Australia's spy chief, Mike Burgess, said on Monday that antisemitism was left unchecked after the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war in October 2023, fueling violence against Jewish people.
The comments were made during public hearings of a Royal Commission into the Bondi Beach mass shooting that killed 15 at a Hanukkah celebration in December.
Burgess noted that the spike in antisemitic incidents led ASIO to raise the national terrorism threat level to 'probable' in August 2024.
He added that antisemitism escalated from threatening behavior to direct targeting of people, businesses, and places of worship.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was blamed for two antisemitic attacks, leading to the expulsion of Iran's ambassador.
