Lethal assault on Bondi Seaside follows rise in antisemitic incidents in Australia : NPR

The lethal taking pictures throughout a Hanukkah celebration at Australia’s Bondi Seaside follows a pointy rise in antisemitic assaults within the nation because the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the following warfare in Gaza.

The advocacy group the Govt Council of Australian Jewry tallied greater than 3,700 anti-Jewish incidents within the nation throughout the two years after the Hamas assault. The tempo of incidents throughout that interval was 5 occasions what it was within the decade earlier than the assault. The incidents ranged from anti-Israel graffiti to the arson and destruction of a Melbourne synagogue.

Different nations have seen an analogous rise in antisemitic assaults, though not as sharp as Australia’s. Jewish leaders from world wide convened in Sydney earlier this month to focus on the mounting concern.

“What is occurring in Australia is just not an exception; it ought to be a wake-up name to communities worldwide,” mentioned Marina Rosenberg, a senior vp for worldwide affairs on the Anti-Defamation League, in an announcement earlier this month. “When synagogues could be firebombed in Melbourne and Jews threatened and attacked in New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Buenos Aires and Toronto, this can be a risk not solely to Jewish security however to democratic stability itself.”

Australia’s authorities blamed Iran for organizing arson assaults on the Melbourne synagogue and a kosher meals firm in Sydney final 12 months.

On Sunday, two gunmen, recognized by authorities as a father and son, opened fireplace on a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s well-known Bondi Seaside, killing at the very least 15 individuals and injuring dozens of others.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese referred to as it an act of antisemitic terrorism.

“This can be a focused assault on Jewish Australians on the primary day of Hanukkah, which ought to be a day of pleasure, a celebration of religion,” Albanese mentioned.

Main cities world wide responded with beefed up safety for their very own Hanukkah occasions.

Australia is house to about 117,000 Jews, who make up lower than 0.5% of the nation’s inhabitants.

Albanese vowed that his nation would reply to the Bondi Seaside assault with “a second of nationwide unity the place Australians throughout the board will embrace their fellow Australians of Jewish religion.”

In 2024, Australia established a particular envoy to fight antisemitism, who endorsed a wide-ranging marketing campaign, together with on faculty campuses and the media. The ensuing plan drew some criticism that it risked conflating antisemitism with criticism of Israel’s conduct of the warfare in Gaza.

A commentary printed by the College of New South Wales’ Australian Human Rights Institute acknowledged the worrisome rise in antisemitic incidents within the nation, however warned that not all criticism of Israel is motivated by anti-Jewish sentiment.

In September, Australia joined Canada and the UK in granting recognition to the state of Palestine, in hopes of constructing momentum for a two-state answer to the long-running Israeli-Palestinian battle.

Within the wake of the Bondi Seaside taking pictures, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged that Australia’s recognition of a Palestinian state “pours gas on the antisemitic fireplace.”