Tel Aviv, Dec 15, (dpa/GNA) – Following the deadly attack on a Hannukah celebration on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Australia of not taking decisive action to tackle anti-Semitism.
Netanyahu said in a statement that he had warned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a letter four months ago, stating that “the Australian government’s policy was promoting and encouraging antisemitism in Australia.”
Australia and other leading nations formally recognized the State of Palestine this year in the wake of the devastating Gaza war.
“Your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire,” Netanyahu wrote to Albanese. “It rewards Hamas terrorists. It emboldens those who menace Australian Jews and encourages the Jew hatred now stalking your streets.”
The Israeli prime minister wrote that anti-Semitism is a cancer. He accused Albanese, saying: “You did nothing to curb the cancer cells that were growing inside your country. You took no action. You let the disease spread and the result is the horrific attacks on Jews we saw today.”
Netanyahu, however, praised the actions of a passer-by who disarmed one of the shooters: “We saw an action of a brave man – turns out a Muslim brave man, and I salute him – that stopped one of these terrorists from killing innocent Jews.”
He called on Australia to crack down on anti-Semitism. Israel expects this from every government in the West, Netanyahu said: “Because the disease spreads and it will consume you as well.”
Netanyahu’s war, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths in Gaza, including many civilians, was sharply criticized internationally, with few exceptions.
On October 7, 2023, the Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas triggered the war with a devastating terrorist attack in Israel, resulting in around 1,200 deaths.
GNA