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In the aftermath of a deadly terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Dionne Taylor, a senior figure in the community, says the most painful reality is that the violence did not come without warning.
“We have been completely let down by our government,” Taylor, the communications manager of the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council, told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview. “We warned them that this snowball effect was going to happen, and it was only a matter of time before someone got killed.”
The shooting took place Sunday evening during a public Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, according to Reuters and the Associated Press. Australian authorities have described the attack as an act of terrorism targeting the Jewish community.
Police said the suspected attackers were a father and his adult son. The father was killed at the scene, while the son was shot by police and taken to a hospital in critical condition.
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Taylor, who lives a 10-minute walk from Bondi Beach, said the attack was not an isolated act of violence but the culmination of years of escalating antisemitism that authorities failed to confront.
“It started with hate speech,” she said. “Then graffiti. Then public demonstrations. Then firebombing synagogues, preschools, people’s homes, people’s cars. And now murder.”
She said Jewish leaders and community representatives repeatedly raised alarms with state and federal officials, warning that inaction would lead to bloodshed. Taylor pointed to formal submissions and a detailed report produced by Australia’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, which she said was acknowledged by the government but never implemented.
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Instead, Taylor said, the Jewish community received what she described as empty reassurances. “We receive these one-line messages that there’s ‘no place for antisemitism in Australia,’” she said. “But they’re empty promises. There’s been no action.”
Taylor said the failure to act has had broader consequences for Australian society as a whole.
“There’s been a number of situations that have led to the complete erosion of social cohesion here in Australia, a relaxed immigration policy, letting in too many refugees from the wrong places, a rise of radical Islamism and a basically slick government that really hasn’t assisted or supported the Jewish community and other communities,” Taylor said. “So this attack, while it was a targeted attack on the Jewish community, is actually a targeted attack across the whole of Australia.”
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Bondi Beach, she noted, is one of the country’s most iconic and densely populated public spaces, drawing tourists and locals from around the world. “People who were sitting on the beach last night were not just there for the Hanukkah festival,” Taylor said. “Yes, the people who were shot were participants of the festival, but there are hundreds of thousands of people sitting on that beach on a Sunday afternoon. It’s summer. It’s exactly what’s described as the happy place in the world.”
“But it’s not anymore,” she added. “We’re broken. Our country is ruined.”
Among the victims, Taylor said, was a 10-year-old girl who later died of her wounds and a Holocaust survivor who had sought refuge in Australia decades earlier.
“Australia is the home to [one of] the largest Holocaust survivor community,” she said. “They came here seeking peace and safety, a better life. And now one of them has fallen victim to terrorism here.”
The violence also struck close to home for Taylor’s organization. She said Arsen Ostrovsky, the newly appointed head of AIJAC’s Sydney office, was shot at the festival and remains hospitalized.
“He moved back to Australia with his wife and children just two weeks ago,” Taylor said. “He survived reporting after Oct. 7 in Israel, and now he’s become a victim of that same bloodshed here.”
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Australian leaders have condemned the attack and pledged to review security and counterterrorism measures. Police presence has been increased around synagogues and Jewish institutions and Hanukkah events across the country have been canceled.
Taylor said the trauma has forced painful conversations in her own home about whether Australia remains a safe place to raise a Jewish family.
“After Oct. 7, many people made plans to make aliyah to Israel,” she said. “We discussed it as a family. We decided our life was better here. And now we’re asking ourselves, how is our life better here?”
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She said support from non-Jewish Australians has been overwhelming, with people lining up to donate blood and reaching out to offer help. Still, she warned that the government must act decisively.
“I would hope that this is a big wake-up call for our current government,” Taylor said. “This is an attack on the whole of Australia. So they’ve lost 15 of their citizens in one day and they’re powerless to stop it. So if they can’t make changes and improvements to not only protect the Jewish community, but to protect the broader Australian community from terrorism, then they need to do that. And I believe they know they need to do it. I just don’t think they know how.”
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