Firefighters work in front of the Adass Israel synagogue, located in the suburbs of Melbourne (Australia), on December 6, 2024. TANIA LEE / AFP Two individuals are wanted in Australia for starting a fire in a synagogue in Melbourne, Friday December 6 before dawn, police said. An act condemned by the Prime Minister of the Oceanian country, and which caused no injuries. The fire, for which an investigation was opened, broke out at 4:10 a.m. (6:10 p.m. Thursday in Paris) in the Adass Israel synagogue, located in the southeastern suburbs of Melbourne. A person who witnessed the fire, entering the synagogue to pray, saw “two masked individuals,” Detective Inspector Chris Murray of the Victoria State Police told reporters on site. These two people appear “to have spread an accelerant of a certain type on the premises” and the synagogue was “invaded by flames”, he added. “We believe this was deliberate [et] target. What we don’t know is why they set the synagogue on fire, Mr. Murray added. Police are seeking to apprehend the arsonists and will increase their patrols, he added. “No one was injured during the incident,” but “the synagogue suffered significant damage,” state police announced in a statement. Television footage showed firefighters battling the blaze. Synagogue board member Benjamin Klein said a few worshipers were sitting and praying inside when the fire broke out. Worshipers “ran toward the back of the synagogue,” he said. “If this had happened an hour later, there would have been hundreds of people inside,” said Mr. Klein, according to whom religious works and furniture were destroyed. “Zero tolerance” “This violence, this intimidation and this destruction in a place of worship is a scandal”, reacted the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, in a press release, referring to “zero tolerance” for anti-Semitism, which “n ‘has absolutely no place in Australia.’ “This deliberate and unlawful attack goes against everything we are as Australians and everything we work so hard to achieve as a nation,” he added. Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he spoke with Albanese on Friday and expressed his “strong condemnation of the heinous arson attack.” “I stressed to the Prime Minister that this rise and worsening of anti-Semitic attacks against the Jewish community required firm and strong action,” he wrote on social media. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, also reacted at midday: “Unfortunately, this odious act cannot be separated from the anti-Israeli opinions emanating from the Australian Labor government, and in particular from its scandalous decision to vote in favor of the UN resolution calling for a rapid end to Israel’s illicit presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” he said in a statement, referring to a UN General Assembly resolution. On Tuesday, the organization, by 157 votes in favor, including that of Australia, 8 against and 7 abstentions, adopted a non-binding resolution entitled “Peaceful settlement of the question of [la] Palestine” in favor of “the two-state solution, with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security.” Le Monde Mémorable Test your general knowledge with the editorial staff of “Le Monde” Test your general knowledge with the editorial staff of “Le Monde” Discover The Australian Federal Police will provide assistance to the police forces of the State of Victoria in the framework of the investigation, the head of government also announced. In 1995, the synagogue was the target of an arson attack, which damaged walls and Torah scrolls, according to Klein. Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers In La Grande-Motte, a two-speed interreligious dialogue Read later Le Monde with AFP Reuse this content
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