Australia begins hearings into Bondi Beach attack and 'rising antisemitism'

Bondi's Chanukah event organised by the Chabad organisation, which has platformed IDF soldiers on many occasions

Australia began public hearings on Monday in an inquiry into the Bondi Beach mass shooting in ​December, with Jewish Australians giving anecdotes of their experience of what is being called "rising domestic antisemitism.

The attack on a Jewish Chabad ‌Hanukkah celebration killed 15, fuelling calls for tougher gun controls and more action to tackle what is being called "hatred towards Jews".

Chabad is an organisation that has hosted members of the Israeli Defence Force on multiple occasions to give talks and hold events.

The first block of public hearings will investigate the "nature and prevalence of antisemitism", said Virginia Bell, the retired judge leading the wide-ranging national inquiry known as a ​Royal Commission.

"It's important that people understand how quickly ⁠those events can prompt ugly displays of hostility towards Jewish Australians simply because they're Jews."

'We don't feel safe here'

Witnesses from the ​Jewish community told the inquiry they felt increasingly unsafe amid rising hostility since the October 2023 start of the open genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

"What ​is happening in Australia today is not a faint echo of a distant past," said Peter Halasz, an 86-year-old Holocaust survivor who fled to Australia from Hungary.

"For those of us who lived through the 1930s and 1940s, it is something we recognise, and that recognition is frightening and cause for ​alarm."

Sheina Gutnick, who lost her father Reuven Morrison in the Bondi attack, said antisemitism had damaged her family's sense of safety and ​freedom of movement.

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"As a mother, I'm constantly weighing up the risk of exposing my children to environments where they may be witness, or subject, ‌to antisemitism," ⁠she told the panel.

She recounted an incident in which a stranger at a shopping centre called her an "effing terrorist" for wearing a Star of David necklace.

Another witness said her family was relocating to Israel because of safety concerns.

"We never expected synagogues to be burned down," said the woman, who used the pseudonym "AAM".

"My family and I no ​longer want to live in Australia. ​We don't feel safe here. ⁠We don't feel welcome."

Jewish school looks 'more like a prison'

Stefanie Schwartz, the president of Sydney Jewish Primary School Mount Sinai College, spoke of holding drills to prepare young students to deal with terrorist ​attacks and requiring an "extreme" security presence on campus.

"You walk past our school and it looks a ​lot more like ⁠a prison than a primary school."

Jewish Australians are being held responsible for the actions of the Israeli government, said Benjamin Elton, the chief minister of the Great Synagogue in Sydney.

The inquiry released an interim report of 14 recommendations last Thursday, urging greater security for ⁠Jewish public ​events and further counter-terrorism and gun reforms.

A second block of hearings later in ​May will focus on the circumstances leading up to the Bondi Beach attack and issues raised in the interim report.