Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Makes Big Statement After Bondi Beach Shooting, Says ‘Three Months Ago I Wrote To…’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the deadly shooting at a Jewish holiday event in Sydney on Sunday, saying he had earlier cautioned Australia’s prime minister that backing Palestinian statehood could encourage antisemitism.

The attack took place during celebrations for the first night of Hanukkah at Bondi Beach, where gunmen opened fire, killing at least 11 people. Australian authorities have called the incident a deliberate antisemitic attack. One of the suspected shooters was also shot dead.

Netanyahu said the shooting was “cold blooded murder”.

He added that in August he had told Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a letter that the Australian government’s policies were promoting and encouraging antisemitism in Australia.

“I wrote: ‘Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire. It rewards Hamas terrorists. It emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets’,” Netanyahu said in a speech.

Albanese said on August 11 that Australia would recognise a Palestinian state at September’s U.N. General Assembly, a move that followed similar announcements by France, Britain and Canada.

In his speech, Netanyahu accused Albanese’s government of “doing nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia”.

“You let the disease spread and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today,” he added.

Albanese convened a meeting of the country’s national security council on Sunday and condemned the attack, saying the evil that was unleashed was “beyond comprehension”.

“This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians 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 of a string of antisemitic attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars in Australia since the beginning of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023.

With inputs from Reuters