A woman holds a child in a blanket after a shooting incident at Bondi Beach in Sydney yesterday. Photo / David Gray, AFP
The terrorist attack at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach was “entirely foreseeable”, it has been claimed.
Robert Gregory, the chief executive of the Australian Jewish Association, said he blamed Anthony Albanese, the Australian Prime Minister, for failing to heed warnings and prevent the shootings in Sydney, which left at least 16 people dead and many more injured.
Gregory said: “What happened tonight is a tragedy but entirely foreseeable.
“The Albanese Government was warned so many times but failed to take adequate actions to protect the Jewish community. Tonight, many Jews are pondering whether they have a future in Australia.”
Albanese also faced criticism from Israel for failing to heed warnings, and not mentioning that the shootings had happened at a Jewish event in his initial statement about the incident.
Sharren Haskel, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, said: “We said this is going to end up in blood. And unfortunately, time and time again, Australia’s government chose to speak and not to act.
“Time and time again we’ve seen hate marches, racist slogans, acts of discrimination ... and we’ve been warning that the Australian Government must take actions, not words, but actions.”
Haskel claimed the Government had spread “blood libels” against Israel in the past two years, giving “justification for extreme and radical groups to harm and attack Jewish communities”.
Australian officials have promised a “full inquiry” into the police response after it emerged one of the attackers was on a government watchlist but not considered an “immediate” danger.
Pressure is mounting on the Government to explain how the man and his accomplice were able to travel undetected through Australia’s largest city armed with at least two long-arm firearms and explosive devices before opening fire.
Mal Lanyon, the New South Wales police commissioner, said it was not fair to suggest police failed to thwart the attackers, telling a reporter: “I don’t even think that’s a reasonable question”.
He said police were “aware” of the suspect but “that does not mean there was any specific threat posed by that person”.
He added: “This is a tragic event. This is not the time to be pointing the finger.”
He said NSW police had “very, very little knowledge” of the man, “so he’s not someone that we would have automatically been looking at”.
Mike Burgess, head of Australia’s spy agency ASIO, also confirmed the man “was known” to intelligence officers but not in an “immediate-threat perspective”.
Chris Minns, the New South Wales Premier, promised there would be “a full inquiry” by government and police.
The Jewish community in Australia, which numbers more than 110,000 people, has long warned about the rise in anti-Semitism since the massacres in Israel on October 7, 2023.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry has said that 1654 anti-Semitic incidents had been reported in the past year, marking “unprecedentedly high levels”.
In recent weeks, anti-Israel graffiti has been sprayed around Bondi Beach.
In the days after the October 7 attack on Israel in 2023, activists chanted “f*** the Jews” during mass protests outside Sydney Opera House while businesses, homes and synagogues have since been firebombed.
Australia formally recognised Palestine as a state in September, after facing pressure from mass pro-Palestine protests, with thousands of people marching across Sydney Harbour Bridge in August.
Two weeks ago, Arsen Ostrovsky, a Jewish human rights lawyer who had just moved back to Australia from Israel and was injured in the attacks, posted pictures on social media of graffiti reading “F*** Zionist Israel” and “Israel commits genocide”.
He said on X on November 28: “Barely stepped off the plane from Israel and went for morning run, only to see this disgusting anti-Semitic graffiti plastered along the iconic Bondi Beach in Sydney. Thankfully NSW police were already on the scene. These perpetrators and thugs cannot be allowed to get away.”
Ostrovsky told Channel 9 news: “October 7, that’s the last time I saw this. I never thought I would see this in Australia.”
Hundreds of people were gathered at the Chanukah by the Sea event, which was organised by the ultra-orthodox Chabad movement. Chanukah – more commonly known as Hanukkah – is an eight-day Jewish festival of light commemorating the Maccabean revolt against Greek rule.
The event included live entertainment, face-painting, kosher food, music and games, and was expected to culminate with the lighting of a giant menorah.
A poster advertising it said: “Come celebrate the light of chanukah together with the community. bring your friends, bring the family, let’s fill bondi with joy and light.”
Rabbi Eli Schlanger, a Chabad emissary based in Sydney, was among those killed.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s anti-Semitism report mentions an arson attack against a kosher catering business in Bondi, as well as fire-bombings, graffiti and vandalism targeting Jewish homes, cars, businesses and synagogues across Sydney and Melbourne.
Australia expelled Iran’s ambassador to Canberra earlier this year after the country’s spy agency found that Tehran had orchestrated at least two anti-Semitic attacks.
While the action against Iran was welcomed by the Jewish community, Jeremy Leibler, President of Zionist Federation of Australia, told the Telegraph the Hanukkah attack was the result of years of “unchecked” anti-Semitic incitement, vilification and intimidation.
Leibler said: “When hatred is normalised, violence follows ... Australia must respond with moral clarity, decisive leadership, and action.”
The Australian Jewish Association said in a post on X that the fact Albanese’s initial statement on the attack did not mention that it was at a Jewish event was “a shameful disgrace”, adding: “PM Albanese avoids even mentioning that it was the Jewish community targeted and Jews shot.”
Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s Foreign Minister, echoed AJA’s criticism, saying: “Words you will not find in the PM statement: Jews. Anti-Semitism. Terror.”
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog also heavily criticised the Australian Government, saying: “Time and again we called on the Australian Government to take action and fight against the enormous wave of anti-Semitism that is plaguing Australian society.”
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