Bondi shooting: Jewish community in shock over sickening Bondi Beach Hanukkah event massacre

Jewish leaders have warned Australia is “no longer safe” and called for urgent action by Albanese government after members of their community were “slaughtered in cold blood by terrorists” at Bondi Beach.

The sickening massacre has sent shock waves globally, with the Jewish community reacting with shock, grief, and solidarity.

Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry said the attack illustrated that Australia was no longer a safe place for Jews.

“If Jews get slaughtered on Bondi Beach and body bags are piling up at this place, we’re not safe,” he said.

Speaking a press conference in Bondi on Monday, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip said the 15 innocent people who were gunned down should have been enjoying Hanukkah on a “carefree and tranquil summer’s evening”.

“For two years people have paraded in our streets and universities calling for the intifada to be globalised, a catchphrase which means ‘kill Jews wherever you find them’,” he said.

“Last night, the intifada was globalised and came to Bondi.”

Families had been enjoying Hanukkah celebrations at Archer Park on Sunday, when licensed gun owner Sajid Akram, 50, and his son Naveed, 24, “unleashed evil” by opening fire on the crowd about 6.47pm.

At least 15 innocent people aged from 10 to 87 were killed. Sajid died at the scene, while his son is in a critical condition in hospital and expected to survive.

The vile attack comes after years of warnings from Jewish Australians and a string of antisemitic attacks on synagogues, homes, cars, and communal buildings.

One firebombing attack, on Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue in December 2024, was found to have been ‘orchestrated’ by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Mr Ryvchin was critical of the Albanese Government for not acting on a 15-point plan his organisation presented after the Adass attack, which he labelled a “blueprint” to “defeat” anti-Semitism.

“There is evil among us and if we don’t rip it out by the root .... we’re going to go down a darker and darker path,” he said, adding that anti-Semitism in Australia had reached “a crisis of a new magnitude”.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley claimed “anti-Semitism in Australia has been left to fester” by the Albanese Government and called for immediately action on the recommendations of a report by the Prime Minister’s hand-picked special envoy for anti-Semitism.

Jillian Segal had delivered her 20-page plan in July which included 49 actions across 13 areas to combat the issue — including better education, a report-card system for the university sector, and training Border Force to spot and deport people engaging in anti-Semitism.

The report also called for increase in transparency around social media algorithms, monitoring of media organisations representations of Jews and strengthening hate crime legislation.

Visiting the scene on Monday, Ms Segal laid a stone at the Bondi Beach pavilion in a traditional Jewish way of paying respect.

She called for a response on par with the Howard government’s to the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, adding the attack as “pure evil” and an act Australia “cannot accept”.

“This pure evil is anti-Semitism. Death has reached Bondi Beach. It’s not random thoughts, it’s true anti-Semitism, which is the Australia that we cannot accept,” Ms Segal said, adding that she hoped “new energy” would now be delivered to acting on her plan.

“I’m sure the Government’s initial reaction will be to look at security. I have laid out a blueprint in my plan. This is a long-term strategy that I have laid out. We’ve been making progress.”

But Mr Ossip was scathing of Australia’s response to anti-Semitic rhetoric that he claimed had run riot since the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack that sparked conflict in Gaza.

“What we’ve seen has been the logical progression, demonising Jews with rhetoric, which slowly builds up to acts of violence,” he said.

“And the acts of violence which last night took lives.

“Two years ago, on the forecourt of the Opera House antisemites chanted ‘f**k the Jews’ and ‘where are the Jews?’. Sadly, last night, they found the Jews.

“The time for talk is over. We need action.”

The Australian Jewish Association also criticised the Government’s failure to stem the rising tide of anti-Semitic behaviour in Australia in the lead up to the attack.

“The Albanese Government was warned so many times but failed to take adequate actions to protect the Jewish community,” chief executive officer Robert Gregory said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has labelled the massacre — which is Australia’s worse since Port Arthur in 1996 — as “evil unleashed” on home soil and “beyond anyone’s worst nightmare”.

He issued a message to Australia’s Jewish community saying that “there is no place for hate” in our nation and vowing “we will eradicate it”.

“As Prime Minister, I say on behalf of all Australians to the Jewish community, we stand with you, we embrace you, and we reaffirm tonight that you have every right to be proud of who you are and what you believe,” he said.

“You have the right to worship and study and live and work in peace and safety and you enrich us as a nation.

“You should never have to endure the loss that you have suffered.”

During his late-night press conference in Canberra on Sunday after convening a special meeting of the National Security Committee, the PM was asked if the Government would act on the outstanding recommendations made by Ms Segal this year.

“We’re continuing to work on all of those issues including one of the things that you’ll see is a request that had previously been made to be included in additional funding for security,” Mr Albanese said.

He was then asked: “Have you taken the threat of anti-Semitism seriously?“.

Mr Albanese replied: “Yes, we have taken it seriously and we’ve continued to act.

“We’ve continued to work with Jewish community leaders. We’ve continued to take all the advice from the security agencies to put in place special measures — and will continue to do so.”