Protest outside places of worship could be banned in NSW after Great Synagogue incident
By Max Maddison
Protests outside places of worship could be outlawed in NSW after Premier Chris Minns ordered an examination into strengthening protections of religious institutions, saying “holding the line” is inadequate after a spate of antisemitic incidents across the nation.
With the nation reeling from the pre-dawn firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne on Friday morning, Minns said he had instructed Attorney-General Michael Daley and the Cabinet Office to explore reform options to prevent intimidation of worshippers practising their faith.
A protest across the road from the Great Synagogue in Sydney.Credit: Twitter
About 70 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside Sydney’s Great Synagogue on Wednesday evening, rallying against an event held by Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, and calling for sanctions against the Jewish state. Congregants inside were reportedly unable to leave.
That incident occurred soon after two masked men vandalised cars with anti-Israel messages and set others alight in Woollahra, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. Minns deplored the incident as an “antisemitic attack” and “un-Australian”.
With Daley commissioned to provide reform options to government, Minns said that simply “holding the line” was insufficient, that worshippers deserved to be protected in their “own churches, mosques, synagogues” and that rights to religious freedom of expression and worship needed to be reinforced.
NSW Premier Chris Minns has asked his government to explore ways that religious institutions could be offered greater protections under NSW law.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
“I am horrified by the attack at the Adass Israel Synagogue … and the recent sight of protests out the front of a religious institution,” the premier said.
“Being heckled on the way in to observe your faith is not consistent with the principles of a multicultural, multi-faith community where all are protected by law from someone stopping them from prayer. It is the bedrock of our multicultural state.”
Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip welcomed the move. “Places of worship are sacred. They should be places of safety, refuge and comfort, and they deserve to be protected,” he said.
The arson and explosive squad is investigating the shocking attack in the suburb of Ripponlea, the heart of Melbourne’s Jewish community in the city’s inner east. Two suspects in dark clothing and masks were reported being seen at the synagogue about 4am.
In an address to the Central Synagogue in Bondi on Friday night, Minns said he was “heartbroken” by the recent acts of antisemitism, saying those events had shaken the promise that the Jewish community would be safe in Australia after “centuries of horrifying violence”.
“All of this has meant that many Jewish Australians, for the first time in their lives, feel unsafe in their home, in their place, in their community,” he said.
“I have to say it’s disgusting that an aged survivor of the Holocaust would feel unsafe in their own community.”
As part of an escalating dispute with the federal Labor government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu linked the attack on the Melbourne synagogue with Australia’s position on the Middle East conflict.
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