Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday condemned the deadly shooting at a Jewish celebration in Sydney and said he had warned his Australian counterpart that the country’s support for Palestinian statehood would fuel anti-Semitism.
Gunmen opened fire during an event marking the first night of Hanukkah at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, killing at least 11 people in what Australian authorities described as a targeted anti-Semitic attack. One of the suspected shooters was also killed.
Netanyahu said the attack was a “cold-blooded murder.”
He added that in August he said in a letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that the Australian government’s policies were promoting and encouraging anti-Semitism in Australia.
“I wrote: ‘Your call for a Palestinian state fuels the anti-Semitic fire. It rewards Hamas terrorists. It emboldens those who threaten Australian Jews and encourages the hatred of Jews that now rages in the streets,'” Netanyahu said in a speech.
Albanese said on August 11 that Australia would recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September, a decision that followed similar announcements from France, the United Kingdom and Canada.
In his speech, Netanyahu accused the Albanian government of “doing nothing to stop the spread of anti-Semitism in Australia.”
“You allowed the disease to spread and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews that we saw today,” he added.
Albanese called a meeting of the country’s National Security Council on Sunday and condemned the attack, saying the harm unleashed was “incomprehensible.”
“This is a targeted attack on Australian Jews on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith,” he said.
Sunday’s shootings were the most serious in a series of anti-Semitic attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars in Australia since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023.
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