This article by ECAJ Research Director Julie Nathan was originally published by the International Council of Jewish Women.

The shooting spree and mass murder of 15 people on Bondi Beach in Sydney at a Chanukah event on 14 December 2025 did not occur in a vacuum. It was a cul­min­a­tion of more than two years of vili­fic­a­tion and demon­isa­tion of Jews and Israel, and of incite­ment and increas­ing violence against Jews. The Jewish community in Australia was shocked but not surprised by the massacre. Many of us knew that Jewish blood would be shed and lives lost; it was only a matter of when, where and how many. The trail to this bloodshed began on 7 October 2023.

Flashback to October 2023

Two events set the ball rolling. In Lakemba, western Sydney, on 8 October 2023, at a rally organised by the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, Sheikh Ibrahim Dadoun railed exult­antly to the crowd, “I’m smiling, and I’m happy. I’m elated. It’s a day of courage! It’s a day of res­ist­ance! It’s a day of pride! It’s a day of victory! This is the day we’ve been waiting for! … What happened yesterday is the first time our brothers and sisters broke through the largest prison on earth. … It didn’t happen by itself … my brothers and sisters, Palestine will be free!” Dadoun’s speech was inter­spersed with chants from the crowd of “Allahu Akbar.” In a neigh­bour­ing suburb, people in a vehicle flying Palestini­an flags let off flares in cel­eb­ra­tion of the attacks despite the images being widely dis­sem­in­ated by the attackers them­selves of the murders of Jews and other atro­cit­ies they had committed and video-recorded.

Palestine Action Group (PAG) in Sydney began organ­ising on 7 October while Jews were still being slaughtered by Hamas and others in Israel to hold an anti-Israel protest on 9 October 2023. The protest began at Sydney Town Hall, and then snaked along the city streets to the steps of the Opera House. Flares were lit and thrown, Israeli flags set alight, accom­pan­ied by chants of “Fuck the Jews!”, “Where’s the Jews?” and as heard by some “Gas the Jews!” No one at the protest was arrested. The NSW Police Minister had earlier warned Jews to stay out of the Sydney CBD due to the threat of violence against them.

Statistics for October 2023 – 2025

In the 12 months after 1 October 2023, the number of anti-Jewish incidents rose dra­mat­ic­ally from 495 in the previous 12 months to 2,062 incidents, as doc­u­mented by the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ). Incidents of physical assault of Jews increased by 491% and direct verbal abuse of Jews by 230%. In the next 12-month period from 1 October 2024, there were 1,654 incidents, a small decrease overall from the previous 12-month period, but one with increases in vandalism, including multiple acts of arson.

For a better per­spect­ive, in the 10 years prior to October 2023 (October 2014 – to September 2023) the average annual number of anti-Jewish incidents was 342. In the two years after 7 October 2023, amid the surge in antisemitism, there has been an average of 1,858 incidents per year.

Over the summer period from October 2024 to February 2025, there were repeated episodes in Sydney of arson, vandalism and anti-Jewish graffiti on vehicles, syn­agogues, homes, Jewish busi­nesses, buildings, Jewish schools, and a childcare centre. Jewish indi­vidu­als, Jewish communal venues, and areas with large numbers of Jewish residents were targeted. The discovery in outer Sydney of a caravan laden with explos­ives and a list of Jewish sites was made public in January 2025. The Adass Synagogue in Melbourne was fire­bombed and com­pletely destroyed on 6 December 2024. A further arson attack on another Melbourne synagogue occurred in July 2025. Jews awoke each day for months, wondering what would be next – another arson on another Jewish venue or something worse?

Messages of hatred

To illus­trate the violent and murderous sentiment being actively expressed towards Jews, there was an increase in graffiti express­ing harm to Jews, which changed from seeking “Death to the Jews” to com­mand­ing action “Kill Jews”. Examples of graffiti post 7 October 2023 include “Kill Jews. Jew Lives Here” and multiple “Kill Jews”; in 2024 “Gas Jews”, “Gas all fucking Jews”, “Gas all Jews scum”, multiple “Kill Jews”, “Kill a Jew”, “Kill the Jews”, “Kill the Dirty Jew”, “Kill Zionists” and “Kill all Zionists”; and in 2025 “Kill all Jews”, “Iradicate [sic] all Jews”, “Exterm­in­ate the JEWS” , multiple “Gas the Jews”, “Burn the Jews” and “Murder your local Zionist”. Many of these slogans were repeated multiple times in other places. Hundreds of other graffiti incidents called for intifada and expressed support for Hamas, whose charter calls for the genocide of all Jews. Red inverted Hamas triangles, indic­at­ing a target for physical attack, were graf­fit­ied on Jewish busi­nesses and elsewhere.

The incessant weekly anti-Israel street protests across cities in each state cast a dark pall over the nation, dis­rupt­ing and intim­id­at­ing shoppers, tourists and workers. It was common for anti-Israel pro­test­ers to call for or express support for violence against Jews. Anti-Israel pro­test­ers, in chants or placards, con­sist­ently called for “Intifada Intifada” (which had featured the bombing of buses, cafes and other public places, during the Palestini­an intifada of 2000 – 2005); “Globalise the Intifada” (used as a pretext to bring the violence against Jews to diaspora Jewish com­munit­ies); “There is Only One Solution: Intifada Revolu­tion” (support only for violence, and opposing peaceful nego­ti­ated res­ol­u­tions); “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” (the erasure of the state of Israel and all Jews as a self-determ­in­ing people from the southern Levant region); “Res­ist­ance is Justified, res­ist­ance by any means” (jus­ti­fy­ing the massacre of civilians); and “Khaybar Khaybar ya yahud, jaish Muhammad soufa ya’oud” (”Khaybar Khaybar oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return”) an Islamic call to war against Jews and threat to slaughter them.

Many posters, placards and stickers, often pro­fes­sion­ally made and widely dis­trib­uted, made false analogies between the State of Israel and Nazi Germany, or between Zionism and Nazism. Stars of David were inter­twined with Nazi swastikas. Demon­ising Israel and those who support its right to exist with slogans calling “Zionism is Nazism”, “Zionism = Nazism”, “Israel = Nazi”, “Zionism is Racism”, “All Zionists are Ter­ror­ists”, “Zionism is Terrorism”, “Zionism is Racism. Zionism is Genocide”, “Zionists are Genocidal Maniacs”, “Zionism is Racism is Fascism”, “Zionists are Nazis in disguise”, “Free Palestine from Nazi Israel” were prolific and wide­spread. In addition, there was Holocaust min­im­isa­tion by false analogies of Gaza with the Holocaust or with Auschwitz. When Zionism, a Jewish movement for Jewish national self-determ­in­a­tion in the Jewish people’s historic homeland, is falsely portrayed as Nazi or even as fascist, that elicits the idea that Jews have inferior rights and that attacking Jews is jus­ti­fi­able.

Antisemitism legitimized

Despite the murderous calls and violence, antisemitism was being expressed in other ways – intim­id­a­tion, dis­crim­in­a­tion, vili­fic­a­tion and ostracism – in the arts and cultural spheres, in the health sector, in schools, on public transport, uni­ver­sity campuses, in work­places, and generally through­out society. Many Jewish students and staff stopped attending uni­ver­sity. Nurses openly demonised Zionism, and two nurses openly bragged that they would kill Israeli Jews in the hospital. Jews walking down the street or at cafes were shouted at with “Baby Killers” and the like. Jewish artists and writers were deplat­formed. Approx­im­ately 600 Jewish creatives were doxed. There was no place anywhere that was a safe haven for Jews to be free from vili­fic­a­tion or attack.

As the number of anti-Jewish incidents spiked, espe­cially violent incidents, there was a massive pro­pa­ganda campaign pre­dom­in­antly by sections of the anti-Israel left in the form of articles on websites and social media aimed at under­min­ing the work of those like ECAJ and the Antisemitism Envoy to counter antisemitism. They would phrase it in terms that one should not privilege one form of racism, namely antisemitism, over other forms of racism. Antisemitism itself was falsely portrayed as minor, if it even existed, and that if it did exist, it was only by the neo-Nazis. They falsely claimed that Jewish organ­isa­tions count all anti-Israel acts as antisemitic. Their purpose was to try to show that Jews, portrayed as wealthy and powerful and as “white oppress­ors”, cannot be victims of racism. They were unbothered, perhaps even happy, that Jews were being attacked but did not want the attacks to be noticed except by Jews, and were outraged whenever the attacks elicited empathy for the Jewish community.

Several Islamic clerics stoked the fire. In mosques in western Sydney, several hate preachers vilified Jews and preached about killing Jews, espe­cially in the days and months after the October 7 massacre. Nassim Abdi, referring to the “so-called Holocaust”, said of the victims of the Hamas-led attack in Israel that “these were not innocent victims” (10 October 2023). Brother Ismail preached that “Jihad is part of our religion and one of the highest pillars of our religion. Hamas are mujahideen, freedom fighters, and warriors, the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades are the most hon­our­able men…” (27 October 2023).

Wissam Haddad (aka Abu Ousayd) preached that “So the Yahud, the Jews, the Israel­ites, have been a very mis­chiev­ous people, causing strife, even before the coming of Muhammad. … Towards the End of Times, when the Muslims will be fighting the Jews, the trees will speak, the stones will speak, and they will say: ‘Oh Muslim, oh believer, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’ … They had their hand every­where, in the media, as they do today, … the majority of banks are owned by the Jews. … Hiding like the rats that they are” (4 November 2023). Wissam Haddad also referred to Jews as “Now these kuffar, these wor­ship­pers of Iblis, yes, the des­cend­ants of pigs and monkeys” (29 December 2023).

Sheikh Kamal Abu Mariam preached: “Oh Allah, vanquish the plun­der­ing Jewish Zionists … their evil. Oh, Allah, count them, kill them one by one, and do not leave a single one of them alive” (24 November 2023). Imam Ahmad Zod preached: “The most important char­ac­ter­ist­ic of the Jews is that they are bloodthirsty. They love to shed blood. From an early age, they raise their children on terrorism, violence, and killing. Jews remain Jews. … betrayal and treachery are among the char­ac­ter­ist­ics of the Jews. Betrayal is one of their traits, and treachery is a char­ac­ter­ist­ic deeply-rooted in them” (22 December 2023).

Cataloguing the hate

Many politi­cians and the media in Australia sought to create a false analogy between anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim incidents post October 7. There had been these false analogies before, but it intens­i­fied after October 7. Many politi­cians and media could not bring them­selves to mention an increase in anti-Jewish incidents without also men­tion­ing Islamo­pho­bia.

Studies on hate incident data against several com­munit­ies in Australia since 2014 have been under­taken every few years, and in every year, anti-Jewish incidents greatly out­numbered anti-Muslim incidents. This con­tinu­ing and con­sist­ent false analogy under­mined the fight against both antisemitism and Islamo­pho­bia by treating them as a pair, instead of as two very different forms of hate. No other form of racism or bigotry was paired with antisemitism, or with any other form.

The latest study of hate incidents showed 2,062 anti-Jewish incidents (1 October 2023 – 30 September 2024), and 185 anti-Muslim incidents (1 January 2024 – 30 November 2024). Anti-Jewish incidents have always out­weighed anti-Muslim incidents e.g. during the 2‑year period of 2020 – 2021, there were 778 anti-Jewish incidents and 90 (40 physical and 50 online) anti-Muslim incidents. Even at the height of anti-Muslim incidents in 2016 – 2017 with 202 incidents (excluding online), anti-Jewish incidents for the same 2‑years were more than double at 440 (excluding online).

Much of the main­stream media con­sist­ently aired content, every night on the TV news and daily news­pa­pers and elsewhere, that was dominated by the Israel/Hamas war and pushed an anti-Israel agenda. Words by spokespeople for Hamas were portrayed as fact, whereas words by Israeli spokespeople were described as ‘alleged’. The biased coverage of the war and the white­wash­ing of the crimes by Hamas led to increased antipathy towards Jews in Australia. Unlike any other war coverage, the media went into the details of Israeli attacks and Gazan injuries and deaths, as though cas­u­al­ties were not a part of war, unless Israel was involved. No dif­fer­en­ti­ation was made between combatant and civilian cas­u­al­ties. Media repeated false claims of mass star­va­tion, of genocide, ethnic cleansing, the rates of civilian cas­u­al­ties, while blaming Israel, and ignoring Hamas’ siphoning off of aid supplies and fab­ric­ated casualty figures.

Social media became a cesspit of anti-Jewish, anti-Zionist and anti-Israel vili­fic­a­tion. It became a medium where people posted their threats of physical harm against Jews and called for the killing of Jews. Three examples exemplify the online hate. A male posted “We are coming for you soon, from western Sydney” accom­pan­ied by a photo of James Foley, in orange clothing about to be beheaded by ISIS, to the ECAJ Instagram account via a message. Another person posted three threats to kill Jews: “Kill Jews anywhere you see them”; “Peaceful protest what’s the use of them. Start slaughter­ing the Jews, the Holocaust time has come”; and “You need to protest next to synagogue at least and you need to behead publicly a jew. Peaceful protests never got to anything”, on Palestine Action Group (PAG) Facebook page. A death threat of “I want to find a Jew and kill it, I want to drop tons of rubble on it and set it on fire” posted on the Facebook page of ECAJ.

Official reactions

This explosion of anti-Jewish hate and incidents seemed to have taken gov­ern­ments, police and others by surprise, as they seemed to be at a loss on how to respond to the out­pour­ing of hate against Jews and Israel that was occurring on the streets in their cities. Police appeared unable or unwilling to make the necessary arrests, with only a few excep­tions. Gov­ern­ment politi­cians appeared timid and in fear of upsetting sections of their elect­or­ates. Political con­sid­er­a­tions seem to have trumped moral imper­at­ives. Some politi­cians even became mouth­pieces for Hamas, repeating Hamas lies and pushing agendas designed to destroy Israel and undermine Jewish life in Australia.

In the 2020s Western world, many gov­ern­ments are choosing to appease extremist elements within their countries, and globally, rather than stand firm on principle and act against anti-Jewish vili­fic­a­tion and threats. The Jewish community learnt that we cannot rely on our gov­ern­ments, the police, the courts, human rights bodies, or civil society leaders to protect us from harm by anti-Jewish racists. The Jewish community has been pushed aside and left undefen­ded by many gov­ern­ments and police, who instead try to appease the extrem­ists.

The warning signs were all there – hate incidents, violent incidents, arson, pro­pa­ganda, demon­isa­tion, vili­fic­a­tion, glor­i­fic­a­tion of Hamas, calls for violence against and murder of Jews. The Jewish community exper­i­enced this, and yet when Jewish leaders and others tried to warn the gov­ern­ment, they were not listened to, were ignored, gas­lighted, and left to fend for them­selves.

Recognizing antisemitism

It took the destruc­tion by arson of the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne in December 2024 and the multiple cases of arson of Jewish busi­nesses, vehicles, a childcare centre, graffiti on vehicles and buildings, in Sydney from November 2024 to February 2025, for the federal gov­ern­ment to start to wake-up to the magnitude of the antisemitism problem in Australia, although still acting as though it was something that would go away of its own accord.

Even after the massacre of 15 people at a Chanukah event in Bondi in December 2025, the Prime Minister and the federal gov­ern­ment still appeared to grapple with what antisemitism is, what the Jewish community is facing, and the threats it poses to Aus­trali­an society. Aus­trali­an Jews jus­ti­fi­ably have, until more recently, felt abandoned and betrayed by our federal gov­ern­ment, and so too do many other Aus­trali­ans who are disgusted with the antisemitism and angry with the unrav­el­ling of Aus­trali­an society.

The massacre at Bondi Beach was the inev­it­able outcome of what happens when antisemitism is left to fester, when it is ignored or minimised, when it is not under­stood, when the ideo­lo­gies and movements that vilify Jews and incite violence against Jews are given free rein. The deadliest anti-Jewish terrorist attack anywhere in the world since October 7 may not be the last, here or overseas – it all depends upon gov­ern­ments, police, courts, human rights bodies, civil society leaders, and others, to tackle anti-Jewish racism and slam it back into the swamp.