Better late than never.
This aphorism applies to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
As he now admits, just a few days after two Muslim terrorists killed 15 people at a Chanukah celebration at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach, his government could have been far more proactive in ensuring the safety of Australia’s Jewish community.
“It is clear we need to do more to combat this evil scourge,” he said as he unveiled a set of measures to counter antisemitism. “Much more.”
“Governments aren’t perfect,” he added in a note of contrition. “I’m not perfect.”
Before Sajid Akram and his son, Naveed, slaughtered celebrants ushering in the first night of the Festival of Lights, Albanese had been repeatedly warned by Jewish community leaders and his special envoy on antisemitism that Jews felt increasingly unsafe.
Since Hamas’ one-day invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Jews in Australia have been subjected to an onslaught of antisemitic attacks. The upsurge in anti-Jewish animus was accompanied by pro-Palestinian demonstrations, some of which smelled of antisemitism.
In the face of these sickening developments, Albanese appointed Jillian Segal as Australia’s first official to monitor antisemitism and passed legislation to criminalize hate speech.
While they were worthwhile initiatives, they scratched only the surface of a seething problem that was clearly getting out of hand.
“For years, Australia reassured itself that antisemitism is marginal — an imported pathology or an online nuisance safely removed from everyday life,” Peter Kurti writes in The Wall Street Journal. “That belief is no longer credible. Since October 7, Jewish Australians have reported a sharp rise in harassment, intimidation, vandalism and threats at schools, universities, workplaces and public spaces. Antisemitic graffiti had already appeared in Bondi in the weeks before the attack. The violence didn’t emerge from nowhere. It was the most extreme expression of a wound to the body politic that has been allowed to fester.”
It is unclear why Albanese and his ministers did not crack down harder on ethnocentric Australians bent on demonizing, harassing and harming Jewish citizens. Certainly, Albanese’s abject failure to act resolutely has irretrievably tarnished his record, if not his reputation.
Embarrassed and chastened by the Bondi Beach atrocity, the worst single antisemitic incident in Australia’s history, Albanese has since denounced Australians who spread “hate, division and radicalization” and announced new measures to combat antisemitism, some of which were recommended by Segal five months ago.
He made that announcement as funerals were held for 10-year-old Matilda Britvan, the youngest victim, and Alex Kleytman, a Holocaust survivor from the former Soviet Union.
While Albanese’s belated proposals were welcomed, they should have been implemented at least two years ago, said Susan Ley, the leader of the opposition. “We have a government that sees antisemitism as a problem to be managed, not evil that needs to be eradicated.”
Despite the government’s newfound realization that antisemitism negates Australian values, the Jewish community remains on edge and on alert.
On December 18, Ed Halmagyi, the owner of Avner’s Bakery in the Surry Hills neighborhood of Sydney, disclosed he was closing his shop due to antisemitic harassment. He said he feared that it could be targeted by Palestinians and their supporters seeking to “globalize the intifada.”
“The world has changed,” a poster on the window of his Jewish-style bakery lamented. “Our world has changed.”
Indeed it has.
Australia, a liberal democracy that prides itself on tolerance, pluralism and public order, has been a haven for Jewish migrants and immigrants for more than two centuries. It is also home to one of the world’s largest concentrations of Holocaust survivors. And Australia generally has been friendly toward Israel.
But with a significant influx of Palestinians and Muslims into the country in the past few decades, the Jewish community is no longer as safe as it used to be. This seismic demographic transformation is keenly felt, inasmuch as a substantial proportion of the new Arab immigrants are reflexively hostile to Israel and do not necessarily distinguish between the Jewish state and Jews in the Diaspora.
Some, like Sajid Akram, a 50-year-old Muslim from Hyderabad, India, who arrived in Australia on a student visa in 1998, could be found in this group. An Islamic radical, he was killed by police during his murderous rampage. Akram’s 24-year-old Australian-born son, Naveed, who lies in a coma in a hospital, was his faithful acolyte, regarding Jews as intrinsic enemies.
The pair seem to have been motivated or inspired by Islamic State, in the estimation of the Australian government. Islamic State, in an article published on its Telegram channel, hailed the shooting as a “source of pride.”
The authorities in the Philippines have confirmed that the Akrams travelled to the southern part of the country, a hotbed of Islamic extremism, last month. Australian counter-terrorism officials think they underwent military-style training while there, according to an ABC report.
Two homemade Islamic State flags were found in Naveed’s vehicle. Australia’s domestic security agency had monitored him and deemed he was not a threat, said police.
Although Islamic State no longer holds wide swaths of territory in either Iraq or Syria, the sites of its former caliphate, it disseminates its radical ideology online and through clandestine cells and regional affiliates. Last year, the Islamic State’s branch in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for attacks in Iran, Russia and Pakistan. Islamic State urges followers to strike non-Muslim infidels and provides detailed information on the use of guns, bombs, vehicles and knives.
The assailant who attacked a synagogue in Manchester on Yom Kippur on October 2 pledged allegiance to Islamic State in a phone call as he carried out his assault.
Australian Muslims initially feared that they would be victimized by an Islamophobic backlash. This did not happen. Ahmed el-Ahmed, a Muslim bystander who was injured while tackling one of the gunmen, nipped that possibility in the bud. Born in Idlib, Syria, Ahmed immigrated to Australia nearly 20 years ago, according to the Australians for Syria Association. Now in hospital waiting to undergo another round of surgery, he has been lauded as a national hero and visited by Albanese.
The massacre in Sydney may well be a turning point in how authorities respond to anti-Israel Palestinian demonstrations.
Last week, police forces in London and Manchester announced that pro-Palestinian protesters who chant the phrase “globalize the intifada” will be arrested. Some Jews believe that the phrase is code language for anti-Jewish hostility. Police in London also disclosed that they will limit protests near synagogues when services are under way.
These measures will come as a relief to the Jewish community, but antisemites hell bent on harming Jews will not be deterred by them.
The world’s oldest hatred burns brightly.
As the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy wrote, “What happened in Sydney is not an accident but a sign. Given that the same causes risk producing the same effects, it could happen tomorrow in New York, London, Rome, Madrid, or Paris. In truth, it could happen in any city in the world where one is still frivolous enough to believe that words are just words, that slogans bind only those who chant them, and that hatred — when draped in the supposed love of an oppressed people — can be absolved of its consequences.”
These are not just words.
Yesterday, three young Muslim men from Toronto — Waleed Khan, 26, Osman Azizov, 18, and Fahad Sadaat, 19 — were arrested on charges of terrorism and attempted kidnappings of Jews and women stemming from two incidents earlier in the year.
The arrests prove beyond a doubt that Islamic radicalism has infected normally peaceful Muslim communities, whether in Canada, Australia or elsewhere.