Bondi Beach – Resist the rise of antisemitism

The two shooters who killed 15 people at Bondi Beach committed an act of vile antisemitic individual terrorism which must be condemned world-wide.

By Dave Stockton (Workers Power, Grossbritannien)

The two shooters who killed 15 people at Bondi Beach committed an act of vile antisemitic individual terrorism which must be condemned world-wide. Those of us who have mobilised in defence of the people of Gaza – victims of mass state terrorism – need to add our voices.

The perpetrators of this heinous act were, according to police reports, adherents of the Islamic State, the bulk of whose victims have been in the Arab and Muslim peoples in the Middle East.

Naturally our deepest sympathies go out to the victims’ families, friends and witnesses to this horror, who were joyously celebrating the Jewish mid-winter festival of lights, Hanukkah. One of those Killed was a Holocaust survivor.

The mass shooting come hot on the heels of the attack on the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester on 2 October during the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. The BBC and Zionists have been quick to link both attacks to Palestinian resistance to Israel’s occupation.

However, despite slanders that from the Israeli state and Zionists that defence of Palestine is the same as antisemitism, the left has always been principled and militant opponents of right wing fascist forces, whatever their racist and religious ideology.

We must continue to defend Jewish communities against any form of this poisonous ideology, from verbal abuse through to attacks on individuals or places of worship.

Hypocrisy

Israeli politicians and their right wing conservative supporters have rushed to blame the mass movement in opposition to the ongoing genocide In Gaza and the ethnic cleansing on the West Bank. Western governments, including Australia and Britain, have of course defended Israel’s right to inflict terror on Gazan civilians, and supplied them with the weapons to do so, virtually every day for two years.

We point out that in the USA, Britian, Australia and many other countries, Jewish people, including Holocaust survivors, have taken part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, been welcomed for their denunciations of Israel, and played a prominent role in organising them.

We can never forget the role antisemitism played in the twentieth century, culminating in the Holocaust. It inspires our resistance to all forms of genocide.

The attempt by Israeli ministers and Israel supporters to connect this horrific event to our movements is in fact a disgraceful insult to the Hanukkah victims. In no way does it aid the fight against antisemitism and all forms of racism which are growing thanks to the rise of the right.

In the USA and Europe, we defend all targets of this racism, both Jewish and Muslim communities, and most prominently today refugees and asylum seekers. We fight to mobilise the working class and young people against this poison aimed to divide and weaken their struggle against imperialism and capitalism. We fight for a socialist world, which will finally put a stop to all forms of racial hatred, national oppression and exploitation.