Victoria Police say future organised large gatherings will not be tolerated, and police will act on intelligence to stop them, after dozens of worshippers gathered near a synagogue in Melbourne’s south east earlier this week, in breach of Covid-19 lockdown rules.
Six people so far have been fined $5452 each for the illegal gathering in Ripponlea on Tuesday morning, held to mark the start of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.
On Tuesday afternoon, officers surrounded both front and back entrances of the building, where an Orthodox Jewish group was believed to be congregating upstairs.
The standoff ended just after 8pm, with several people filing outside.
Police are still looking to speak to some of those in attendance, and are investigating the alleged assault of a cameraman.
“Victoria Police will not tolerate anyone organising large gatherings or the encouragement of others to attend such events,” a Victoria Police spokesperson said.
“Our focus is to ensure community safety for all Victorians and we will continue to act on intelligence and information gathered targeting those organising such events and inciting breaches of [chief health officer] directions.”
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews said it was “bad behaviour”, and he didn’t want the incident to be seen as reflective of the Jewish community in Victoria.
“I wouldn’t want people to see this as being reflective of any community – the Jewish community either culturally or from a faith point of view. Jewish community leaders have called this out as being wrong.”
Andrews said he was not convinced those involved did not know the rules.
“I don’t buy this line that people are not technologically savvy, like this has been going for 20 months, like everyone knows about this,” he said. “This is not new, it’s been endured for a very long time, and no one gets a leave pass, no one’s allowed to go and have gatherings like that. It’s just not fair.”
“It does nothing but spread the virus and let’s hope, let’s hope that from that gathering last night, we don’t see cases.”
Victorian deputy Liberal leader David Southwick told the Herald Sun he had written to Andrews stating the group had allegedly been operating under the guise of an AA group or a mental health group, which allows small gatherings under the rules.
Andrews said he hadn’t seen the letter.