Antisemitic violence is wrong in the way all forms of racist violence are wrong.
Events in Bondi felt close to home. The attack occurred on the first night of Chanukah, the Jewish festival of light. Fifteen people, including 10-year old Matilda, were murdered. It rightly took us back to 15 March 2019 when our Muslim whānau were targeted during their own religious ritual, in a similar act of terror that claimed 51 lives.
December 2025 is different to 2019 though. We live in a world fundamentally changed, and threatened, by the disregard for human life promoted through Israel’s actions in Gaza. Some argue the terror in Gaza can make Jews everywhere safer. Indeed, within hours of the news breaking, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly denounced Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, blaming Australia’s recognition of Palestine for the terrorist attack. This political opportunism before the Bondi victims had even been buried shows the lengths Israeli leaders will go to in order to create political cover for the unjustifiable.
Netanyahu’s response is an example of how genuine acts of antisemitism have been blamed on support for Palestine or criticism of Israeli violence. This further endangers Jewish people around the world. Antisemitism exists, and Netanyahu is happy to fan its flames if it serves him politically.
In response to the way Israel and its supporters weaponise antisemitism, some falsely conclude that the way to resist Israeli propaganda is by denying the existence of antisemitism altogether. Quite the opposite. At the foundations of Israel is a belief that wholesale destruction of European Jewish society during the Holocaust justifies the destruction of another society in Palestine.
This is why we have been working together as peers for a decade. Justine (a Jewish New Zealander) rejects the version of her Jewishness that is sold by Israel and Zionism. Jewish safety will never come through tanks and bombs, apartheid walls or genocide. It cannot come at the expense of the Palestinian people. Nadia (a Palestinian New Zealander) wants to see a Palestine where Palestinians have equal rights and the ability to raise their children safely in their homeland. She wants those committing war crimes in Gaza held to account. Jewish and Palestinian safety and liberation are intertwined.
Antisemitism has been around for thousands of years. We are witnessing its resurgence due to the rise of the far right and Israel’s insistence on linking Jewish identity to Israel. Responses to the Bondi attack on social media demonstrate how modern antisemitism shows up. Before whānau and friends of the Bondi victims were able to farewell their loved ones, disinformation began circulating that the terrorist attack was orchestrated by an ex-IDF soldier, was a false flag event and that Israelis had received prior warning of the attack. Social media users began combing through the profiles of the victims to excuse the violence and justify it.
The events at Bondi have happened in a political context which needs to be seen for what it is: 72,000 Palestinian deaths at the hands of Israel have been permitted by western leaders because Palestinian lives are perceived to be worth less than others. Rejection of this status quo can and must coexist with a commitment that no matter what views the people celebrating Chanukah that day held or did not hold, a people’s right to safely practise their faith or exist in their Jewishness, their Muslimness – whatever it may be – is sacrosanct.
In the face of the extraordinary violence and cruelty we’ve witnessed in Gaza, our ongoing challenge is to prevent ourselves from being desensitised to murderous violence.
At the heart of Zionism is the idea that Jewish safety is predicated on Jewish nationalism, that Jewish people will never be safe in the diaspora. Antisemitic violence is wrong in the way all forms of racist violence are wrong. It is also a threat to our mutual dream of justice, freedom and equality between the river and the sea. It is used to legitimise Zionist violence.
The reason many Palestinians are joining Jews to condemn the Bondi terrorist attack is because bigotry represents everything we are fighting hard to overcome. It’s the same reason Jewish people around the world are joining the Palestine solidarity movement – the work towards a free Palestine is one of the most meaningful ways we can come together for a future free from all forms of racism. Our safety really is bound up with one another.
