Lebanese community protests Israel offensive against Hizbullah
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Australia: High security alert as conflict escalates
In Melbourne footpath outside Jewish Community Centre will be fitted with concrete pillars to prevent vehicles from driving through front of building; Jewish schools boost security
Security has been stepped up in Jewish communities across Australia following a number of incidents apparently linked to the escalating violence in the Middle East, including an attack on a Sydney rabbi’s house.
In Melbourne, the AJN has learned that the footpath outside Beth Weizmann Community Centre will be fitted with concrete pillars to prevent vehicles from driving through the front of the building.
A number of Jewish schools have also increased the number of security guards on gates, particularly during the morning and afternoon peak periods.
However, despite the increased measures, Gavin Queit, director of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria’s Community Security Group, said the high threat level to the Melbourne Jewish community has not changed since the outbreak of the intifada in September 2000.
He said the risk of an attack on a community institution, such as the shooting that occurred in Seattle last Friday resulting in one death and numerous injuries, was obvious.
“We are always at risk of that kind of attack, however in these circumstances there is greater probability that someone who is extremely angry would do something like that and we’d be foolish not to think so,” Queit said.
Queit added: “Schools have put in extra security and with shuls we believe what we have in place covers a range of contingencies.”
Attacks across country
In Canberra, a spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy said that Australian Federal Police had increased the number of operatives protecting the compound but no threats had been made.
The director of New South Wales’ Central Security Group Kevin Rothschild told the AJN: “Security is continuously being assessed and the appropriate action being taken.”
Last Sunday night, a concrete block was thrown through the window of Parramatta Rabbi Yossi Wernick’s house, which is adjacent to the synagogue.
In Western Australia, Perth Hebrew Congregation had a security fence and closed-circuit TV fitted following a 2004 attack.
In the past two months, four other shuls – Sydney’s Coogee Synagogue and North Shore Temple Emanuel, and Melbourne’s Leo Baeck Centre and Bentleigh Progressive Synagogue – have been attacked.
There was also an attack this week on a shul in New Zealand and an attempted attack on Mizrachi Synagogue in Bondi.
An ultra-Orthodox man was physically assaulted in Caulfield, and more than 40 emails and phone threats have been received by Jewish organisations in Melbourne.
Reprinted with permission of Australian Jewish Agency
