Adass Synagogue Proxy Arsonist Arrested, as Repeatedly Attacked Mosque Largely Ignored

The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team arrested a second suspect involved in the Adass Israel Synagogue of Melbourne arson attack on 6 December 2024. Officers allege that Giovanni Laulu and two others torched the place of worship, as they acted as criminal proxies on behalf actors overseas, while a string of recent attacks on Islamic premises in the same city have largely gone unnoticed.

“I’m not going to name countries today, but we suspect these criminals worked with criminal associates in Victoria, to carry out the arson attack,” said AFP deputy commissioner national security Krissy Barrett on Wednesday 30 July 2025, in relation to why Laulu, a 21-year-old man, who lived in Werribee, torched the place of worship in Ripponlea, both located on Boon Wurrung Country.

Barrett added that the arson attack was being considered as an act of politically motivated crime, which is a category that includes terrorism, and that police would “not let this go unpunished in Australia”. This is the second arrest the JCTT has made in relation to Adass Israel recently, as a 20-year-old man was arrested on 19 July in relation to the stolen vehicle that was used in the attack.

The arson incident at the Adass Israel synagogue is increasingly reflecting the circumstances of the so-called antisemitic crimewave that occurred across Greater Sydney over the summer of 2024/25, which Barrett also announced to the nation on 10 March 2025 was “a fabricated terrorism plot – essentially a criminal con job”.

A joint operation by Victoria police, the AFP and ASIO, the JCTT expects to make further arrests in relation to the Adass Israel firebombing.

Yet, a number of recent potentially Islamophobic incidents in Naarm-Melbourne, which include “a string of serious security incidents” over recent days at the Islamic Council of Victoria’s mosque in Naarm-Melbourne, as well as an attempted knife attack at an Islamic youth centre, aren’t resulting in the same moral panic as the “antisemitic” attacks have been or the official response to them.

Criminal proxies for hire

“Our investigation is not limited to Australia,” AFP deputy Barrett further told the press on Wednesday. “It involves exploring criminals offshore, and we suspect these criminals worked with criminals in Victoria to carry out the arson attack. The motivation is still being assessed, and we will make further comments at an appropriate time about that.”

The AFP and Victoria police released CCTV stills in May this year, which revealed three hooded people pulling up outside the Ripponlea synagogue at around 4 am on 6 December, in what is now understood to be a “communal crime car”. And these individuals took an axe to the front entrance, poured jerry cans of liquid accelerant into the building through the hole and then set it alight.

The introduction of the communal crime car scenario in respect of the VW Golf sedan in May tended to hint at acts of foreign interference because the vehicle was used in other crimes, including a shooting incident in Melbourne’s Bundoora on the same night, as well as an arson attack on South Yarra’s Lux nightclub around the same time, which were in no way considered antisemitic.

Laulu has been charged with one count of arson, contrary to section 197(1) of the Crimes Act 1958 (VIC), along with the offence of conduct endangering life, contrary to section 22 of the same Act, and another count of motor vehicle theft, under section 74 of that Act. Arson carries a maximum of 15 years imprisonment, while the other two offences can see a person put away for up to 10 years.

Barrett confirmed that a Kazem Hamad, a figure linked to the spate of arson attacks related to the Melbourne tobacco wars, whose name was raised during the presser, had come up as part of AFP inquiries. The senior cop further thanked the Victorian Jewish community for their “stoicism, patience and support”. And Laulu, who didn’t apply for bail, will appear again in court on 6 August.

The Sydney summer crimewave

The so-called antisemitic crimewave that occurred in Greater Sydney from late October 2024 through to early February this year, really came to a head on 29 January, when it was leaked to the press that a caravan laden with explosives accompanied by a list of Jewish owned premises was discovered on Dharug land on a property in the semirural Sydney suburb of Dural.

The city was already reeling from a series of arson and graffiti attacks on Gadigal land mainly in its eastern suburbs, with related messaging initially targeting Israel but over time turning to focus on Jewish people. Yet, the revelations about the caravan shifted the debate as NSW police deputy commissioner David Hudson revealed he seriously considered the caravan incident was a setup.

Indeed, NSW police then had 10 suspects in custody all of whom were crims-for-hire conducting crimes for cash, and none whom held any ideological ideas that would motivate antisemitic attacks. In March, Barrett revealed that the crimes were being orchestrated from overseas by local crime figures, looking to use information about these crimes to lessen the punishment related to theirs.

As the suspects in the Adass Israel incident are hauled in one-by-one, they are now appearing to hold no prejudice against Jewish people or Judaism either, and as Barrett again revealed, actors are directing these crimes from overseas to make it appear that Melbourne is under siege of antisemites, just as the smokescreen wafting through Sydney last summer also conveyed.

A tale of two official responses

“The Islamic Council of Victoria will make drastic changes to operations of its city mosque after a string of serious security incidents over the last week and a half,” the ICV announced in a 29 July statement. “In the past week, multiple break-in attempts have occurred, at least one of which appeared to be Islamophobia-motivated”.

The latest incident involved a man entering the mosque and going into “the sisters’ area and becoming verbally abusive towards congregation members”, another saw police called when an unidentified white substance was found in the donation box, while the ICV mosque in Melbourne was the targeted by a right-wing group last weekend, which required a “large police presence”.

The ICV points out that since October 2023 Islamophobic incidents have “skyrocketed”. In March, the Islamophobia Register of Australia reported that in-person Islamophobic incidents had spiked by 150 percent over January 2023 to November 2024. Online incidents had risen by 250 percent. And the percentage increase surges even further in terms of statistics going back closer to October 2023.

An incident involving a man approaching the Hume Islamic Youth Centre on Wurundjeri land in the Melbourne suburb of Coolaroo, wielding a knife, on 21 July hardly registered, despite Victoria police having to taser him to the ground, as he refused multiple pleas to halt, whereas the reaction to an arson attack on the doors of the East Melbourne synagogue two weeks prior went through the roof.

And most Australians have never heard of the dead kangaroo that was dumped out the front of a mosque on Kaurna land in Adelaide in August last year.

The point being that if a similar political and media focus was given to local Islamophobic incidents since October 2023, Australian constituencies might consider there is an Islamophobia crimewave underway in our cities.

The official focus on crimes against Jewish properties, regardless of intent, as opposed to those against Islamic, is the product the dissemination of the conflation of criticism of Israel with prejudice against Jews or antisemitism, which invokes the dehumanisation involved in the Nazi Holocaust against Jewish people in World War II, despite such dehumanisation now targeting Palestinians.

The heightened focus on antisemitic crimes in the community serves to create a moral panic around the fear of being seen to harbour Jewish prejudice when criticising the mass starvation and slaughter of Palestinians that Israel, a state that only recognises the rights of Jews, is currently perpetrating in Gaza, so as to deter such criticism and let Netanyahu get on with the commission of a genocide.