Sawt Falasteen - Bondi shooting shocks, angers Australia's Jewish community

Among the victims were two survivors of the Holocaust who found a home in Australia, a 10-year-old girl, a couple shot after tackling one of the assailants, and others who died trying to protect loved ones.

The attack at Bondi Beach on Sunday was one of the deadliest in Australian history.

Gunman Sajid Akram was shot and killed by police. His son Naveed, 24, was charged in hospital on Wednesday with more than 50 counts, including terrorism and 15 murders.

As the first of the dead were laid to rest on Wednesday, Jewish Australians said they felt unsafe, angry and frustrated at perceived government foot-dragging in confronting antisemitism.

"Do we feel safe? You know, the answer is 'not really', to be honest," rabbi Yossi Friedman told AFP at a floral memorial for the victims.

"We thought we were safe. Our grandparents and great grandparents -- Holocaust survivors -- many of them came to here to escape hate and to escape bloodshed, pogrom, persecution," he said.

"We're finding it here again."

Like others who spoke to AFP, he said an October 9, 2023, pro-Palestinian rally at the Sydney Opera House, where some participants hurled antisemitic insults, was a turning point for many Australian Jews, who numbered an estimated 117,000 in 2021.

"We saw the police stand by and do nothing and, sadly, we've seen that from that moment on hate was allowed to fester."

- 'Like a prison' -

Many of Australia's Jews are the descendants of Holocaust survivors -- some 31,000 emigrated in the wake of World War Two, according to the Sydney Jewish Museum.

The government's special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, said this week that anti-Jewish prejudice has been "seeping into society for many years and we have not come out strongly enough against it".

Segal was appointed Australia's first antisemitism envoy last year after a string of attacks in Sydney and Melbourne following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.

She said antisemitic incidents in Australia had surged 316 percent to more than 2,000 in the 12 months after the Hamas assault -- including threats, assaults, vandalism and intimidation.

Brett Ackerman, a 37-year-old data analyst, said: "We should be able to be who we are and not be afraid."

"My children went to the same Jewish school I did. You know, every parent there does security -- you stand outside the school with a walkie-talkie," he told AFP.

"There's armed people there, and it's getting more and more like a prison.

"We work with the police and, unfortunately, it's necessary," he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has decried the Bondi attack as an antisemitic, terrorist act of "pure evil" perpetrated by men inspired by the jihadist ideology of the Islamic State group.

- 'Society's problem' -

Albanese has also rejected criticism that his government failed to react swiftly or forcefully to Segal's call for a suite of measures to combat antisemitism, including tougher laws and improved education.

He has pointed to his government's criminalising of hate speech, banning the Nazi salute and hate symbols, and the creation of a student ombudsman with investigative powers.

Albanese has been leading a state-federal push for stricter gun control since the shooting, after the older assailant was found to have six licensed guns.

However, retired writer Danny Gingef said: "Gun reform is a complete diversion from the real issue, which is hate -- identifying hate where it begins."

The 66-year-old told AFP he was sad and angry, pointing to "hate marches" at which he had seen some protesters carrying flags of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

"I feel the last few years, the Jews have been on high alert," he said. "We're going to a restaurant, we know where the exits are."

In some areas, people would be wary of visible displays of their faith, such as wearing the Star of David or a kippah.

To Gingef, there is not "much more that we can do" without support from the authorities and other groups.

"Antisemitism isn't a Jewish problem to solve, it's society's problem," he said.

W.Mansour--SF-PST