Three war memorials honoring the sacrifices of Australian soldiers were vandalized this week in another grim reminder of the country’s meteoric rise in antisemitism since the start of the Gaza war.

According to ABC News, the Australian National Korean War Memorial, Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial, and Australian Army National Memorial near downtown Canberra were found marred by large spray-painted messages including “Free Palestine,” “Free Gaza,” “Blood on your hands,” and the infamous antisemitic slogan calling for Israel’s destruction, “From the river to the sea”.

These memorials dedicated to the over 77,000 Australian soldiers who heroically died in Korea, Vietnam and World War I sparkedhart outrage among lawmakers.

“I don’t know what goes through someone’s head in thinking that a cause, any cause, is advanced by the desecration of our sacred sites here in Australia,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday.

“It is one thing and there should be full prosecution about the denigration of offices and the denigration of other public buildings, but nothing, nothing is as bad as the desecration of those memorials.”

Remarkably, not all of Australia’s political leaders backed Albanese’s condemnation.

Green Party Senator Jordan Steele-John chose not to endorse a motion denouncing the memorials’ defacement, maintaining that “War memorials are not politically neutral spaces.” While the party’s leader Adam Bandt evaded the question of whether vandalism is an acceptable form of protest.

According to a new survey conducted by the Center for Jewish Civilization in Australia, antisemitic incidents have surged following Hamas’ vicious attack against Israel on October 7. Since the beginning of the war, one in five of the 7,600 Jewish adults surveyed reported being subjected to antisemitic insults and harassment due to their heritage.