Well prior to the Bondi Beach massacre last week, the Australian Jewish community apparently had been urging authorities to take more seriously the surge in anti-Jewish sentiment and crimes since the October 7 pogrom, but to little avail.
Data from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry record a fivefold increase in antisemitic incidents since October 7, with last year alone seeing over 1,650 reported incidents, ranging from graffiti and hate speech to arson attacks on synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses. Yet, Jewish leaders have criticized the government’s response as feeble and woefully inadequate. While these were the proverbial “writing on the wall,” even Australia’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, admitted the nation had “not come out strongly enough against it.”
The problem, many argue, is the need to go beyond platitudinous sentiment and take decisive action against the root cause: the incitement of hate against Jews. Yet, there has been a palpable reluctance by some leaders and institutions to characterize attacks against Jews as being directed at them as Jews but rather as random acts of violence against minorities generally, and trigger condemnations of attacks on all minorities.
This is not to suggest that all violence against minorities should not be condemned. It is to say that coupling it all together distracts from appreciating the special problem of antisemitism. And this, of course, is a special problem for us when antisemitism is cloaked in political criticism of Israel.
Unfortunately, the ambiguity tends to normalize an environment where malign actors feel emboldened to move from verbal abuse to physical violence, and now, to mass murder.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese may have condemned the Bondi Beach murders as an “act of evil, antisemitism, terrorism” and vowed that Australia “will never submit to division, violence, or hatred.” But, as we noted, the time for platitudes is over.
Governments must move beyond statements of solidarity and implement tangible measures to address the systemic failures that enabled this horrific attack.
The Jewish community deserves more than just words. They demand action and accountability.