The backing of a Palestinian statehood has stoked anti-Semitism, according to the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu has linked Australian government policies to the deadly attack on a Jewish gathering over the weekend. He claims that the governments support for a Palestinian statehood has let the ‘disease of anti-semitism spread’ resulting in a ‘horrific attacks on Jews’.
Two gunmen killed 15 people and wounded dozens more during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the shooting in Sydney as an “act of evil anti-Semitism,” and vowed a decisive response to the attack.
“There has been a devastating terrorist incident at Bondi at the Hanukkah By the Sea celebration. This is a targeted attack on Jewish Australians on the first day of Hanukkah, which should be a day of joy, a celebration of faith. [The attack is] an act of evil anti-Semitism, terrorism that has struck the heart of our nation,” Albanese said.
RT reports: Police shot dead one of the attackers, identified as the elder member of a suspected father-and-son pair. A local Muslim man was praised for intervening by tackling one of the assailants and disarming him.
Netanyahu claimed the violence was the outcome of policies pursued by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, which he blamed for “promoting and encouraging anti-Semitism in Australia.” The Israeli leader said he had warned the Australian government months earlier against endorsing Palestinian statehood on those grounds.
Australia formally recognized Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September, joining several countries seeking to pressure Israel over its military campaign in Gaza. Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to prevent the establishment of a viable Palestinian state.
I wrote: ‘Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the anti-Semitic fire. It rewards Hamas terrorists. It emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets’,” Netanyahu remarked. The mass shooting stemmed from the Australian government’s “weakness” and “inaction” in combating the “cancer” of anti-Semitism, he claimed.
Albanese focused on domestic gun policy in his response to the attack, calling for restricting ownership. Police said the deceased suspect legally owned six firearms, which were allegedly used in the assault.
The Bondi Beach attack marked Australia’s deadliest mass shooting since the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, in which a lone gunman killed 35 people.