St Kilda East car firebombing triggers calls to treat anti-Semitism as a public safety issue

Anti-Semitism must be treated as a public safety issue, says a Jewish leader, as authorities hunt for a suspect behind an alleged hate-related firebombing in the wake of the Bondi massacre.

A car bearing a chanukiah symbol, a nine-branched candelabrum associated with Hanukkah celebrations, was set alight outside a local rabbi’s house in St Kilda East, southeast of Melbourne, in the early hours of Christmas Day.

No one was inside the vehicle at the time, but the home’s occupants had to be evacuated as a precaution.

Police are investigating the suspicious fire and have identified a person who may be able to assist with inquiries.

The attack was designed to frighten Jews for being visibly Jewish, Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said.

“After Bondi, and with the number of recent threats and investigations around the country, Australia has to treat anti-Semitism as a public safety issue, not a niche community concern,” he said.

A federal royal commission or an equivalent national inquiry with real powers into the Bondi attack and wider anti-Semitism crisis is the only way the nation can get the truth, accountability and lasting reform, Mr Leibler said.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan was briefed on the firebombing of a car that had been used to spread Hanukkah and holiday cheer, and which the “community rightly fear is an anti-Semitic incident”.

“This is not what any family, street or community deserves to wake up to on Christmas Day in Australia,” she said on social media.

“We have a duty to this community: to ensure their families are safe and feel safe right now, and to work long-term in a serious effort to drive anti-Semitism and hate out of our state.”

The incident comes after 15 people were killed when two Islamic State-inspired gunmen opened fire on Hanukkah celebrations at Bondi Beach on December 14.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the apparent firebombing attack was “beyond comprehension”.

“What sort of evil ideology and thoughts at a time like this would motivate someone? We know that there is evil presence,” he said on Thursday.

But the Prime Minister has resisted calling a federal royal commission into the Bondi attack, instead backing a NSW inquiry and prioritising a quicker but more limited review of intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

Hate speech reforms and an overhaul of ministerial powers to cancel or reject visas for sowing division or potentially inciting violence are also on the agenda.

The Victorian Government has promised to follow NSW’s footsteps to crackdown on hate crimes and grant police the power to veto protests after designated terror attacks.