Jewish official says warnings were ignored before hanuukkah Terror attacks

In the wake of the deadly attack on Hanukkah revelers on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Dionne Taylor, a senior public figure, says the sad truth is that violence does not come without warning.

“We have been completely let down by our government,” said Taylor, communications manager for the Australia/Israel Aftairing Council.

The shooting took place on Sunday evening during the Hanukkah community event in Bondi Beach, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens, according to the Russians and Reuters and the targeted media. Australian authorities described the attack as an act of terrorism against the Jewish community.

Police said the suspects were a father and his eldest son. The father was killed at the scene, while the son was shot by the 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 failed rising officials.

“It started with hate speech,” she said. “After that graffiti. After that public demonstrations. After that burning synagogues, preschools, people’s homes, people’s cars.”

He said Jewish leaders and community representatives have repeatedly raised alarms with government officials and organizations, warning that inaction could lead to bloodshed. Taylor pointed to the systematic delivery and detailed report produced by Australia’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, which he said was accepted by the government but never implemented.

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A member of the public leaves the area with her child, covered in an emergency blanket, after being shot at Bondi Beach on December 14, 2025 in Sydney, Australia. Two gunmen dressed in black opened fire on Sydney’s World World Beach, causing at least 10 injuries and three deaths, and sending a wave of panic on Sunday evening. (Photo by George Chan/Getty Images)

Instead, Taylor said, the Jewish community received what he described as illegal validation. “We get these one-line messages where ‘there is no place for antisemitism in Australia,'” she said. “But they are empty promises. There is no action.”

Taylor said the failure to act had far-reaching consequences for the Australian community as a whole.

“There have been many situations that have led to the complete erosion of social cohesion here in Australia, a regressive immigration policy, the emergence of a Jewish government that has neither helped nor supported the Jewish community and others,” Taylor said. “So this attack, while it was a targeted attack on the Jewish community, is actually a targeted attack on the whole of Australia.”

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People walk as police patrol the street after a shooting at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, on December 14, 2025. (Jeremy Piper/AAP via REUTERS)

Bondi Beach, he noted, is one of the country’s brightest and most populous public spaces, with surfers drawing locals from around the world. “The people who were sitting on the beach last night weren’t just there to celebrate Hanukkah,” Taylor said. “Yes, the people who were shot were participants in the festival, but there are hundreds of thousands of people sitting in that beer on Sunday afternoon.”

“But not anymore,” he added. “We are broken. Our country has been destroyed.”

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

“Australia is home [one of] “It’s the largest surviving community of humanity,” he said. They came here looking for peace and security, a better life. And now one of them fell awake here. “

Violence has also hit home for Taylor’s organization. He said Arsen Ostrovsky, the newly appointed head of Aijac’s Sydney office, was shot at the festival and remains in hospital.

“He went back to Australia with his wife and kids two weeks ago,” Taylor said. “He survived reporting after Oct. 7 in Israel, now he is becoming a victim of that same bloodshed here.”

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Emergency workers evacuate a person after a reported shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday, December 14, 2025. (Maka PAKER / AP Photo)

Australian leaders condemned the attack and promised to review security measures and countermeasures. Police presence has been increased around synagogues and Jewish centers and Hanukkah events across the country have been canceled.

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

“After Oct. 7, many people plan to make Aliyah to Israel,” he said. “We talked as a family. We decided that our life is better here. And now we ask ourselves, How is our life better here?”

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Police teams take security measures at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday after a terrorist attack targeted the Jewish community on the first night of Hanukkah. (Claudio Galdames A / Anadolu via Getty Images)

He said the support of non-Jewish Australians had been frustrating to donate blood and try to reach out for help. However, he warned that the government must act modestly.

“I would hope that this is a great deal of persuasion from our current government,” Taylor said. “This is an attack across Australia. So they lost 15 of their citizens in one day and they have no power to stop the terrorist community, but they need to.”