By Samuel McKeith
SYDNEY, Dec 21 (Reuters) – Australia honoured victims on Sunday of a gun attack a week earlier on a seaside Hanukkah celebration, as the prime minister announced a review of the country’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
The nation marked a day of reflection to honour the 15 people killed and the dozens wounded in the attack by two gunmen at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. With security tight and flags at half-staff on government buildings, a minute of silence was held at 6:47 p.m. (0747 GMT), the time the attack began.
Television and radio networks paused for a minute’s silence.
Tens of thousands, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and other leaders, attended a memorial event at Bondi Beach under a heavy police presence including snipers on rooftops and police boats in the waters.
Albanese was booed by the crowd on arrival, and later when the speaker mentioned his name during the memorial. He sat on the front row wearing a kippah, the traditional Jewish cap.
Albanese, under pressure from critics who say his centre-left government has not done enough to curb a surge in antisemitism since the start of the war in Gaza, was not scheduled to speak at the event.
“We have lost our innocence….last week took our innocence,” David Ossip, the president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies said in a speech to start the proceedings.
“Like the grass here at Bondi was stained with blood, so, too, has our nation been stained. We have landed up in a dark place. But friends, Hanukkah teaches us that light can illuminate even the bleakest of places. A single act of courage, a single flame of hope, can give us direction and point the path forward.”
Also present at the memorial was the father of Ahmed al Ahmed, hailed as the ‘Bondi Hero’ for wrestling a gun from one of the attackers.
“Ahmed has asked me to pass on the following message to us all: ‘The Lord is close to the broken hearted. Today I stand with you, my brothers and sisters’,” Ossip said.
Authorities invited Australians to light a candle on Sunday evening, the start of the eighth and final day of the Jewish festival of lights, “as a quiet act of remembrance with family, friends or loved ones” of the victims of the attack.
ATTACK EXPOSED GAPS INTELLIGENCE SHARING
The government said it had consistently denounced antisemitism over the last two years and passed legislation to criminalise hate speech. It expelled the Iranian ambassador after accusing Tehran of directing two antisemitic arson attacks.
Albanese said the review, to be led by a former chief of Australia’s spy agency, would probe whether federal police and intelligence agencies have the “right powers, structures, processes and sharing arrangements in place to keep Australians safe”.
The attack exposed gaps in gun-license assessments and information-sharing between agencies that policymakers have said they want to plug. Albanese has announced a nationwide gun buyback, while gun safety experts say the nation’s gun laws, among the world’s toughest, are riddled with loopholes.
Authorities are investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism targeting Jews. Patrols and policing across the country have been ramped up to prevent further antisemitic violence. Authorities believe the gunmen were inspired by militant Sunni Muslim group Islamic State.
“The ISIS-inspired atrocity last Sunday reinforces the rapidly changing security environment in our nation. Our security agencies must be in the best position to respond,” Albanese said in a statement, adding that the review would conclude by the end of April.
He has also vowed to strengthen hate laws in the wake of the attack.
The Bondi Beach attack was the most serious of a string of antisemitic incidents in Australia, which have included attacks on synagogues, buildings and cars, since Israel launched the war in October 2023, in response to an attack by Hamas.
Albanese condemned anti-immigration rallies being held in Sydney and Melbourne on Sunday.
“There are organised rallies seeking to sow division in the aftermath of last Sunday’s antisemitic terrorist attack, and they have no place in Australia,” he said in a statement. “They should not go ahead and people should not attend them.”
Only about 50 people were at the Sydney rally by mid-afternoon, according to a Reuters witness.
On Saturday, the government of New South Wales, which includes Sydney, pledged to introduce a bill on Monday to ban the display of symbols and flags of “terrorist organisations”, including those of Islamic State, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Al Shabaab, Boko Haram and Hezbollah.
Authorities say Islamic State flags were found in the car the alleged attackers took to Bondi.
Alleged gunman Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by police at the scene. His 24-year-old son Naveed Akram, who was also shot by police and emerged from a coma on Tuesday, has been charged with 59 offences, including murder and terrorism, according to police. He remains in custody in hospital.
(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; writing by Praveen Menon; Editing by William Mallard and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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