The tragic massacre at a Hanukkah celebration in Bondi was followed by a rush to assign blame, inflame fear and curtail dissent.

My wife and I were at home preparing dinner in Bondi when we heard explosions that we assumed were fireworks followed by the sounds of sirens and helicopters.

Then came text messages telling us to turn on the TV, there’s a shooting incident on Bondi Beach. Reporters were now on the scene in the midst of mass confusion and panic as hundreds of people ran along the sand to flee from the barrage of gunshots.

News updates trickled in. The shooters were targeting a Hanukkah festival on the lawn at the northern end of the beach. At least ten people were reported dead and many more rushed to hospitals around the eastern suburbs of Sydney. We were told that one of the gunmen had been killed, another was in police custody. On X we saw videos of blood-soaked bodies strewn across the lawn in north Bondi as medics and lifesavers frantically administered CPR to others on the ground.

Then across the TV screen came remarkable footage of a man jumping from behind a car to tackle and disarm one of the shooters. The hero turned out to be a 43-year-old Syrian Muslim shop owner named Ahmed al Ahmed who risked his life to save the lives of those attending the Hanukkah festival. He was taken to hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.

We woke up the next morning to find out that at least 15 people were now dead including a 10-year-old child and a Hasidic rabbi. More than 40 people were being treated in hospital. We also learned that the sister-in-law of a friend had been killed and his brother was in hospital with serious gunshot wounds.

Like the rest of our community, we were in shock and disbelief. A Hanukkah celebration on Australia’s beautiful, iconic, sun-drenched beach had been attacked by men with guns.

Yet, even before there was time to mourn, the political opportunists jumped in to exploit the tragedy.

Former Liberal Prime Minister Tony Abbott didn’t miss a beat. He placed the blame on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for allowing the August mass protest against the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza – the 300,000-strong March for Humanity – to march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Opposition leader Sussan Ley accused the Labor government of failing to protect Jewish Australians from “a rising tide of antisemitism.” Echoing Tony Abbott, she declared that “We have seen public landmarks turned into symbols of antisemitic hate [and] campuses occupied and Jewish students made to feel afraid.”

Jillian Segal, Anthony Albanese’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism (an absurd and divisive position created to appease the Zionist lobby) also blamed anti-genocide demonstrations and used the tragedy to urge the government to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA’s) definition of antisemitism which conflates antisemitism with criticism of Israel or Zionism. A few days later, the Albanese government announced it is fast-tracking Segal’s recommendations which are right out of the Trumpian playbook.

They include having all levels of government adopt the IHRA questionable definition of antisemitism; setting up a national database for antisemitic incidents; monitoring the media and universities for antisemitic activity; and removing tax exempt status for charities that promote antisemitism. Of course, nowhere does it say who will decide what is antisemitic.

Finally, predictably and despicably, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu castigated the Albanese government for recognising a Palestinian state at the UN which he claimed encouraged the hatred of Jews. “Your government did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia,” he accused. “You did nothing to curb the cancer cells that were growing inside your country…You let the disease spread and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today.”

Two days after the shooting, my partner and I went down to Bondi Beach with a friend to pay our respects to the victims. A mountain of flowers had been laid out on a site near the massacre, but it was immediately clear that the event had been commandeered by Australia’s peak Zionist groups with Israeli flags on full display. It felt like a respectful mourning had been turned into a political rally.

Shortly after we left, One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson, known for her racist views, and right-wing MP Barnaby Joyce showed up to applause from the crowd. Only weeks earlier Senator Hanson had arrived in Parliament wearing a burka to publicly denigrate the Muslim community, something she has a long history of doing. In an i nterview with Channel 7 News at the Bondi vigil, Hanson said that the Albanese government was courting Muslim votes and that he should have never allowed pro-Palestinian protests which were a celebration of the Hamas massacre on 7 October.

All these political attacks were largely directed at Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who has already succumbed to Australia’s Zionist lobby by supplying weapons to Israel and pushing through his Antisemitism Envoy’s new laws. But the real targets are Australia’s Arab and Palestinian communities and those who, like my partner and I, exercise our right to protest against Israel’s war crimes.

Earlier this year, NSW Premier Chris Minns, claiming widespread antisemitism, passed a series of draconian new state laws to restrict protests and suppress free speech. Given the current highly-charged atmosphere and the cravenness of our leaders, we can only expect things to get a lot worse.

As we grapple with the horror of what happened in the days and weeks to come, we cannot allow this tragedy to be hijacked by cynical politicians and the divisive Zionist lobby.