The Australian Federal Police announced they are investigating whether overseas actors or individuals are responsible for an escalation in antisemitic attacks in the country in a statement released on Tuesday.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) media statement detailed the establishment of Special Operation Avalite to target “high-harm antisemitism” and Operation Ardvarna to target the “display of prohibited symbols.” Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw asserted that antisemitism significantly increased in Australia and acknowledged its impact on social cohesion.

According to the statement, the AFP is investigating whether overseas actors or individuals recruited locals to carry out these crimes in Australia. The AFP is investigating the possibility that they are paid in cryptocurrency, which can take more time to identify. The AFP is also examining the involvement of young people in these crimes and the possibility that they are influenced online to commit antisemitic acts.

Special Operation Avalite, led by the AFP and introduced in December 2024, was set up to “investigate threats, violence, and hatred towards the Australian Jewish community and parliamentarians.” Comprised of experienced counter-terrorism investigators, the squad of twenty-one police and analysts is deployed to incidents nationally to investigate “urging violence against members of groups, advocating terrorism, advocating genocide, the unlawful display of prohibited symbols” and cases in which carriage services are used to make threats, menace or harass and through the revelation of personal data, dox members of certain groups.

President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Hugh de Kretser, in his statement to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, expressed concerns regarding the important nationwide rise in antisemitism, such as arson attacks on synagogues, a parliamentarian’s office and recently a childcare center. He stressed the increase in “racist violence, racist graffiti on schools, and homes, and racist abuse and threats,” stating such attacks aim to “instill fear and division.”

According to the statement, both operations have made arrests, with Special Operation Avalite receiving 166 reports since December. On January 16, the first charges under this operation were made as the AFP charged a Western Sydney man with “allegedly making death threats to members of a Jewish organization.” The operation is investigating 15 serious allegations, with more charges expected soon.

Kershaw stated, “Antisemitism is a disease in our community, and it needs to be aggressively attacked because history shows what happens when action is not taken against those who fuel fear and terrorize others.”