More than 80 attacks on Jews or Jewish-owned property have been recorded in Australia since the start of last month, raising fears the community is being targeted because of the Middle East crisis, a Jewish leader said Thursday.
The home of prominent rabbi Pinchus Feldman has been firebombed three times in recent weeks, and a synagogue in Bondi, where Sydney's Jewish population is concentrated, has been gutted.
Jewish families have also been terrorized by death threats, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry told AFP, with more than 80 attacks recorded in the past six weeks.
One death threat promised that "for every Arab killed in Israel, 15 Jewish schoolgirls in Australia will die," the council's national vice president Jeremy Jones said.
"What has happened over the past two months is that the intensity of attacks has increased," he said.
The current climate was the worst experienced by Australian Jews for a decade, since the outbreak of the Gulf War, although the breakdown of the Middle East peace process was unlikely to account for every incident, he said.
However, as the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has deteriorated, with more than 200 people losing their lives in daily street battles, some local Jewish leaders fear the conflict is taking root in Australia.
Police have stepped up patrols in Sydney neighborhoods with high Jewish populations following a recent petrol bomb attack on a Jewish gathering.
At least two prominent Jewish schools have engaged armed security guards, as have suburban synagogues, local media reported.
Outside Sydney, a Canberra synagogue has been firebombed and a Melbourne Holocaust museum vandalized.
The president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, Stephen Rothman, described the spate of attacks as "terrorism."
"Members of the community fear for their safety," Rothman told reporters.
"While local ethnic groups have the right to support issues in their country of origin, the resort to violence in Australia is totally inexcusable," he said.
Palestinians have also vented their frustrations during demonstrations in Sydney.
A group of 20 men broke from a 2,500-strong crowd of protesters and tried to storm the United States consulate here on October 15.
On that occasion, protesters chanted "Death to Israel" and burned Israeli and American flags.
A representative of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization in Australia, Ali Kazak, said he believed the violence and firebombing were carried out by Jews themselves, even though he unreservedly condemned the attacks.
"I think it is most likely Jews are behind it rather than anyone else," Kazak said.
"They are behind it for a number of reasons (including) to gain sympathy they have lost as a result of their killing of innocent civilians and children.
"We have no interest whatsoever to export our conflict from Palestine and Israel to Australia or anywhere else," he added.
State Premier Bob Carr said earlier this week police were yet to establish a definitive link between events in the Middle East and the increase in local attacks on Jews.
But he condemned the attacks as "sickening" and "horrendous" hate crimes.
"Attacking places of worship is a horrendous crime not only against the members of the ... Jewish community but it offends our Australian sense of a fair go," Carr said.
Israel has urged Canberra to condemn the attacks – SYDNEY (AFP)
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