TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsAnti-Semitic terrorism
The Bondi Beach attack is a warning that Jewish around the world are becoming vulnerable with the rise of antisemitism.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Flowers are placed outside the lifeguard tower at the Bondi Pavillion in memory of the victims of a shooting at Bondi Beach on Dec. 15 in Sydney, Australia. A father-and-son team toting long-barreled guns shot and killed 15 people including a 10-year-old girl at Sydney's Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, with authorities labelling it an anti-Semitic terrorist attack on a Jewish festival. (AFP/David Gray)
T
here is no more heinous crime than killing people while they are celebrating religious traditions. This week’s attack in Australia falls into this category, which seems to be happening more frequently of late in many parts of the world, against any religion.
An attack on people marking religious holiday is not a declaration of war against that particular religion, but it is tantamount to declaring war on all religious peoples.
At the last count, 16 people died in the shooting spree when hundreds of Australian Jews were celebrating Hannukah in Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday. Dozens of others are still being treated in the hospital. We condemn the massacre in no uncertain terms, wish speedy recovery for the injured and pray for the well-being of those loved ones left behind.
Australian police have identified the two gunmen, a father and his son, both immigrants. The father was shot dead by police at the scene and the son was taken into custody in critical condition. In the absence of other suspects, the motive of the killing can only be ascertained if and when the son recovers.
Police say one of them is believed to have traveled to the Philippines last month and may have received military-style training there. This should raise alarms in Indonesia, which has seen some of its own citizens joining militias in southern Philippines. There may be a regional element to the attack.
Australian authorities have declared the massacre as an act of anti-Semitic terrorism, a sentiment that has admittedly been on the rise globally in recent years.
But for Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to quickly claim that Australia’s recognition of a Palestinian state contributed to the Bondi beach attack smacks of political opportunism. Taking advantage of the deaths of 16 Jews is as deplorable as the killing itself.
