Jewish official says warnings ignored before deadly Hanukkah terror attack

In the wake of a deadly terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Dionne Taylor, an elderly figure in the community, says the most painful reality is that the violence did not come without warning.

“We’ve been completely disrespected by our government,” Taylor, the director of communications for the Australia/Israel Council of Jewish Affairs, told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview. “We warned that this snowball effect was going to happen, and it was only a matter of time before someone got killed.”

The shooting happened on Sunday night during a public Hanukkah event in Bondi Beachkilling at least 15 people and injuring dozens, according to Reuters and the Associated Press. Australian authorities 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 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 growing anti-Semitism that authorities had failed to address.

“It started with hate speech“, he said. “Then graffiti. After public demonstration. Then bombs synagogues, kindergartens, people’s houses, people’s cars. And now murder.”

She said Jewish leaders and community representatives have repeatedly raised the alarm with state and federal officials, warning that inaction will lead to bloodshed. Taylor pointed to formal submissions and a detailed report produced by Australia’s special envoy to combat anti-Semitism, which he said was recognized by the government but never implemented.

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Instead, Taylor said, the Jewish community received what he described as empty reassurances. “We have received these messages along the lines that there is no place for anti-Semitism in Australia,” he said. “But they are empty promises. There has been no action.”

Taylor said the failure to act had wider consequences for Australian society as a whole.

“There have 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, an increase in 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 Australia.”

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Bondi Beach, he noted, is one of the country’s most iconic and densely populated public spaces, attracting tourists and locals from around the world. “The people who were sitting on the beach last night weren’t just for the Hanukkah festival,” Taylor said. “Yes, the people who were shot were festival participants, but there are hundreds of thousands of people sitting on that beach on a Sunday afternoon. It’s summer. It’s exactly what is described as the happiest place in the world.”

“But not anymore,” he added. “We are broken. Our country is ruined.”

Among the victims, Taylor said, was a 10-year-old girl who later died of her injuries and a Holocaust survivor who had taken refuge in Australia decades earlier.

“Australia is home to (one of) the largest communities of Holocaust survivors,” he said. “They come here looking for peace and security, a better life. And now one of them has fallen victim to terrorism here.”

The violence also hit close to home for Taylor’s organization. She said Arsen Ostrovsky, the new head of AIJAC’s Sydney office, was shot at the festival and remains in hospital.

“He returned to Australia with his wife and children just two weeks ago,” Taylor said. “He survived the report after October 7 in Israel, and now he has become a victim of that same bloodshed here.”

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Australian leaders condemned the attack and pledged to review security and counter-terrorism measures. Police presence has been increased around synagogues and Jewish institutions and Hanukkah events across the country have been cancelled.

Taylor said the trauma has forced painful conversations at home about whether Australia remains a safe place to raise a Jewish family.

“After October 7, a lot of people made plans to do it aliyah to Israel“, he said. “We discussed it as a family. We decided that our life was better here. And now we ask 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. However, he warned that the government must act decisively.

“I hope 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 improve not just to protect the Jewish community, but to protect the wider Australian community from terrorism, then they need to do that.