We mourn with Australian Jewry, but we are undeterred

Terror at Chanukah on the beach

Two years ago, Islamist Hamas terrorists murdered Jews in southern Israel on the festival of Simchat Torah.

Just a few weeks ago, an Islamist terrorist murdered Jews at a synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.

This weekend, Islamist terrorists murdered Jews in Sydney celebrating Chanukah.

Everybody is shocked by these latest atrocities, but can anybody really claim to be surprised?

Jews cannot be Jewish in public.

As an antisemitic shooting at a home in California this weekend and the current trial of a French-Algerian nanny accused of attempting to poison her Jewish employers have showed, Jews cannot be Jewish in private in either.

The events in Australia were horrific.

The victims include Alexander Kleytman, a Holocaust survivor from Ukraine, and British-born Rabbi Eli Schlanger. The youngest victim has been named as Matilda, who was just ten years old. Others include a rabbi who was the secretary of the Sydney Beth Din, a refugee from the former Soviet Union, a French-born football player, a migrant from Israel who was killed trying to shield a family friend, and others, each with their own unique biography and loved ones. Each is a precious life extinguished.

The alleged shooters have been named as Naveed Akram, 24, and his father Sajid Akram, 50, who died at the scene. The son is reported to have “pledged allegiance to the Islamic State” and was “known” to Australian intelligence but not considered an “immediate” threat. Officers later searched the car that was associated with the attackers and allegedly found a black and white Islamic State flag.

When the attack was first reported, at Campaign Against Antisemitism we sprung into action, knowing that, in addition to praying for the speedy recovery of the injured, there were two things that we could do.

We could explain to the British public how an attack like this has come about and what our country and all Western countries should now do – and indeed should have done a long while ago.

We could bring the Jewish community and our allies together to show solidarity with our Australian brethren and do what the victims were proudly and publicly doing when their lives were taken: light the Chanukiah.

We did both.

Watch Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of CAA, speaks to the BBC about the attack on Bondi Beach.

Jews gathering to celebrate life have yet again been met by death meted out by evil terrorists. When people call to ‘Globalise the intifada’, this is what they are calling for: dead Jews, terrorism and families shattered forever.

The West must stand unequivocally against the evil ideology that wrought this massacre, not just in word but in deed. The guns that today slaughter Jews will tomorrow turn on others.

Watch Gideon Falter on GB News to explain how the West must stand up to antisemitism

Are these the Bondi killers?

Were the Bondi beach terrorists at the ‘Gas the Jews’ protest in Sydney two days after October 7th?

Our online investigators believe that Naveed Akram and his father Sajid Akram may have been present at the ‘Gas the Jews’ protest in Sydney on 9th October 2023.

(At the time, Australian police claimed, despite witness statements to the contrary, that people were in fact chanting ‘Where’s the Jews’, as if that somehow made it better.)

We have made this assessment with medium confidence, but here is the source video and you can make up your own mind.

If it is true, it would represent some of the clearest evidence yet – to those, such as police chiefs across the West, who seem to be the among the last to grasp it – that there is a direct line between the hate marches and demonstrations and the murder of Jews.

The authorities across the West should have clamped down on the incitement years ago. It is too late for the dead, and, if they do not finally act, it will soon be too late for the West as well.

Watch: Are these the Bondi killers?

Lighting up London, undeterred

Yesterday evening, the Jewish community came together to bring light to the darkness. We mourned the dead in Australia and celebrated the endurance of Jewish life in the face of those who mean us harm, in the best spirit of Chanukah.

The event, organised by Campaign Against Antisemitism and Chabad UK, saw the lighting of the Chanukiah in the shadow of the statue of Sir Winston Churchill, a towering historical leader who understood evil and refused to relent until it was defeated.

When we first arrived at Parliament Square, someone shouted at us: “Free Palestine f*** off!” We expect this in Sir Sadiq Khan’s and Sir Mark Rowley’s London now.

The Islamist terrorist atrocities in Manchester and Bondi Beach have not arisen in a vacuum. They are borne of a climate of antisemitism, glorification of terrorism and genocidal rhetoric that we have seen on our streets and social media, on our campuses and in cultural institutions. They are fuelled by media bias against the Jewish state and the ineptitude of our authorities, which have failed for two years to clamp down on the highest levels of anti-Jewish racism in living memory.

Incitement runs rampant.

Criminality goes unpunished.

Would-be perpetrators are undeterred.

The threats that British Jews, like Jews across the world, are facing are graver than any Western government seems prepared to acknowledge. The West has still not woken up to the menace, much less roused itself to fight it.

Until it does, Jews will continue to pay the ultimate price, and then, so will everyone else.

But it is Chanukah, and we gathered at Parliament Square to remember the Australian dead and to do what they gave their lives doing: celebrating this ancient festival of Jewish defiance in the face of evil.

Watch CAA and Chabad UK light up London to remember the victims and celebrate Chanukah

We were addressed by figures from the three main political parties.

Ashley Dalton MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public Health and Prevention, said: “We’re here to stand together against the hatred and the vitriol from wherever it comes. The Government does not and will not tolerate antisemitism. We stand with Jewish people today.”

David Wolfson, Baron Wolfson of Tredegar, Shadow Attorney General, asked the crowd: “Do you know what ‘globalising the Intifada’ looks like? We do now. It looks like bodies piled on the sands of Bondi Beach. That is what globalising the intifada means.”

Richard Tice MP, Deputy Leader of Reform UK, declared: “We celebrate the fact that light always pierced through darkness. It beats darkness. It always will overcome darkness.”

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, observed: “It could have been here, and it could have been us.

“Many in Britain will have missed that Walid Saadaoui and Amar Hussein are on trial after police say they caught them with assault rifles and almost 200 rounds of ammunition. ‘Their plan was to get the weapons and ammunition and identify a mass-gathering of Jewish people whom they could attack,’ say the prosecution. It is alleged that the defendants were waiting for more ammunition before embarking on a mass shooting. Both deny the charges.

“What happened in Sydney will happen again and again until the West wakes up. The enemy is at the gate. Our politicians are out of time. There is not a moment to lose.”

Rabbi Bentzi Sudak of Chabad UK said: “Prayers alone are not enough. Each one of them are desperately calling and waiting for each one of us to sign up and stand up to be an ambassador of light in this world.”

Rabbi Yisroel Lew said: “We’re reminded that every single day, that every single day, we wake up and we have an opportunity and a duty to not only be an ambassador of light, but to be the light.”

You can watch the full speeches here.

The event received considerable media coverage, with our spokespeople or reporting on the event appearing on BBC News, ITV News, GB News, LBC News, Good Morning Britain, TalkTV, BBC Five Live and others, including international outlets like the Australian Broadcasting Network (ABC).

The coverage was so extensive that the event trended on X (formerly Twitter).

Watch Gideon Falter speak to BBC News at Parliament Square.

Watch Gideon Falter speak to ITV News.

Watch Gideon Falter speak to GB News at Parliament Square.

Listen to Stephen Silverman speaking to LBC News.

Watch Stephen Silverman speak to TalkTV.

Watch Good Morning Britain cover the Chanukah lighting.

We are not deterred.

Across the Western world, these days Jewish people take their life in their hands when they go to synagogue to worship or try to peacefully celebrate their faith in public and even at home in private.

But that will not deter us.

The Australian authorities – and those in Britain and other Western countries – have much to answer for, as they not only fail to protect the lives of their Jewish citizens but also fail to confront the causes and purveyors of antisemitic hatred in their countries.

But that will not deter us.

The victims of this latest atrocity and their families – and the Australian Jewish community – are in our thoughts, and we pray for the full and speedy recovery of the injured.

We will continue to give voice to the community and our collective grief and outrage that this pattern of antisemitic incitement, violence and murder persists, and take all legal action necessary to combat it.

Thank you to everyone who attended yesterday evening, and also to the many of you – including so many allies of the Jewish community – who have written incredibly heartfelt messages of solidarity.

This Chanukah, please support CAA

This Chanukah, please consider making a contribution to Campaign Against Antisemitism.

In addition to bringing private prosecutions and supporting victims, regularly speaking to the media and raising awareness, conducting online investigations and holding vital but expensive events, sometimes at no notice, there is so much more that we do quietly as well.

From policy engagement – like our recent roundtable with the Shadow Home Secretary and other members of the Shadow Cabinet, which came about following Britain’s March Against Antisemitism which we organised earlier this year – to a recent lunch and learn at Imperial College, we are engaging within and beyond the Jewish community at every level.

Any donation helps us fight the world’s oldest hatred, secure justice, help victims, raise awareness, advocate for the right policies and educate the public.

Visit antisemitism.org/donatethischanukah and help us to bring light to the darkness this Chanukah.

Chanukah doughnuts in London!

We drove our Chanukah van on a trip across London.

At Chanukah, we recall the triumph of the Jewish people over those who sought their demise, a story that feels more pressing and relevant than ever in today’s fight against antisemitism.

We refuse to let antisemites win.

Watch: Chanukah doughnuts in London!

You can get your ‘antisemite doughnut brain hoodie’ and other gifts for Chanukah or Christmas at antisemitism.org/shop.

Woman who screamed at Jewish diners pleads guilty while band Primal Scream displays swastika stars of David

Mary Clarke, the woman in this video seen screaming at Jewish diners earlier this year, has pleaded guilty to racially aggravated harassment.

Ms Clarke’s unhinged diatribe and attack against Jewish people simply trying to dine at a kosher restaurant were abhorrent.

Incidents like this are why a majority of British Jews (58%) hide their Judaism.

Ms Clarke must face the full force of the law for her repugnant conduct.
Watch: Woman screams at kosher diners and throws their food from the table

Meanwhile, the band Primal Scream displayed images merging the Star of David with swastikas during a performance at the Roundhouse in Camden.

The Nazi swastika represents the ideology that inspired people to industrially slaughter six million innocent Jewish men, women and children by bullet, gas and any other means available. To visually combine that with the Star of David – the preeminent symbol of Judaism – is absolutely sickening and totally inexcusable.

This isn’t art. This isn’t edgy. This isn’t political statement. It is unadulterated hatred, and a clear breach of the International Definition of Antisemitism.

We welcome the Roundhouse’s apology and trust that Primal Scream will no longer be welcome at the venue.

Our legal team is examining the footage to consider further steps.

Racism should have no place in the arts, but depressingly it is finding a very welcoming home there.
Watch: Primal Scream performs while displaying swastika stars of David

We are ending this calendar year with yet another bittersweet Jewish festival, mourning our murdered brethren while also celebrating the promise of Chanukah: that if we fight for it, Jewish life will endure.

If you are able to support us with a contribution of any size this Chanukah, it will go a long way to helping our fight.

Wishing you – no matter what comes our way – a happy Chanukah.