Australians fell silent in flickering candlelight on Sunday to honour the victims of the Bondi Beach shooting, marking one week since gunmen opened fire at a Jewish festival.
A father and son are accused of targeting the beachside Hanukkah celebration, killing 15 people, including children and Holocaust survivors, on one of the nation’s darkest days.
From raucous city pubs to sleepy country towns, Australia observed a minute’s silence at 6:47 pm (0747 GMT) — exactly a week since the first reports of gunfire. In a nationwide gesture of “light over darkness,” countless homes lined their windowsills with candles.
“We’re here together,” said Roslyn Fishall, a member of Sydney’s Jewish community. “Turn to strangers and hug them. Let’s make peace together,” she told AFP from a makeshift memorial at Bondi Beach.
Summer winds buffeted flags at half-mast across the country, including over the Sydney Harbour Bridge. A seaplane buzzed above Bondi Beach, trailing a message of love for “our Jewish community.”
“It’s still really difficult to understand what’s been happening,” said Leona Pemberton at the Bondi memorial. “I guess the tears, they have to flow at some point.”
A generation of Australians grew up with the reassuring notion that mass shootings simply do not happen in the country. That illusion was shattered when alleged gunmen Sajid Akram, 50, and his 24-year-old son Naveed trained their long-barrelled weapons on the nation’s most famous beach.
The attack — the deadliest mass shooting in almost 30 years — was so unthinkable that many initially mistook the gunfire for festive fireworks.
Deep sorrow
A deep sense of sorrow has settled over Australia in the past seven days. Parents Michael and Valentyna trembled and wept as they buried their 10-year-old daughter Matilda, the youngest victim. The Ukrainian migrants chose her name in homage to Waltzing Matilda, Australia’s beloved folk ballad.
Loved ones collapsed in grief as they travelled from one funeral to the next.
“The loss is unspeakable,” said rabbi Levi Wolff.
Authorities said the father and son drew inspiration from the jihadist Islamic State group and have branded the attack an antisemitic act of terrorism. Already, it threatens to fray the bonds of social cohesion in a multicultural nation.
Pig heads have been dumped on Muslim graves, and right-wing groups have organised a fresh wave of anti-immigration rallies. Jewish community leaders have accused the government of ignoring a rising tide of antisemitism.
“Do we feel safe? You know, the answer is ‘not really’, to be honest,” rabbi Yossi Friedman told AFP at a floral memorial for the victims.
Immense bravery
Grieving families are demanding answers over how the gunmen slipped through the cracks. Naveed, an unemployed bricklayer, was flagged by Australia’s intelligence agency in 2019 but later deemed not to pose an imminent threat.
The government has announced national measures on gun ownership and hate speech, promising stricter laws and harsher penalties. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a sweeping buyback scheme to “get guns off our streets,” the largest since 1996, following the Port Arthur massacre that killed 35 people.
A counter-terrorism task force is investigating why the duo travelled to the southern Philippines weeks before the attack, and Albanese has ordered a review of police and intelligence services.
Alongside the killings, stories of immense bravery have emerged. Unarmed beachgoers grappled with the heavily armed attackers, while others shielded total strangers or ran through gunfire to treat the wounded.
Holocaust survivor Alex Kleytman, 87, was killed shielding his wife. Shopkeeper Ahmed al Ahmed, a father of two who moved from Syria nearly a decade ago, was lauded after ducking between cars and wresting a gun from one of the attackers.
Sajid Akram, an Indian national who entered Australia on a visa in 1998, was shot and killed by police. Naveed, an Australian-born citizen, remains in hospital under police guard, facing multiple charges, including terrorism and 15 counts of murder.