Policing levels left Hanukah event attendees ‘sitting ducks’, says NSW Liberal leader
Luca Ittimani
Kellie Sloane, NSW’s opposition leader, has said police didn’t provide enough resources to Sunday’s attack.
Sloane said more needed to be revealed about the decisions on police resourcing to protect Jewish events, both to protect the community and the police. She told ABC Radio Sydney :
The two police officers who ran towards danger and are in critical situations, we owe it to them, we owe it to their colleagues, to be asking questions about what more could have been done …
The Jewish community is at such an extreme risk. We knew this before the event on the first day of Hanukah. And I felt like they were sitting ducks, so no blame here at the moment, but we do need to understand more could have been done and why they weren’t protected.
When asked whether police had provided appropriate policing levels, Sloane said:
“Clearly in retrospect, they did not.”
Key events
Minns, Spender arrive for funeral of Eli Schlanger
The NSW Premier, Chris Minns, has now arrived at the funeral of Rabbi Eli Schlanger.
The premier, wearing a kippah, shook hands with members of the Jewish community outside. He was joined by NSW minister for local government, Ron Hoenig, and minister for fair trading, Anoulack Chanthivong.
Behind him was federal member for Wentworth, Allegra Spender, who embraced a member of the security staff.
The funeral for the London-born Schlanger is one of the first to take place following Sunday’s attack.
He has been described as a “vivacious, energetic, full of life and a very warm outgoing person who loved to help people”.
Penry Buckley
Sussan Ley arrives for the funeral of rabbi Eli Schlanger
People have been slowly arriving for the funeral of Rabbi Eli Schlanger at a synagogue in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
The London-born Schlanger, 41, was the first of the victims of Sunday’s attack to be named.
Among the arrivals so far are the federal opposition leader, Sussan Ley, and the National party leader, David Littleproud, who embraced members of the Jewish community outside the building.
The NSW opposition leader, Kellie Sloane, has also arrived.
The funeral is expected to start at 11am.
Bondi Icebergs club thanks staff and members
The Bondi Icebergs club has released a statement saying members of the public sought refuge in the club during the event and were helped by staff and lifeguards.
The president of the Bondi Icebergs Club, known just as Lynne, said:
Lifeguards and club staff worked collaboratively to assist those who sought refuge and ensure the safety of everyone within the club’s premises until NSW police confirmed it was safe to depart.
Our entire Board cannot thank our staff enough for their calm, kind and coordinated response.
To all our members who were present and raced in to render first aid and save lives, your actions were truly selfless and showed heroism and bravery. Thank you.
Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragic attack, particularly our Jewish community and members. Bondi is and always will be a place for all.
The journey ahead will be different for everyone.
Please know we are here for you. We will continue to support our community and staff, and lend a head to our neighbouring surf clubs and council lifeguards as we grapple with the events that occurred.
Caitlin Cassidy
Rabbi Yossi Freedman
Rabbi Yossi Freedman, a former senior rabbi at Maroubra Synagogue and local to Sydney’s eastern suburbs, arrived at Bondi Pavilion early on Tuesday morning and has been there for most of the day.
Every few hours, he reads the names of the identified victims to the crowd, and leads them in rounds of prayer and song.
One victim he singled out was Alex Kleytman, 87, who survived the Holocaust before being fatally shot on Sunday evening. Freedman said he was succeeded by his grandchildren, who were also at the Hanukah event.
Alex was just here at a family event with his wife, his family, and he was murdered. He survived the horrors of the Holocaust just to be murdered here, at Bondi Beach, what is supposed to be a safe space.
He also spoke of Tibor Weitzen, a relative of Kleytman’s wife, whose granddaughter was sitting next to him at the event.
He was brutally murdered in front of her. He was 78-years old, his granddaughter, pregnant, about to give birth any day. She’s now going through this trauma.
Tibor was known to be the most generous, loving, kind, compassionate, selfless person. In fact, he was just swimming with his great granddaughter and his granddaughter on Sunday morning. They had no idea this would be the last time that they would be together.
Governor general visits victims in hospital
The governor general, Sam Mostyn, has visited St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney’s east, where five victims of Bondi’s shooting were being treated this morning.
Arriving soon after the prime minister’s departure, Mostyn brought flowers and walked through the hospital, speaking to medical staff, briefly standing by a memorial table the hospital has established in its foyer.
Alongside flowers, candles and a glass bowl of rosemary sprigs, the table bears a framed message from the hospital, which reads:
We acknowledge and remember those who have died and their grieving families, friends and communities.
We offer our care and compassion for all those injured in hospital.
We give thanks for first responders, ambulance and police services, and all St. Vincent’s staff.
We offer our heartfelt support to all our patients.
Nationals leader says no need to change gun laws in wake of Bondi attack
Nationals leader David Littleproud has just told the ABC that Australia’s “gun laws work”. Asked what he thought about tightening restrictions, he said:
The gun laws work. Let me make this clear – one of those recommendations is around the sharing of information between agencies, which was one that was already in train. It’s a reannouncement.
But just understand, you can’t go and get a gun in this country and just walk in and get one. You need to undergo a fit and proper person test. You can’t get a gun of any calibre, you need to prove why you need a gun of a certain calibre. You go through training, licences don’t go on for perpetuity.
Littleproud said the underlying legislative architecture was fine, but he acknowledged there may be process issues:
And I think this has been nothing more than a cheap political diversion by the prime minister who is running away from his culpability of forgetting what he has done in not seeing those cues and acting on the rising antisemitism, the decay of our society since eight October on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.
As the PM gears up to tighten gun laws, Littleproud has claimed, “this isn’t a gun problem, it’s an ideology problem”. More here from our story yesterday:
Josh Butler
Sussan Ley again demands Labor implement Jillian Segal’s antisemitism report ‘in full’
The opposition leader, Sussan Ley, has again demanded the Albanese government implement Jillian Segal’s antisemitism report “in full”, accusing Labor of allowing the recommendations to sit “gathering dust” in recent months.
Ley says her Coalition would support any action to combat extremism and strengthen counter-terror operations after the Bondi massacre. The Coalition today has announced an internal working group on antisemitism, extremism and terror, with its first priority being “the full implementation of the government’s own antisemitism envoy’s report which has sat gathering dust on the prime minister’s desk”.
This comes despite major concerns being raised about Segal’s calls for media monitoring, and cutting funding to arts organisations.
The Coalition’s taskforce – including senior members of the opposition – will also engage with Jewish community leaders and organisations “to ensure their security needs are understood and addressed”. The Coalition is also calling for a focus on examining “weaknesses and emerging risks across intelligence coordination, law enforcement powers, border integrity and the monitoring of individuals on terror watchlists”.
The Coalition’s response does not specifically mention a call for cracking down on gun laws or licensing schemes – which the Nationals leader David Littleproud, who is not on the taskforce, called a “distraction” from a focus on antisemitism and extremism.
But Ley said the Coalition “stands ready to support any serious and effective action that strengthens counter-terrorism, disrupts extremists and protects lives”.
“That must start with implementing the antisemitism envoy’s report in full, not shelving it or watering it down,” she added.
“Asio has been clear. Antisemitism represents the greatest threat to loss of life in Australia, and when our intelligence agencies issue warnings of that magnitude, political leaders have a duty to act.”
Albanese pays tribute to victims of attack
The PM said if the government needs to strengthen Australia’s hate speech laws, it will. He paid tribute to more of the people whose lives were lost on Sunday:
I pay tribute to Boris and Sofia Gurman, Boris attacked one of these terrorists as he got out of the car. And that caused Mr and Ms Gurman, who have been married for 60 years, to lose their life.
To Reuven Morrison, who threw bricks and took action to try to stop this occurring, also murdered by these terrorists. These are Australian heroes. Just as Ahmed al-Ahmed, who I was able to meet with yesterday, is an Australian hero.
I met with Rabbi Eli’s family yesterday. They’re going through an extraordinarily difficult time. Rabbi Eli was clearly much loved in the community, not just by his family as well. And I think all Australians’ thoughts and hearts are with those families as they go through farewelling loved ones.
The PM says he met with Jillian Segal yesterday:
I have spoken with her daily, and we’re continuing to work through a whole range of measures in the Segal report. Of course, on antisemitism. We are already implementing.
This isn’t a set-and-forget report. This is something that will be an evolving position; antisemitism has been around for a long period of time. Many nations, such as the United States, have had special envoys on antisemitism for a long period of time.
My government is the first to appoint one. Jillian Segal is doing an extraordinary job, we’ll continue to engage with her on an ongoing basis, including the lessons that arise from this atrocity.
‘Love is more powerful than hate’
The PM:
I’ll continue to look for what unites us, and I have seen that here this morning. We need to learn any lessons that are learned from this, undertake stronger action, undertake any legislative change, undertake any powers, additional powers … are needed across the board. To work with the Jewish community.
We want to stamp out and eradicate antisemitism from our society. We want to also stamp out the evil ideology of what would appear to be, from investigators, an Isis-inspired attack. That has no place, that sort of hatred.
What strengthens Australia is our love for each other. And at this time, I’m seeing a lot of evidence of that as well. Love is more powerful than hate. That is what we need to see.
The PM:
We need to, as a nation, to come together, to unite, to make sure that we celebrate the best of humanity that we have seen here in the nurses and medical professionals who provided that care and support to their fellow – fellow Australians.
