The prime minister said the attack went further than any previous pro-Palestine attacks.
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“This is an escalation of the attacks that we’ve seen. We’ve been talking about this, we’ve got to dial this down,” Albanese said on ABC Radio Melbourne.
“The people who were responsible for this attack should face the full force of the law, it is very distressing for Josh and for his staff. I spoke to Josh this morning, this is a pretty serious attack, windows broken, graffiti everywhere, fire”.
“This has got to be seen as an attack on someone who’s a Jewish MP, someone who is running an office that looks after people’s interests.
“It does nothing, it undermines the cause that people purport to represent.”
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In parliament earlier this month Labor and the Coalition accused the Greens of lending support to sections of the pro-Palestinian movement which have blockaded and vandalised MPs’ offices.
Labor pointed to footage of Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi encouraging protests outside of Albanese’s office as proof of the party’s support, but the Greens argued Labor had misled the public to distract from criticism about its response to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Bandt condemned the overnight attack on social media. He did not mention antisemitism.
“Violence has no place in our community & vandalism and damage like this are completely unacceptable,” Bandt said.
“My thoughts are with Josh Burns, his team, and the local community. They have the right to feel safe.”
This masthead reported earlier this week on vandalism at Melbourne University’s Baillieu Library inspired by Lions’ Den, a Palestinian militant group that operates in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and attempts by the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir to infiltrate pro-Palestine protests at universities. It is not suggested that either group had anything to do with the office attack.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said he was devastated, describing Burns as one of the most decent people he knew.
“Zionism is the idea that the Jews are a people bound by their history, their culture and traditions and have a right, like all peoples, to choose to live in peace in their own homeland. Josh is proudly Jewish and this is why he was targeted,” Ryvchin said.
“There is a rising current of fascism in this country and a dangerous alliance between the most radical, hateful and violent groups in our society. They have unified around a common hatred of Jews.”
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