nurses
In February, two nurses at Bankstown hospital were widely criticised after a video was released of them saying they would not treat Israeli patients and appearing to threaten violence towards them.
One of the nurses, a 27-year-old woman, later had a charge of using a service to threaten to kill dropped. Both have been charged with using a carriage service to harass, while the woman has also been charged with threatening violence to a group. Both have pleaded not guilty and are still before the courts.
4 July 2025
East Melbourne synagogue fire
On Friday 4 July, a man poured flammable liquid on the front door of the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation in East Melbourne and set it on fire.
There were an estimated 20 people inside at the time for Shabbat, who were forced to evacuate through the rear of the building. There were no reported injuries. Firefighters extinguished the fire, which was contained to the entrance.
In November, a 35-year-old homeless man, Angelo Loras, was sentenced to time served after spending 134 days in solitary confinement, the ABC reported.
The court heard that Loras, who pleaded guilty to recklessly placing people at risk of death and arson, was schizophrenic and did not know the building was a synagogue. The magistrate said it did not appear to have the hallmarks of a targeted hate crime.
8 November 2025
Neo-Nazi rally
About 60 members of the neo-Nazi group White Australia, also known as the National Socialist Network, paraded in front of NSW parliament, carrying a banner which read “Abolish the Jewish lobby” and shouting Hitler Youth chants and slogans.
It emerged that police had approved the protest after receiving legal advice that the slogan used would not meet the threshold for hate speech laws. No one has been charged in relation to the incident.
The NSW government moved to toughen hate speech laws for a third time, proposing to criminalise Nazi chants and slogans and mounting a fresh attempt to restrict protests outside places of worship.
As the premier announced the legislation in parliament, he suggested the idea that the Dural caravan incident was “a hoax” by organised crime was incorrect.
“We also need to address directly the assertion that antisemitism is a hoax, that the Dural caravan plot, the so-called Dural caravan plot, was a hoax … it emboldens extremists.”
14 December 2025
Bondi beach attack
Fifteen people lost their lives after father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram allegedly opened fire on a celebration to mark the first night of Hanukah.
It is the worst mass shooting in Australia in 29 years, and the deadliest terrorist attack on Australian soil.
Speaking on Monday, Ossip said “the world is looking at Sydney and our country as one of the global epicentres of antisemitism”.
“And now after two years, this is a moment for strong unequivocal and overwhelming leadership. The time for talk is over, we need action.”
