Key Facts:
- Three years ago today, Hamas murdered 1,200 people in Israel and took 251 hostage into Gaza, committing atrocities including the burning of families alive and mass sexual violence at the Nova music festival.
- In the aftermath, antisemitism surged in Australia, including a petrol bomb attack on a Melbourne synagogue during morning prayers, which ASIO linked to Iran, and antisemitic graffiti calling for the attacks to be repeated.
- Fifteen people were killed at a Chanukah party on Bondi Beach, representing one of the most devastating antisemitic attacks on Australian soil.
- Jewish Australians continue to suffer, with a Holocaust survivor too frightened to wear a Star of David in public and one in five Jewish women reporting abuse since 7 October 2021.
- The Anti-Defamation Commission is calling on non-Jewish Australians to stand in solidarity with the Jewish community, urging people to light a candle together and demonstrate that Australians stand united against hatred.
Today marks three years since Hamas murdered 1,200 people in Israel and dragged 251 into Gaza. The Anti-Defamation Commission says the anniversary falls on a country that has since seen a synagogue firebombed with worshippers inside and fifteen people shot dead on Bondi Beach.
Dr Dvir Abramovich, Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, said:
"Three years ago today, Hamas set fire to a house in Kissufim with a mother, a father and their 15-year-old boy locked in the safe room, and they were found holding each other. A father texted from Nir Oz: "They're here. They're burning us. We're suffocating." His twin girls were five. His son was two. At the Nova festival a witness watched men hold a young woman down, rape her, stab her, and rape her again. A boy of three told his father, home after 491 days in a tunnel: "Mom Einav is dead, she won't come back."
Today we remember every one of them. The 1,200 murdered in their beds, in their safe rooms, at a music festival, at bus stops on the way to work. The hostages who died in the dark and never came home. The fifteen who went to light a candle at Bondi Beach and never came home either. We say their names today, and we will say them every year until the last of us is gone.
Then antisemitism exploded in Australia. Petrol through the doors of a Melbourne synagogue at four in the morning with men praying inside, on orders ASIO traced to Iran. A wall sprayed with "Oct 7, do it again." Fifteen people murdered at a Chanukah party on Bondi Beach.
While Jewish Australians mourn their dead, activists will hold a "vigil" at Sydney Town Hall on the anniversary of the massacre. Imagine a candlelight vigil for the hijackers on September 11.
Today, Jewish Australians are in agony. A Holocaust survivor is frightened to wear his Star of David in the street. One in five Jewish women has been abused since October 7.
To every Australian who is not Jewish: today we need you beside us. Light a candle with us. The men who burned those families and shot up that beach wanted Jews to stand alone. Show them that in this country we stand together.
About us:
The Anti-Defamation is Australia's leading civil rights organisation that since 1979 has been fighting antisemitism, Holocaust denial and all forms of hatred
