After Australia’s Hanukkah massacre, critics say appeasing extremists after Oct 7 fueled rising antisemitism
Sunday’s deadly terrorist attack on Australian Jews celebrating Hanukkah in Sydney was something the country’s small but historic community had feared since a wave of antisemitic incidents began following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre in Israel.
While the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, condemned the attack — calling it "a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah,"— his critics say his Labor government has failed to appropriately respond to the alarming rise in antisemitic incidents across the country.
Avi Yemini of Rebel News Australia, who has been documenting the attacks against the community, told Fox News Digital that just days after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, "mobs of Islamic extremists were already openly hunting Jews here in Australia, chanting ‘where’s the Jews’ outside the Sydney Opera House. Since then, synagogues and childcare centers have been firebombed and repeated warnings ignored. With no meaningful government action to confront the problem, tonight’s horrific attack in Bondi was tragically inevitable and is unlikely to be the last."
He said: "The Australian Labor government has been unwilling to act decisively, in part because of its political reliance on Islamic community votes. As a result, many Australian Jews are now facing a devastating wake-up call that this country is no longer as safe for us as it once was. I believe many will now be seriously considering a move to Israel."
AUSTRALIA'S JEWISH COMMUNITY ALARMED BY RISING ANTISEMITISM: 'FEAR AND ANXIETY'
Adding to the anger, Australia’s Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese faced criticism for failing to note in an earlier statement posted on X that the deadly attack was directed at Jewish Australians.
Following the attack, a reporter confronted Albanese with concerns about his government’s response to antisemitism, citing his government’s recognition of a Palestinian state, Labor ministers attacking the Israeli government and refusing to visit the sites of the Oct. 7 massacres, and the simultaneous appointment of special envoys for Islamophobia and antisemitism. The reporter asked Albanese whether his government had taken antisemitism seriously.
ANTISEMITIC ATTACKERS VIOLENTLY TARGET SYNAGOGUE, ISRAELI RESTAURANT IN AUSTRALIA
"Yes, we have taken it seriously," Albanese replied. "And we’ve continued to act. We’ve continued to work with Jewish community leaders. We’ve continued to take all the advice from the security agencies to put in place special measures, and we will continue to do so."
Albanese’s press office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about frustrations regarding the prime minister’s response to the mass shooting attack.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) recently documented 1,654 anti-Jewish incidents across Australia between 1 Oct, 2024 and 30 Sept. 2025, "in addition to 2,062 incidents nationwide the year before."
It also noted that, "antisemitic incidents in Australia remain at historically high levels, at almost five times the average annual number before Oct. 7, 2023… While there has been a marginal reduction from last year’s all-time high, the most serious categories of incidents, including arson attacks against synagogues, pre‑schools and other Jewish institutions, are higher than in any previous year on record."
Some of the more shocking incidents to hit Australia’s Jewish community since Oct. 7, 2023, up until Sunday's terror attack include:
Masked individuals setting a fire in Ripponlea’s Adass Israel Synagogue while congregants said morning prayers. The fire caused widespread damage and injured one worshipper.
Sydney’s Allawah Synagogue was tagged with swastika graffiti. The following day, the Newtown Synagogue, also in Sydney, was similarly defaced. The week prior, a car in Sydney had been spray-painted with an antisemitic phrase.
Major property damage was inflicted on a childcare center near a Jewish school and synagogue in Sydney during an arson attack. Antisemitic graffiti was found inside.
A car was set on fire in a Jewish community in Sydney, and as many as seven homes in the area were vandalized with antisemitic graffiti.
Two healthcare workers in Sydney speaking on the social platform Chatrouletka with an Israeli man said that they would refuse treatment to Israeli patients and had previously killed Israeli patients.
Gideon Sa’ar, the foreign minister of Israel, expressed his sorrow to his Australian counterpart Penny Wong by phone. On X on Sunday, Sa’ar said that he told Australia’s foreign minister that "security for the Jewish community in Australia will be achieved only through a real change in the public atmosphere. Calls such as ‘Globalize the Intifada,’ ‘From the River to the Sea Palestine Will be Free,’ and ‘Death to the IDF’ are not legitimate, are not part of freedom of speech, and inevitably lead to what we witnessed today. The Australian government must take strong action against the use of these antisemitic calls."
Populist Australian Sen. Pauline Hanson said on X that Albanese "never heeded the warning signs, including the weekly antisemitic protests across our nation, hate speech from certain religious clerics, our obnoxious universities and probable terrorist alert." Hanson said the Jewish community in Australia has "the same right to live in peace and harmony as all Australians," and called on authorities to "be honest when revealing the identities and backgrounds of these murderers."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.