‘No middle ground’ for tackling antisemitism after Bondi Beach mass shooting, deputy FM Haskel says

Haskel, who lived in Australia for six years, said that the mass shooting came after repeated warnings to Canberra about growing antisemitism in the country.

The terrorist attack at a Hanukkah event on Bondi Beach in Sydney on Sunday shattered Australia’s reputation as a safe country for Jewish life, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel.

“The massacre was deeply shocking yet tragically predictable,” she told The Jerusalem Post, citing years of unchecked antisemitism and incitement. “Antisemitism is at a record high. We’re keeping our eyes on it.”

The mass shooting killed 11 people.

“It shook me, but I can’t say I was surprised,” Haskel said. “The writing was on the wall. For the last two years, we’ve been warning that if antisemitism is not confronted head-on, it is only a matter of time before blood is spilled.”

Repeated warnings were delivered to Canberra at the highest levels, she said. Israel’s prime minister, president, foreign minister, and senior diplomats had raised alarms about rising hostility toward Jewish communities in Australia, but the concerns went largely unheeded, she added.

Bondi Beach massacre close to home for Haskel

Haskel said she had lived for six years in Sydney, and the terrorist attack carries personal weight. She described the local Jewish community as “my home.”

“Five or 10 years ago, I would have said something like this was impossible in Australia,” Haskel said. “It used to be one of the safest countries in the world for Jews. Today, that is no longer the case.”

She cited a dramatic shift over the past two years, with growing numbers of Jewish Australians considering aliyah out of fear.

Recent conventions in Sydney and Melbourne promoting immigration to Israel had drawn unprecedented interest, Haskel said.

“These are numbers we’ve never seen before,” she said. “People are not leaving because of ideology alone. They are leaving because they feel unsafe.”

At the heart of the problem is a failure to enforce laws against incitement and hate speech, Haskel said. There were mass demonstrations after the October 7 massacre, and protesters chanted, “Globalize the intifada,” and “Gas the Jews,” while waving flags of Hamas and Hezbollah, she said.

“There were no arrests, no prosecutions, no deterrence,” she added. “Calls for the murder of Jews were excused as being ‘misunderstood.’ That sends a very dangerous message.”

Haskel also cited large rallies in which demonstrators marched beneath images of Iran’s supreme leader and symbols of designated terrorist organizations, as well as a growing pattern of synagogue arson, physical assaults on Jews, workplace harassment, and the marginalization of Jewish students on university campuses.

“Many words were spoken, but there was no real action – no enforcement, no sentencing, no consequences,” she said.

Despite diplomatic tensions, Haskel said Israel has maintained close security cooperation with Australia to protect lives, including warnings from Israeli officials to their Australian counterparts about increased extremist activity and the risk of an attack.

Australia faces a critical choice, Haskel said.

“Either the government enforces its own laws against racial hatred, prosecutes those who incite violence and support terrorist organizations, and restores deterrence, or the situation will continue to deteriorate,” she said. “There is no middle ground.”