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22-12-2025
SYDNEY: Australians were set to light candles at 6:47 p.m. on Sunday (9:47 am Israel time; 7:47 GMT) to collectively commemorate the moment the first shots rang out a week earlier at Sydney’s Bondi Beach in an attack on a Jewish Hanukkah event that left 15 dead.
The federal and New South Wales state governments have declared Sunday a national Day of Reflection, a week after Australia’s worst mass shooting since 35 died in Tasmania State in 1996. The attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism targeting Jews. Authorities have ramped up patrols and policing across the country to prevent further anti-Semitic violence.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Sunday a review of the nation’s federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies following last week’s terror attack. Authorities believe the assailants were inspired by the Sunni Muslim terror group Islamic State, with flags of the group allegedly found in the car they took to Bondi.
Indigenous leaders held a traditional smoking ceremony on Sunday morning at the waterfront Bondi Pavilion, where an impromptu memorial has grown over the past week as flowers and heartfelt messages have accumulated. The memorial is to be cleared on Monday.
Federal and state authorities are in talks with Jewish community leaders about establishing a permanent memorial at Bondi Beach, as well as holding a national day of mourning in the New Year.
Rabbi Levi Wolff expected thousands would gather at Bondi later Sunday to honor the victims and show solidarity for the Jewish community.
“Australians appreciate that this is an attack that wasn’t just against the Jewish people, we’re an easy target but this is an attack on the Australian values and they will come here and they will stand together with us shoulder-to-shoulder as they have over the last week to tell the people in this country that there is no tolerance for hate. Violence has no place in our beautiful country,” Wolff said at the memorial.
Governor-General Sam Mostyn, who represents Australia’s head of state King Charles III, accepted an invitation from the National Council of Jewish Women for women of all faiths to lay a flower at the memorial on Sunday morning. Hundreds of women and girls dressed in white joined her in making the gesture.
Mostyn described the shooting as “unspeakably, ghastly acts of terror.”
She endorsed a call from rabbis for millions of mitzvah’s good deeds commanded by Jewish law which she interpreted as acts of kindness, in response to the tragedy.
“This is now a national project: mitzvahs, good deeds, care; kindness, compassion to each other, Jewish or otherwise. Everyone in this country belongs,” Mostyn told the gathering.
On December 14, two gunmen opened fire on the Hanukkah celebration on the first day of the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
Health department authorities said 12 of those wounded at Bondi remained in Sydney hospitals on Sunday.
Also hospitalized is alleged terrorist Naveed Akram, 24, who was shot by police. He has been charged with 15 counts of murder and 40 counts of causing harm with intent to murder in relation to those wounded.
His father, Sajid Akram, 50, was shot dead by police at the scene.
Flags were flying at half-staff on Sunday on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and on government buildings, which were set to be lit in yellow on Sunday night in a show of solidarity with the Jewish community. (Int’l News Desk)
