By James Simons-
The perpetrators of the Bondi beach massacre in Australia were a father and son, it has been reported. The father, believed to be a 50 year old man has been killed, whilst the son is in critical condition in hospital.
The terrorist act was directed at the Jewish community, and designed to maximise the deaths of jews in the vicinity of the attacks.
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At least 12 people were killed, and nearly 30 hospitalised after at the mass shooting at Sydney’s famed Bondi Beach on Sunday, a terrorist attack described by the prime minister as “an act of evil antisemitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of this nation”.
Police said one alleged shooter was dead, and a second had been arrested and was in a critical condition.
Late on Sunday night, police were still searching for a possible third offender, saying they had unconfirmed information there could be more terrorists involved.
Police later removed an improvised explosive device from a car nearby to where the shooting started. Serious crimes of that nature, are reportedly rare in the area where the tragic killings occurred. But rarity along the spectrum of probability is meaningless once an adverse outcome like several murders takes place at the same time; for, friends, family, and a nation have to cope with the loss
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NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president said the Federal government had been ‘very slow to come to grips’ with antisemitism. David Ossip said the federal government has made “missteps” on antisemitism, and was too slow to come to grips with the issue.
He says the responsibility of government is to protect its citizens, which he says didn’t happen on Sunday night.
There’s been an immense failure and an investigation needs to come to grips with how that was allowed to take place. But there’s no two ways about it – the federal government was very slow to come to grips with this issue. We haven’t seen the leadership at a federal level that we have at a state level. Now, more than ever, it is the moment. If we’re not going to step now and deal with this for the crisis that it is, when are we?
Earlier this morning, Labour MP Josh Burns, who is Jewish, said Jewish people had faced dehumanisation and minimisation over the last two years. Ossip says he agrees with Burns:
The Jewish community has been through hell over the past two years, and notwithstanding all of that, there have still been individuals who have sought to undermine our lived experience, and that has to stop as well.
The callous multiple murders were marked with acts of bravery. A video shot from a phone depicts the a scene in which an unarmed man, dressed in white, creeping up from behind a gunman. The unarmed man lunges at the unsighted gunman’s arms and neck, wrenching the long weapon from his hands and turning it towards him, menacing the now disoriented terrorist with the firearm, before placing the weapon by a tree.
The terrorist stumbles backwards from a nearby footbridge, shots ring out from another assailant. The attack continues.
A drumming-and-dancing troupe, open to all-comers, usually sets up in the northern corner of the sand. There are beach races and surfing lessons, dog-walkers and family picnics. Volunteer life-savers in yellow-and-red patrol the beach.
At this time of year, too, Australia is sliding into the still torpor of a languid, hot Christmas break. There is peace here.
As the sun set on this idyllic weekend, members of Sydney’s Jewish community had gathered at a small park immediately behind the beach to light candles, to commune and to celebrate the beginning of Hanukah, to the Jewish festival of lights, terrorists brought darkness.
Just after a quarter to seven, in the softening daylight, two gunmen bearing long weapons suddenly opened fire from a nearby elevated footbridge which connecting the boulevard of Campbell Parade with the Bondi Surf Club.
Without pause, the men poured round after indiscriminate round into the crowd who had gathered in peace and in community.
Eyewitnesses reported the shooting ran on and on – five minutes some said, others 10, some reported 50 rounds being fired – before the gunmen were silenced.
One was killed, the other critically injured. Video showed two men pressed on to the ground by uniformed police on a small pedestrian bridge, firearms on the ground nearby. Officers could be seen trying to resuscitate one of the men.
Finn Green – who arrived in Bondi Beach on Tuesday from Bristol in the UK – was directly across from the footbridge when the shooters opened fire. He was speaking to his family on FaceTime as the shooting began.
“There were two of them [gunmen], one went to the right and hit a lady and the other went to the left and hit a man. I saw heaps of people running away. My family were screaming at me on the phone to find cover because they could hear the gunshots.” Abdullah Ashrof said he saw two shooters on the bridge as he drove down Campbell Parade.
Ashrof, who still had blood on his hands from helping people in the aftermath of the shooting, parked to try to tell people to take cover and saw a police officer who had a gunshot wound. Others nearby appeared dead and injured.
“He was very brave. He was trying to stay conscious,” Ashrof said of the officer. “We were trying to talk to him … Just trying to help him, hold his hand and there are other people who are trying to wrap his wound, put pressure on the wound.”
Another woman with her children nearby had also been shot. “I think the worst thing was that two of her kids were right next to her,” Ashrof said. “She was … very brave, trying to stay conscious, trying to talk.”
“This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith. [This attack is] an act of evil antisemitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation,” he said.
“An attack on Jewish Australians is an attack on every Australian. There is no place for this hate, violence and terrorism in our nation. Let me be clear: we will eradicate it.”
Jillian Segal, the government’s special envoy to combat antisemitism in Australia, said the images emerging from the attack “echo the horrors Australians hoped they would never see here”.
“An attack on a peaceful Jewish celebration is an attack on our national character and our way of life. Australia must defend both,” she said.
“As Australian Jews light our Hanukah candles tonight, we do so with the heaviest of hearts.”
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