From the AJN:

Jews, MPs blast police
Jason Frenkel and Melissa Singer

STATE oppositions have launched a scathing attack on the New South Wales and Victorian Governments over the failure of police to prosecute perpetrators of antisemitic attacks.

As investigations into separate assaults on Orthodox Jewish students continue in both states, Jewish leaders said there was growing community concern over the spate of unresolved crime which had been “swept under the carpet�.

Aside from the jailing last year of two white supremacists who vandalised the Perth Hebrew Congregation in 2004, senior Jewish officials cannot recall a single prosecution over an anti-Israel or antisemitic attack in Australia since 1991.

“We are reaching a point where one really has to question the competence of our police authorities given their poor record of dealing with a number of criminal attacks against Jewish targets,� said one senior Jewish official, who declined to be named.

The criticism came as Melbourne detectives continued their probe into an alleged attack on two ultra-Orthodox teenagers assaulted outside Melbourne’s Jam Factory last week.

Sydney police are also investigating an incident that resulted in an Israeli-born Yeshiva Centre student being hospitalised with a brain haemorrhage last week.

But NSW Opposition Leader Peter Debnam said police efforts to investigate anti-Jewish crime were being hindered by a disgraceful lack of police resources.

“I’m aware that these attacks are on-going, whether it’s attacks on synagogues, or attacks on people on the street, intimidation of people on the street … I’m not aware of anyone being charged and jailed for them,â€? Debnam told the AJN this week.

“I think it’s a real disgrace over that period of time, that the resources aren’t going to catching these thugs and criminals.

“When there’s internationally stressful times we’ve seen a number of outrageous attacks. I keep saying: show me the arrests. They aren’t there, and yet the attacks are ongoing.�

There have been six cases of physical assault in the Jewish community in Melbourne alone during the past 12 months.

But police this week said they were close to pressing charges in at least one high-profile attack – the alleged assault on Menachem Vorchheimer last October (see story, News 3).

A series of attacks on shuls in Sydney and Melbourne last year remains unresolved.

They include an attack on Coogee Synagogue in which Torah scrolls were damaged and the curtain to the Holy Ark stolen, two attacks in three weeks on Parramatta Synagogue during Israel’s war against Hezbollah, and vandalism and graffiti on two Progressive shuls in Melbourne.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) president Grahame Leonard said the roof body was reviewing its approach to responding to antisemitic violence.

“There is a concern, particularly in smaller states, that these matters are swept under the carpet,� he said.
Federal Labor MP Michael Danby said he was concerned at the lack of prosecutions.

“It’s disappointing that there hasn’t been a single arrest in an anti-Jewish incident in NSW since 1991,� Danby said.

“It’s disturbing and I hope the new minister sees the pattern of unresolved anti-Jewish violence in Sydney and is able to force some action.�

NSW Police Minister John Watkins did not return calls from the AJN this week.

The head of Jewish community security in Sydney, Kevin Rothschild, said police shouldn’t be blamed for the lack of prosecutions in NSW.

“We would love to have had an arrest and a prosecution – especially a prosecution – for the crimes that have been committed, but as a community we need to understand that there needs to be forensic evidence, or proof otherwise of the incidents occurring, in order for a prosecution to take place,� Rothschild said. “And often with the incidents that have occurred, there has been nothing to follow up on.�