It was an atrocity that shocked the world – and yet Bondi Beach was also, sadly, not unexpected. On Sunday, when two terrorists with links to Islamic State opened fire on a busy Jewish celebration, 15 were killed, including a 10-year-old girl, a Holocaust survivor and a British-born rabbi.
The Independent's commentator and long-term Sydneysider Gary Nunn described the waterfront spot as his "glorious safe haven… somewhere I cycle every week. It felt like the safest and happiest place in the world. As a Brit living in Australia, I sometimes think of the July 7 Tube bombings and Manchester Ariana Grande concert attack and feel protected from the violence and terrorism."
So it was unreal that such an atrocity could happen in a place protected by some of the West's tightest gun laws. As The Independent's leader following the attack observed, Jewish people will now wonder where in the world they can feel safe.
The massacre followed antisemitic incidents at a Manchester synagogue, a Washington DC museum and an Amsterdam football match, and serves as a brutal reminder of how insidious and widespread anti-Jewish hatred has become: "That such an attack could happen in Australia and in such an emblematic place, however, only serves to underline just how far the new wave of hostility towards Jews has spread since Israel responded to the murderous Hamas atrocities of 7 October 2023 – which also incidentally targeted a pleasurable gathering, in that case a music festival."
Eminent Holocaust historian Laurence Rees said the shootings mark "a grim new chapter in the history of Jew-hatred" – one in which the essential values of Nazism – hatred, scapegoating, antisemitism, racism, and violent nationalism – are still very much with us: "The actions of the killers at Bondi demonstrate that they subscribed to the lie that the Jews are one group, linked across the world. But one still revolts against the inherent absurdity of this thinking."
Leo Pearlman, the Emmy Award-winning British producer behind the Gavin & Stacey finale, wrote for tThe Independent about how the Bondi attack was a personal reminder that staying silent no longer guarantees safety. In his powerful piece headlined "I won't be intimidated by the Bondi attacks into hiding my Jewishness", he revealed how "my daughter's oldest school friend, aged just 12, had been at the Hanukkah event on the Sydney beach. A child who has grown up in my home, around my table, who we share so many happy memories with. She had to run for her life when the shooting began, barricading herself in an ice-cream shop with other terrified children as the gunfire echoed across the beach. I was texting with her parents even as they drove towards Bondi, praying the next message they received would not be the one every parent fears most."
For Sean O'Grady, Bondi should also be an opportunity to draw a line in the sand – not to doubled-down on a hunt for "the enemy within", but to honour those hero citizens who stood up to the terrorists, such as Ahmed al-Ahmed, the Syrian-born bystander who bravely wrestled a gun from one of the attackers. "Rightly, Ahmed has been hailed by his family as a 'hero of Australia'."
Equally, said O'Grady, it would be pointless – as the UK's two largest police forces finally announced this week – to now start making arrests for antisemitic chanting, now that the "context has changed" in the wake of Bondi: "I have no doubt that, for some of those protesters, slogans such as 'From the river to the sea' and 'Globalise the intifada' do represent genocidal intent. But taking away their right to protest would not suddenly purge them of such evil thoughts."
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