MELBOURNE, VIC. — Today marks three years since Operation Park was established, and since then, Victoria Police has conducted almost 20,000 patrols to keep the Jewish community safe.
Operation Park was initiated immediately following the October 7 attacks in 2023 to monitor and co-ordinate the investigation of offences associated with the US, UK and Australian government-backed ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Almost every day since, police have conducted proactive patrols of places of Jewish cultural significance, including places of worship, synagogues and shuls, and community halls.
Approximately 85 per cent of those patrols have been in Jewish heartland across Melbourne’s southeast, with a particular focus on the Balaclava, Caulfield, Elsternwick, Ripponlea and St Kilda areas.
Standard daily patrols under Operation Park are bolstered during periods of cultural significance, including Shabbat, which occurs every Friday, as well as the current High Holy Days, which include Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Simchat Torah among many more.
Around 1800 policing hours were dedicated to patrols during the High Holy period across Melbourne’s southeast alone, which ran from September 11 to Sunday, October 4.
Over the past three years, there have been 588 reports of antisemitism made to Victoria Police for a range of offences including hate speech, vandalism, assaults and intimidation made towards members of the Jewish community.
Police have undertaken almost 1200 investigations linked to prejudice-motivated crimes, resulting in 316 arrests. Penalties have included unpaid community work, significant fines and even prison sentences.
The most significant ongoing investigation relates to the terror attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Ripponlea on December 6, 2024.
The Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team (JCTT) has charged three men over their alleged roles in the attack.
A then 20-year-old from Airport West was charged on June 19, 2026 with criminal damage by fire (arson), which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment. A then 21-year-old Werribee man was charged on July 30, 2025, and a then 20-year-old Meadow Heights was charged on August 21, 2025 – both accused of breaking in and setting the fire.
A fourth man, then aged 20, from Melton South, was charged on July 16, 2025, for allegedly stealing a communal crime car, which is alleged to have been used to drive to the synagogue the night of the firebombing.
More than 750 Victoria Police officers and employees have undertaken Jewish cultural awareness training sessions to better understand Jewish rituals, clothing and traditions that are unique to ultra-Orthodox, Orthodox and secular Jewish people.
Since the Bondi massacre on December 14, 2025, Victoria Police are now equipped with longarms when patrolling significant events for the Jewish community.
VicNews contacted Victoria Police seeking a response as to why the Muslim and Palestinian Australian communities had not been afforded the same targeted 20,000 police patrols that the Jewish community has been afforded. Victoria Police did not respond.
