A warning, this video contains images of recent antisemitic attacks. The nation's leaders have held an emergency national cabinet meeting in response to a spate of anti-semetic attacks Including on a Sydney childcare centre overnight. The leaders heard Australian federal police are investigating whether foreign actors are paying local criminals to carry out the anti-semetic attacks while agreeing to set-up a national database to track the crimes.
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00:00Flames of hatred flickering at a haven for the young.
00:07It breaks your heart that we have animals in our city that are prepared to burn down a childcare centre.
00:13The centre in Sydney's eastern suburbs was set alight in the early hours of the morning,
00:18complete with anti-Semitic graffiti sprayed in black paint on the wall.
00:23This is a place for children and families and it should never have been denigrated by this despicable and horrifying crime.
00:32The centre itself isn't specifically for Jewish families, but is around the corner from a synagogue.
00:38The latest target in a spate of anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne,
00:43with the war in the Middle East stoking tensions closer to home.
00:47It's a wake up call to the Australian community at large because unfortunately anti-Semitism is a disease and it spreads.
00:55As the Premier and Prime Minister inspected the burnt out Maroubra Centre, politicians elsewhere united in condemnation.
01:03What sort of scumbag would attack a childcare centre?
01:06These attacks must stop.
01:08Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has consistently rejected calls from the opposition and community members
01:14for a National Cabinet meeting to tackle the rise in anti-Semitism in Australia.
01:19What people want to see isn't more meetings, they want to see more action.
01:22But today yielded.
01:25National Cabinet will convene on that and there's a couple of other issues.
01:29The Prime Minister has been dragged kicking and screaming to hold a meeting of our nation's leaders.
01:35State leaders heading into the meeting calling for change.
01:39What I've seen unfold has wound the clock back a century.
01:42These cowardly, divisive acts of hate need to be stopped.
01:46The Australian Federal Police told the leaders that since a task force into rising anti-Semitism was established,
01:53it had received 166 reports, with 15 under investigation and one person arrested.
02:00The leaders ultimately agreeing to establish a national database to track anti-Semitic crime.
02:06National Cabinet was created to deal with national crises
02:11and Anthony Albanese's decision to talk to fellow leaders about these attacks is in itself an admission more could be done to try to stop them.
02:20Imagery of a centre for children engulfed in flames also arguably left him with very little choice.
02:26Especially now it's clear the ceasefire in the Middle East hasn't deterred those targeting Jewish communities here.