Members of the Jewish community and supporters gather for a protest rally against rising antisemitism at Martin Place in Sydney, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: AAP Image/Steven Saphore via Reuters Connect

Law enforcement in Australia has started an investigation into the origins behind a spree of recent antisemitic crimes, announcing they suspect individuals outside the country have coordinated the campaign of hate.

On Wednesday, Australia Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Reece Kershaw said his department believes that “criminals-for-hire may be behind some incidents” and that they have begun investigating “who is paying those criminals, where those people are, whether they are in Australia or offshore, and what their motivation is.”

Police have identified six attacks in Sydney alone since November 2024, including cars set on fire accompanied with anti-Israel graffiti and synagogues vandalized with swastikas. In Melbourne, arson attacks also targeted Jewish politician Josh Burns’ office in June and the Adass synagogue in December.

A December report from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) said that the country’s Jews experienced more than 2,000 antisemitic incidents between October 2023 and September 2024, compared to 495 in the prior 12 months. The number of antisemitic assaults rose from 11 in 2023 to 65 in 2024. In the seven weeks following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, antisemitic acts in Australia rose by 591 percent according to the ECAJ.

In a statement, Kershaw said on Tuesday that police sought to determine “whether overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs.” He added, “We are looking at if — or how — they have been paid, for example in cryptocurrency, which can take longer to identify.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also described the government’s suspicions about the nature of the attacks. He said that it looked as though “some of these are being perpetrated by people who don’t have a particular issue, aren’t motivated by an ideology, but are paid actors.”

Efforts to counter antisemitic crime in Australia have intensified following a Tuesday act of arson at a Sydney child care center located close to a synagogue. The criminal also left antisemitic graffiti before starting the fire. This prompted the New South Wales Police to double their staffing on Strike Force Pearl, a unit created to counter hate crimes targeting Jews.

On Tuesday, Strike Force Pearl arrested a suspect in a Jan. 11 arson attack against a Sydney synagogue and announced they expected to arrest his accomplice soon.

Kershaw also named the AFP’s divisions tasked with investigating antisemitism and their areas of focus.

“The AFP has established Special Operation Avalite to target high-harm antisemitism. AFP-led Operation Ardvarna is targeting the display of prohibited symbols — both operations have made arrests and more are expected soon,” Kershaw said. “Special Operation Avalite has received 166 reports of crime since it was established in December last year. Of those reports, many are duplicates, some are already under investigation by our state counterparts and some don’t meet the threshold of a crime.”

Kershaw said that “Special Operation Avalite is investigating 15 serious allegations. All lines of inquiry are open to the investigations — including what anonymizing technology, such as dedicated encrypted communication devices, have been used to commit these crimes.”

Australia’s National Cabinet met in a snap meeting on Tuesday and agreed to establish a national database to track antisemitic crimes. “The purpose of one national reporting system is to better inform and coordinate responses to antisemitic incidents,” Albanese said.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton expressed skepticism about Albanese’s response to the attacks. “If the prime minister thinks that he’s going to get the Australian public off his back and that he’ll have some reprieve from the media by holding this meeting, he doesn’t understand the gravity of the situation,” he said. “This is a national crisis. We are having rolling terrorist attacks in our community, and the prime minister is being dragged kicking and screaming to hold a meeting of our nation’s leaders.”

On Jan. 14, the Anti-Defamation League released the results of a new global survey into antisemitic attitudes by country. The group found that 20 percent of Australians — 4.2 million people — embrace antisemitic attitudes, agreeing with at least six antisemitic tropes.

The survey showed a gender disparity in hate, with 27 percent of men embracing such views compared to only 14 percent of women. Australians over 50 showed the lowest propensity for hate against Jews, with 13 percent harboring antisemitic views, whereas 33 percent of those 33-49 and 21 percent of those 18-34 expressed support for anti-Jewish bigotry.

The post Australian Police Suspect Foreigners Paying Criminals to Perpetrate Antisemitic Attacks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Illustrative: Paris 2024 Olympics – Football – Men’s Group D – Israel vs Paraguay – Parc des Princes, Paris, France – July 27, 2024. Israel fans outside the stadium before the match. Photo: REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

Organizers of an international soccer tournament for homeless individuals that will take place this year in Norway are being asked to reverse their decision to ban an Israeli team from participating in the competition because of security concerns related to the Israel-Hamas war.

The Homeless World Cup is an annual, international soccer tournament in which teams of men and women who are homeless compete on behalf of their country during the week-long street soccer competition. The 2025 Homeless World Cup will take place from Aug. 23-30 in Oslo, Norway, at the Rådhusplassen (City Hall Square). On average, 64 teams compete each year, according to the tournament’s website.

The project leader for this year’s competition is Knut Haugsvær from The Salvation Army Norway, which represents the Scandinavian country in The Homeless World Cup Foundation (HWCF). Home Base, a nonprofit organization based in Tel Aviv that supports homeless individuals in Israel and helps them transition back into society, annually represents Israel at the Homeless World Cup.

On Jan. 16, HWCF informed Home Base that its selection committee rejected Israel’s application to compete in the tournament this year because of security concerns surrounding the Jewish state’s war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Israel participated the last time the tournament was held in Norway in 2017.

“Homeless World Cup has current policies in place that guide decisions related to event participation from countries that are in active conflict zones,” HWCF said in a message sent to the Israeli team, which the latter shared on Facebook. “This has affected our positions this year with regard to our members in Russia, Ukraine, and Israel. Given political sensitivities, surrounding participation of said countries in global sporting events, and the pressure it would put on the host country, it is with regret that we are unable to approve an application from Israel.”

The Israeli team commented on the decision in a Facebook post. “It’s disappointing to see how an organization that is supposed to promote equality and fraternity shuts us out of the tournament. The boycott of Israel continues,” the team said. Jony Golan, who has been the coach of Home Base for four years, echoed similar sentiments while also calling on the HWCF to backtrack its denial of Israel’s application.

“This is a huge disappointment for me, especially coming from an organization that claims to uphold the values of equality, inclusion, and bringing people together,” he wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. “Boycotts in sports and culture are not a way to bring people closer — they only widen the gaps between us. Football is meant to unite people, especially when it comes to the most vulnerable populations in the world. I don’t know if this decision was made out of fear or ignorance, but one thing is certain: it is a wrong decision. It will have no impact on the situation on the ground but will harm the population which is always the easiest to ignore.”

“There is still time to reverse this decision, still time to give hope to people and restore faith to those who have long since lost trust in any system,” he added. “I still want to believe that there are sane people in this world who know how to see and acknowledge people beyond their flag.”

The Salvation Army Norway on Friday denied accusations that Israel is boycotted or banned from the competition. It attempted to explain in a statement posted on its website that the decision was partially based on limitations on how many teams can compete in the tournament. The charity said although 96 teams applied to participate, 28 of them were rejected. However, capacity problems were not mentioned in the rejection letter sent to Home Base.

“Part of the HWCF’s assessment when allocating places is that, for security reasons, they do not give places to teams from conflict areas. This affects Israel’s opportunities to participate in the championship this year,” Salvation Army Norway added in its statement. “Unfortunately, some have perceived this as Israel being boycotted and banned. This is not correct. Both the HWCF and the Salvation Army are committed to including everyone. We were happy to have Israel participate during the last World Cup in Oslo in 2017, and hope to be able to invite them on the next occasion.”

Ola Grytten, board member of The Salvation Army Norway, told the Norwegian pro-Israel group Med Israel for Fred (MIFF) there is a high security risk surrounding Israel’s participation in the tournament and that the safety of the Israeli team cannot be guaranteed in the competition.

MIFF, which is Europe’s largest non-religious pro-Israel membership organization, said, “we are disappointed that the entire situation in Norway makes it unsafe for homeless Israelis to come.” MIFF also noted that in October 2023, Ukraine participated in the Homeless World Cup despite its war against Russia.

“It says a lot about the conflict — who is willing to threaten homeless Israelis who come to Oslo to play football? And it says a lot about Oslo — is the situation in the Norwegian capital such that neither the Salvation Army nor the Norwegian authorities can ensure the safety of eight homeless football players?” the MIFF added.

Ori Shoham, the manager of the Home Base Israeli team, expressed frustration to the MIFF on Friday regarding the decision and criticized Norway for being unable to ensure the safety of eight homeless soccer players when Israel just last year participated safely in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris with a large delegation.

The post Organizers of International Soccer Tournament for Homeless Urged to Reverse Rejection of Israeli Team first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Anti-Israel agitators disrupting an Israeli history class at Columbia University, New York City, Jan. 21, 2025. Photo: Screenshot

Masked anti-Israel protesters interrupted a class titled “History of Modern Israel” on the first day of the new semester at Columbia University on Tuesday.

The anti-Israel agitators entered the room, disrupting the class, and handed out flyers showing a leather boot stomping on a Star of David, shattering it, with the words “Crush Zionism” in all capital letters. Another poster depicted a keffiyeh-clad, masked man holding an Israeli flag on fire.

On the first day of classes, anti-Israel protestors interrupted @Columbia’s “History of Modern Israel” class and handed out flyers showing a boot crushing a Star of David. Columbia is out of control. And to be clear, there is no “academic freedom” to disrupt classes. pic.twitter.com/n0x9d0AxHw

— Columbia Jewish & Israeli Students (@CUJewsIsraelis) January 21, 2025

After video of the incident and pictures of the fliers began to circulate on social media, the university responded.

“We strongly condemn this disruption, as well as the fliers that included violent imagery that is unacceptable on our campus and in our community,” Columbia University Interim President Katrina Armstrong said in a statement. “No group of students has a right to disrupt another group of students in a Columbia classroom.”

The statement continued, “Disrupting academic activities constitutes a violation of the Rules of University conduct and the nature of the disruption may constitute violations of other university policies.”

The president pledged to “move quickly to investigate and address this act” and emphasized that “any act of antisemitism, or other form of discrimination, harassment, or intimidation against members of our community is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

January 21, 2025 Statement From Interim President Katrina Armstrong on Class Disruption: https://t.co/SujD4x59yU pic.twitter.com/Y9uQVX1Zgv

— Columbia University (@Columbia) January 22, 2025

The Columbia University/Barnard College Hillel replied to the university’s message, writing that it is “grateful for this strong statement.”

However, it also argued that Columbia “must now identify the students who disrupted the class with hateful flyers and hold them accountable for their violations of university policies.”

The Columbia Jewish Alumni Association said that while the statement, which was posted to social media, may be an improvement for the administration, “we need action not words.”

Specifically, it argued the university should ban masking. “Show you mean business,” it wrote, “by doing this ONE THING [sic] that will transform campus by introducing real accountability.”

Over the past year, Columbia has been at the center of campus controversies related to Israel and its war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza. It was the home of the first anti-Israel encampment last spring, which took off to become a national trend.

The Algemeiner documented dozens of instances of explicit support for terrorism within only a couple days of the encampment beginning.

Additionally, Khymani James, a Columbia student and reportedly one of the organizers of the encampment, was on video last year saying “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and proclaiming that people should “be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

He also said, “I don’t fight to injure or for there to be a winner or a loser, I fight to kill.”

In defense of James, major anti-Israel organizations at Columbia — Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and Columbia Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) — later wrote on social media that “violence is the only path forward.”

It continued, “We are proud to be a part of the fight for the liberation of all oppressed peoples.”

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