Following the deadly attack on a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Australia of not taking decisive action to tackle antisemitism.
Netanyahu said in a statement that he had warned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a letter four months ago, stating that “the Australian government’s policy was promoting and encouraging antisemitism in Australia”.
Australia and other leading nations formally recognised the State of Palestine this year in the wake of the devastating Gaza war.
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“Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire,” Netanyahu wrote to Albanese. “It rewards Hamas terrorists. It emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets.”
The Israeli prime minister wrote that antisemitism is a cancer. He accused Albanese, saying: “You did nothing to curb the cancer cells that were growing inside your country. You took no action. You let the disease spread and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today.”
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Netanyahu, however, praised the actions of a passer-by who disarmed one of the shooters: “We saw an action of a brave man – turns out a Muslim brave man, and I salute him – that stopped one of these terrorists from killing innocent Jews.”