The terror attack in Bondi Beach earlier this week, which left 15 Jewish men, women and children dead and dozens injured did not take Sydney resident Shirley Abbatovi by surprise, or anyone else for that matter. "It didn't take anyone by surprise. We were waiting for it, unfortunately," Abbatovi said Thursday in an interview in the ynet Studio.
She said there have been weekly protests – and harassment – since October 9, two days after the Hamas massacre that started the war in Gaza.
Upheavals among Australian Jews since October 7th
(Video: Lior Sharon)
"There's been violence. Words like Zionist have become one of the dirtiest words in the vocabulary of Australia over the last two years. our prime minister has done absolutely nothing to stop any of the hate speech, any of the people marching along our bridge and in many protests with ISIS flags, Hamas paraphernalia, you name it," Abbatovi said.
And Australia’s culture of politeness and political correctness has allowed hostility to become normalized rather than challenged, according to Abbatovi.
She said that the threatening use of phrases such as "from the river to the sea" predated October 7, but that "this constant normalizing of all these antisemitic slurs has been building to violence against shops, against businesses, and now this," the attack at Bondi Beach.
Abbatovi said her frustration led her to write a letter this week to Australia’s Governor General Sam Mostyn, citing the office’s authority to review the prime minister’s performance.
“I was filled with so much rage this week,” she said. “Because nothing has been done.”
In the letter, she accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of failing to condemn actions by members of parliament, weakening national security decision-making, and reversing Australia’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
The Governor-General is the federal representative of the monarch of Australia, and has both constitutional and ceremonial roles.
"I thought, you know what, I'm going to write to her and I'm going to call our Prime Minister out on the fact that he has never censured any hatred of any ministers of parliament or senators in the chamber who have burned an Australian flag, worn pro-Hamas paraphernalia. He has brought in unvetted people from Gaza at a time where a lot of Australians can't even afford homes or food," she said.
"The first thing that you have to do as any prime minister of any country is protect your citizens. And he has failed. Absolutely. He has failed."