SYDNEY — “This was a massacre, a pogrom,” Jewish Board of Deputies President David Ossip told a press conference at Bondi Beach Dec. 15. The previous evening 15 people were shot and killed and dozens more wounded at the beach where over 1,000 had gathered to celebrate the beginning of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. It was an act of pure Jew-hatred.
“For two years people have paraded in our streets and universities calling for the intifada to be globalized, a catchphrase that means kill the Jews wherever you find them,” Ossip said. “Last night the intifada was globalized and came to Bondi.”
Those killed ranged from a 10-year-old girl to an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor from Ukraine.
Two Islamist gunmen, a father and son, stood on a footbridge overlooking the beach and cold-bloodedly fired dozens of rounds from high-powered rifles into the crowd for around 10 minutes.
Four people who confronted the killers bravely tried to disarm them. They came close but ultimately were shot and three of them killed.
One of the terrorists was also killed when more police finally showed up and shot him.
The gunmen are reported to having been associated with antisemitic Islamist groups in Sydney. They had draped a homemade Islamic State flag over the windscreen of their car. And the car was found to contain deadly explosive devices.
Solidarity and defiance
Thousands of members of the Jewish community and others came to Bondi in a steady stream the following day to grieve, show solidarity and express their defiance. Many brought flowers, contributing to a growing floral tribute across the front of the beach pavilion. There were speeches, songs and prayers. Candles were lit as the vigil continued into the night. Similar vigils and other events were held in cities and towns across Australia. Thousands also responded to emergency requests to donate blood to help the wounded.
Similar vigils and meetings were held worldwide, denouncing the murderous attack and calling for redoubling the fight against Jew-hatred.
The iconic Sydney Opera House was lit up that night to show a menorah — the Jewish candelabrum used to mark the eight days of the religious holiday of Hanukkah — in tribute to those killed and wounded. In 2023, the Opera House had been lit up in the colors of Israel’s national flag two days after the Oct. 7 pogrom in Israel. That sparked a violent protest at the building by a pro-Hamas mob chanting antisemitic slogans and hunting for Jews to attack.
Sharp rise in Jew-hatred
There has been a sharp rise in Jew-hatred in Australia over the two years since Israel launched its defensive war against Hamas in Gaza to prevent another Oct. 7 pogrom. Pro-Hamas protests organized by middle-class leftist and Islamist groups have drawn support from Labor and Green Party politicians, many nongovernmental organizations, as well as much of the union officialdom and the liberal media.
Calls to boycott Jewish businesses, and to ban events and artistic performances by Jews, as well as individuals said to be linked to Israel, have been accompanied by vandalism, violence and arson targeting the Jewish community. Bondi, in the heart of the district where many Jews in Sydney live, has been a focal point of these attacks.
“Anti-Jewish racism has left the fringes of society and become part of the mainstream, where it is normalized and allowed to fester and spread,” the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said in a report released this month.
Jewish organizations, and many of the hundreds who gathered at Bondi the day after the mass shooting, sharply condemned the federal Labor Party government of Anthony Albanese for its failure to confront the growing wave of antisemitism, saying it had blood on its hands.
“Over the past two years, we’ve seen unprecedented acts of antisemitism in our city, synagogues being set alight, cars being firebombed, and houses being defaced. We, as a community, have repeatedly warned that it was only a matter of time until blood was spilt,” Ossip told the press conference.
The Australian prime minister convened a special National Cabinet meeting Dec. 15, drawing in the eight premiers of Australia’s states and territories. Albanese focused the meeting on the need to tighten restrictions on gun ownership.
The Australian Jewish Association condemned that response as “trying to blame the guns not the terrorists,” and an “attempt to deflect attention from antisemitism.”
“The Labor government led by Anthony Albanese has lined up with other imperialist powers attacking Israel,” helping to fuel the rise of Jew-hatred in Australia, the Communist League said in a statement released Dec. 16. “We cannot rely on the government or their police,” it said.