Person of interest named in Hanukkah car fire
A person of interest has been named as police investigate a suspected arson attack on a vehicle with a Hanukkah celebration sign parked in front of a rabbi’s home.
Victoria police are hoping to speak to 47-year-old John Argento after initial inquiries suggested he might be able to help.
Police officers released a photo of Mr. Argento on Friday of a car set on fire in front of a rabbi’s home with a billboard celebrating Hanukkah in the early hours of Christmas Day.
There was no one in the vehicle at the time, but a woman and 3 children were evacuated from the house as a precaution.
“We understand the devastating impact this type of crime has on our Jewish community and we continue to prioritize this investigation,” Deputy Police Commissioner Chris Gilbert said.
“We won’t fully understand this arsonist’s motive until we get him into custody.”
Although police attempted to contact Mr. Argento, they say there was no indication he posed a particular risk to the Jewish community.
They also want to talk to him about a car that was broken into about 20 minutes after the alleged arson attack.
Mr Argento lives a transient lifestyle and is known to frequent Melbourne’s inner southern and northern suburbs.
He is 185 cm tall, thin, has blue eyes, gray hair and fair skin.
Australian Federal Police on Friday also charged an 18-year-old man who allegedly made Nazi salutes and placed “propaganda-style” stickers on public buildings.
The man is alleged to have been placing Nationalist Socialist Network stickers at a Canberra shopping mall when he was confronted by a member of the public in October.
He is accused of making a Nazi salute before leaving the building.
The man is also said to have trespassed and placed stickers at the Australian National University on multiple occasions in August, and made another Nazi salute at a different shopping mall on December 12.
Police searched a home in Weston on Christmas Eve and seized several devices and different types of stickers saying “white man fights back” and other racist slogans.
“Antisemitism is a cancer, something that needs to be dealt with and removed from Australian society,” Australian Federal Police deputy commissioner Stephen Nutt said.
The man is accused of trespassing and defacing government property and performing Nazi salutes in public; This carries a prison sentence of up to five years.
This comes two months after a neo-Nazi rally outside the NSW parliament and less than two weeks after ISIS-inspired gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people.
Jeremy Leibler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, said the alleged arson was designed to scare Jews because they were clearly Jewish.
“After Bondi, with recent threats and investigations across the country, Australia must treat anti-Semitism as a public safety issue, not a private community issue,” he said.
Mr Leibler said a federal royal commission with real powers, or an equivalent national inquiry, into the Bondi attack and the wider anti-Semitism crisis was the only way the nation could achieve truth, accountability and lasting reform.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the apparent firebomb was “incomprehensible”.
But he resisted calling a royal commission following the Bondi mass shooting, instead backing an inquiry in NSW and prioritizing a faster but more limited review by intelligence and law enforcement.
Hate speech reforms and an overhaul of ministerial powers to revoke or deny visas aimed at partitioning or potentially inciting violence are also on the agenda.
The Victorian government has vowed to follow NSW’s lead in tackling hate crime and give police veto power over protests following terror attacks.
Late on Christmas Eve, NSW Police moved to ban protest rallies in key metropolitan areas in Sydney following the December 14 Bondi attack.
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