Massacre deepens tensions between Israel and Australia

A deadly attack on a Jewish festival on a famous Australian beach has deepened diplomatic tensions between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Israeli counterpart, at a time when pressure was growing in the country for the government to respond to anti-Semitism.

Albanese called for unity yesterday and said his government was ready to take whatever action was necessary, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Albanese had “done nothing” to combat anti-Semitism, which has been on the rise since 2023.

Immediately after the attack, Jewish community leaders also expressed concern.

"We are witnessing a shocking level of anti-Semitism that is starting to surface in this country, as it has in other countries," Levi Wolf, chief rabbi of Sydney Central Synagogue on Bondi Beach, where his friend was murdered on Sunday, told Reuters.

“When anti-Semitism is tolerated and not suppressed from the top of the government, things like this happen.”

At a press conference, Albanese read out a list of measures his government has already taken, including criminalizing hate speech and incitement to violence, as well as banning the Nazi salute.

He promised that funding for physical security for Jewish communities would be extended, with the message that there was a need for even stricter gun laws in Australia, which already has some of the most restrictive firearms regulations in the world.

However, a special envoy appointed by the government last year to deal with a series of graffiti and arson attacks on synagogues and Jewish businesses said Sunday's terrorist attack "did not come without warning" and that additional measures needed to be taken.

"The signs were obvious," envoy Gillian Segal said in a radio interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) yesterday.

The leader of Australia's conservative opposition Liberal Party has said the Labor Party has allowed anti-Semitism to "fecundate and flourish."

"From today, everything must change in the way governments respond," Liberal leader Sasan Leigh told a press conference, adding that Albanese must implement all the recommendations from the report Segal published in July, including a special focus on university campuses.

Standing alongside Segal at the release of the report in July, Albanese condemned anti-Semitism as an “evil scourge” and said his government would allocate 25 million Australian dollars to strengthen security at Jewish community sites, including schools, among other measures.

Albanese also said at the time that it was important to separate anti-Semitism from legitimate criticism of the moves of Benjamin Netanyahu's government, noting that he and other international leaders have criticized Israel.

"In Australia you have to be able to express your views on what's happening overseas. The line is crossed when people are blamed and labelled just because they're Jewish," he said in July.

According to the 2021 census, there are approximately 116.967 people in Australia who identify as Jewish, accounting for 0,46 percent of the total population of 25 million, with the majority living in the greater Sydney and Melbourne area.

Since 2023, New South Wales state police have allowed weekly protest marches against Israel's war in Gaza to take place through Sydney.

Tensions between Australia and Israel have increased since August, when Israel revoked visas for Australian diplomats in the occupied Palestinian territories, which Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong described at the time as "an unjustified reaction to Australia's decision to recognize Palestine."

Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador the same month, after intelligence services attributed at least two anti-Semitic arson attacks to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Australia began mourning yesterday for the victims of the country's worst mass shooting in almost 30 years, in which police charge a father and son with killing 15 people at a Jewish celebration on Sydney's famous Bondi Beach.

The elderly attacker, aged 50, was killed at the scene, bringing the total death toll to 16, while his 24-year-old son remains in hospital in critical condition, police said at a news conference.

Police have not released the names of the suspects, but national broadcaster ABC and other media have identified them as Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram. Two flags of the Islamic State militant group were found in the attackers' vehicle, the ABC reported.

On Sunday night, attackers opened fire on Hanukkah celebrants, killing men, women and children, as terrified beachgoers fled.

The victims ranged in age from 10 to 87. They included a rabbi who was a father of five, a Holocaust survivor, a woman from Slovakia and a 10-year-old girl, according to officials, interviews and local media reports. Police said two police officers were among the 40 people taken to hospital after the attack, who were in serious but stable condition.

Immigration Minister Tony Burke said the suspected 24-year-old attacker was born in Australia, while his father, who was the second suspected attacker and who died in the attack, was a resident who came to Australia in 1998.

“It is very difficult to prevent individual acts of terrorism,” former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who previously represented the large Jewish community in Bondi in parliament, told the ABC.