In the Media

The Mercury – 26 December 2025

The last week since the Bondi massacre has seen the best of Australians, as they support the bereaved and stunned Jewish community. Flowers have piled up at the Bondi Pavilion and synagogues and public menorahs across the country. People have given blood in huge numbers, sometimes even queuing for hours to do so. Strangers have stopped identifiable Jews in the street to let them know they care.

Sadly, we have also seen the opposite, from some who support the Federal Government or Palestinian cause. Their primary concern seems not to show empathy for the Jewish community, or to heed our concerns, but to insulate themselves or their “side” from blame for or consequences of the massacre. We have seen denials of obvious contributing factors, and even victim blaming. Greg Barns’ piece “Tread carefully or risk more harm than good” (December 22) reads like a compilation of these disappointing efforts.

We’re repeatedly told that the Government is not to blame, and saying otherwise is divisive, politicising a tragedy. However, this ignores the grieving Jewish community’s views. For two years, we have urged the Government to do more about the rampant antisemitism, and warning there would be bloodshed otherwise. Even Mr Albanese has begrudgingly admitted he should have done more. Rather than evading blame under the cover of calls for unity, the Government must now establish a Royal Commission into the antisemitism, the role it played, and how to counter it, and must speedily implement the recommendations of its Antisemitism Envoy Jillian Segal, which it has barely acted on since she released her report in July.

We’re told that because the terrorists aligned with ISIS, they weren’t motivated by local factors. Surely the milieu of local antisemitism and incitement could have turned the terrorists to ISIS, or even if they were already linked, motivated them to take their horrific actions. The younger terrorist was linked to Sydney hate preachers – preachers the Jewish community had been urging governments to crack down on.

We’re told the massacre was due to Israel’s crimes in Gaza. This is simply appalling victim blaming. If Israel is responsible, then so, by extension, are those who support it. This includes a large majority of Australia’s Jewish community.

The antisemitism started immediately after the October 7 atrocities, before Israel began military action. The link is not to Israel’s conduct of the war, but how the war has been mischaracterised, and used to incite antisemitism and hatred of Israel, as Hamas intended. Israel is accused of genocide even though it is fighting a war against a determined, embedded enemy, and its measures such as evacuations and warnings – steps a genuinely genocidal force would never take – have kept the ratio of civilian casualties compared to combatants lower than any other modern urban-based war.

The civilian casualties and devastation in Gaza are tragic, but result directly from Hamas’ tactics of using civilians as shields and even sacrificing them. Barns’ claim Israel murdered 70,000 people in Gaza is incredibly inflammatory and just wrong. Israel has been fighting in accordance with international law, not murdering. Not even Hamas claims everyone killed in Gaza was an innocent civilian.

We’re told there is no link to the anti-Israel marches, so let’s look at the chants they use. “Globalise the Intifada” means bring here the terrorism of the Second Intifada in Israel, in which terrorists murdered more than 1,000 Israelis in bombings and shootings. Bondi is what globalising the Intifada looks like. “All Zionists are terrorists” means the 95% of the Jewish community who are Zionists, in other words, support Israel’s right to exist, are terrorists. We all know how terrorists should be treated. Calls to “free” Palestine “from the river to the sea” are calls for Israel’s destruction. “Death to the IDF” is also an obvious call for violence. Anyone who thinks some participants incited by these chants and accompanying inflammatory extreme speeches about Israel and Zionists week after week don’t then decide to act on them by committing antisemitic acts is kidding themselves.

We’re told that we’re conflating legitimate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, and that Jillian Segal’s report should be disregarded for that reason. Both the Jewish community and Segal report urge the use of the authoritative International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which specifically states that criticism of Israel as any other state would be criticised is not antisemitism. Those making this argument should explain why they want to criticise the Jewish state in ways other states would not be criticised.

At this time we should all be prioritising the healing of those impacted by this tragedy, first and foremost the devastated Jewish community, and the prevention of further attacks. Those who put their own needs and politics above that are doing the entire country a grave disservice, and frankly, should take a good, hard look at themselves. They are part of the problem, not the solution.

Jamie Hyams is the Director of Public Affairs at the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council