<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>337265</docID> <postdate>2025-01-30 10:44:38</postdate> <headline>‘Malevolence’ underlies anti-Semitic caravan plot</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-337267" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/caravan_-dural_-antisemetic-e1738194186107.jpg" alt="" width="1082" height="720" /></p> <caption>A caravan packed with explosives was found abandoned on a semi-rural road. Photo: ABC News</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Kat Wong</strong> in Canberra</span></p> <p><strong>An anti-Semitic plot involving a caravan full of explosives and notes containing addresses of Jewish targets has been labelled by political leaders as sickening and designed to create fear.</strong></p> <p>Defence Minister Richard Marles said federal agencies, alongside state law enforcement, had made a significant effort that has "yielded the right result".</p> <p>"Thankfully, this incident was foiled but what lies behind it is sickening," he told ABC Radio on Thursday.</p> <p>"What underlies this is a malevolence – which has to be called out – against the Jewish community, which we need to be doing everything within our power to stop."</p> <p>Cabinet's National Security Committee is expected to be briefed on the matter on Thursday.</p> <p>The caravan, which was packed with enough explosives for a 40-metre-wide blast, was left abandoned for 12 days on a semi-rural road at Dural, in northwest Sydney, before being discovered on January 19.</p> <p>In it were notes containing the addresses of Jewish people and institutions.</p> <p>The discovery triggered a multi-agency investigation involving more than 100 counter-terrorism officials.</p> <p>But the probe and the vehicle's discovery were not made public for 10 days, a move that drew criticism from Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.</p> <p>"(This) is a grave and sinister escalation in this insidious rise of unchecked anti-Semitism in our country," he said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.</p> <p>"It is incumbent on the federal government ... to say when they knew about this sickening incident, who is behind it and what steps they took to protect Australia's Jewish community."</p> <p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would not go into details but said it was necessary to provide agencies with operational control.</p> <p>"It's important that politicians don't try to score political points if it undermines those very investigations," he told ABC Radio.</p> <p>"We're doing everything that we can and the fact that people are being detained, arrested, charged, kept in the clink without bail, indicates that that's the case."</p> <p>The incident has not yet been officially designated by police as a terrorist event, but Mr Albanese said he agreed with the NSW premier's use of the terrorism label.</p> <p>"It's clearly designed to harm people, but it's also designed to create fear in the community and that is the very definition," he said.</p> <p>The caravan's discovery is among the latest in a series of incidents targeting the Jewish community.</p> <p>Cars have been set alight, a synagogue burnt down and anti-Semitic slurs painted on buildings and cars in a spate of attacks that have escalated in frequency and severity since December.</p> <p>https://citynews.com.au/2025/owner-of-caravan-in-anti-semitic-plot-in-police-custody/</p> </body>