Australia’s spy agency has determined that Iran was behind two major “anti-Semitic” attacks last year – including the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue that was used to justify new “hate speech” laws and millions in government funding for it to be rebuilt.
Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) boss Mike Burgess said on Tuesday the attacks has been conducted by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) acting through a “layer cake of cut-outs” including overseas organised crime, and were aimed at “messing with social cohesion”.
He said ASIO had “credible intelligence” that Iran directed firebombings of Lewis’s Continental Kitchen in Sydney in October 2024, and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea two months later, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called them “extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression”.
BREAKING: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed that Iran was involved in coordinating “antisemitic attacks against the Jewish community,” including the Adass Synagogue in Melbourne.
All hate speech laws passed by state and federal governments were influenced by… pic.twitter.com/v3F7wO6LnR
— Australians vs. The Agenda (@ausvstheagenda) August 26, 2025
The synagogue firebombing was labelled an act of terrorism at the time by police and Mr Albanese, who also pledged $30 million for restoration works and $1.2 million for security upgrades in the lead-up to May’s federal election.
The Adass attack and the Dural caravan hoax – an incident that was declared an anti-Semitic terror plot but turned out to be an organised crime plot – were referenced in calls by Jewish groups for tougher “hate speech” laws, which were subsequently passed federally, in NSW in February, and in Victoria in April.
Mr Albanese told a joint news conference with Mr Burgess, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke that the Iranian ambassador was being expelled along with three other officers.
He added that the operation of the Australian embassy in Iran had been suspended, and that the IRGC would be listed as a terrorist organisation.
“These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil,” Mr Albanese said.
“They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow discord in our community. It is totally unacceptable.”
Mr Burgess it was likely Iran was behind more attacks on the Jewish community, but that he did not believe it was behind every attack.
“Our painstaking investigation uncovered and unpicked the links between the alleged crimes and the commanders in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC,” Mr Burgess said.
“The IRGC used a complex web of proxies to hide its involvement. In between them, they tap into a number of people, agents of IRGC, and people that they know in the criminal world, and work through there, so it’s a series of chains.
“There’s an organised crime element offshore in this. But that’s not to suggest organised crime are doing it. They’re just using cut-outs, including people who are criminal and members of organised crime gangs to do their bidding or direct their bidding.”
ASIO’s determination comes after a diplomatic spat between Mr Albanese and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that erupted when Mr Albanese announced his intention to recognise a Palestinian state.
Mr Netanyahu also blamed Mr Albanese’s support for a UN resolution calling for an end to Israel’s occupation of Gaza for the Adass firebombing.
“The burning of the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne is an abhorrent act of anti-Semitism. I expect the state authorities to use their full weight to prevent such antisemitic acts in the future,” he wrote on X at the time.
“Unfortunately, it is impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia, including the scandalous decision to support the UN resolution calling on Israel ‘to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as rapidly as possible’, and preventing a former Israeli minister from entering the country. Anti-Israel sentiment is anti-Semitism.”
Header image: Left, CCTV footage of the attack (Victoria Police). Right, Mr Albanese at the synagogue afterwards (Facebook).
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