Bondi beach massacre had nothing to do with anti-Zionists

In utterly typical fashion, politicians and the mainstream media in the UK and across the world have immediately moved to link the appalling antisemitic terror attack at Bondi beach in Australia to anti-Zionist protests.

In particular, pro-Israel commentators across the world have united in condemning the Bondi attack as an expression of a ‘globalised intifada’. This is nothing short of a flagrant attempt to conflate anti-Zionist sentiment with antisemitic violence.

Bondi beach

On 14 December, Australia bore witness to one of the most heinous mass shootings in its history. Two gunmen on a bridge overlooking Bondi Beach opened fire on a Jewish festival festival celebrating the first day of Hanukkah.

Between them, the gunmen killed 15 people. Police forces then shot one of the suspects dead at the scene. Australian police have claimed that the antisemitic terror attack was inspired by ISIL/ISIS.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu almost immediately sought to capitalise on the Australian tragedy. He sought to connect the attack to the fact that Australia has recently recognised the state of Palestine.

In a televised interview, Australian PM Anthony Albanese was interrogated on whether he thought there was:

any link between that recognition and the massacre in Bondi.

However, he soundly rejected the comparison:

No, I don’t. Overwhelmingly, most of the world recognises a two-state solution as being the way forward in the Middle East.

However, this didn’t stop journalists and politicians around the world trying to connect anti-Zionist action and antisemitic terrorism. In particular, a notably prominent number of commentators chose to connect the Bondi attack to the phrase “globalise the intifada”.

Desperate comparisons

All of this is in spite of the fact that there is no evidence of the Bondi shooters using the word ‘intifada’. Nonetheless, independent journalists Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley did fantastic work collating examples of the very direct links between the two conjured up by pro-Israeli commentators.

The UK’s own health secretary Wes Streeting said:

What on earth do you think globalise the intifada means? And can’t people see the link between that kind of rhetoric and attacks on Jewish people as Jewish people? Because that’s what really struck at the heart of Jewish people in our country today — an attack on Jewish people organising around Hannukah, coming together as Jewish people.” ~

Danny Cohen of the Telegraph wrote:

Chanting ‘globalise the intifada’ leads to Bondi Beach

US senator Ted Cruz asked:

I have a simple question for leftists after the antisemitic shooting in Australia. What do you think ‘globalize the intifada’ means?

Bret Stephens of the New York Times wrote:

Bondi Beach Is What ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Looks Like

Ex-BBC anchor Andrew Neil said:

For those who’ve been marching these past few years demanding to ‘globalise the intifada’ this is a barbarous anti-Semitic consequence of their pro-Islamist stupidity.” ~

A Campaign Against Antisemitism spokesperson stated:

When people call to ‘globalise the intifada’, this is what they are calling for: dead Jews, terrorism and families shattered forever.” ~

Herb Keinon of the Jerusalem Post wrote:

Shooting at Bondi Beach is what a globalized intifada looks like

Zachary Faria of the Washington Examiner used:

Palestinian propaganda has globalized the intifada

The Intifada

Johnstone and Foley’s list goes on and on. For context, ‘intifada’ means ‘uprising’ or ‘rebellion’ in Arabic. It’s the name given to two Palestinian uprisings against Israeli repression. The first occurred in the late 1980s:

The First Intifada was a largely spontaneous series of Palestinian demonstrations, nonviolent actions like mass boycotts, civil disobedience, Palestinians refusing to work jobs in Israel, and attacks (using rocks, Molotov cocktails, and occasionally firearms) on Israelis.

The Israeli military response – which included a government policy of breaking the bones of protestors – led to high fatalities. According to the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, BTselem, Israeli forces killed more than 1,000 Palestinians and injured more than 130,000 in the First intifada. Tens of thousands more were imprisoned and many were routinely tortured.

Then, in 2000, Palestine saw a second Intifada:

The second Intifada – commonly referred to by Palestinians as al-Aqsa Intifada – began after then-Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon sparked the uprising when he stormed al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem with more than 1,000 heavily armed police and soldiers on September 28, 2000.

The move sparked widespread outrage among Palestinians who had just marked the anniversary of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre, for which Sharon was found responsible for failing to stop the bloodshed, following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

When people talk of the second Intifada, they often talk of Palestinian suicide bombings. However, Al Jazeera reported that:

observers say it was not until more than a month of Palestinians enduring lethal military attacks that some resorted to self-sacrificing violence.

At least 4,973 Palestinians were killed over the course of the Second Intifada. Among them were 1,262 children, 274 women and 32 medical personnel, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

For every Israeli killed during the second Intifada, Israeli forces killed six Palestinians.

Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism

To decry the terrorist assault on Bondi beach as a manifestation of a globalised intifada is nothing short of a heinous smear.

It is a smear against anti-Zionist protesters across the world who use the phrase ‘globalise the intifada’ as a call to action against Israel’s genocide. That action is non-violent, and often carried out by anti-Zionist Jewish protestors. And yet still, it is conflated with terrorism at every turn.

It is a smear against the Jewish Australians who were murdered. They had nothing to do with Israel or its genocide of the Palestinian people.

And last, it is a smear against the Palestinian people themselves, whose actions in defence of their own lands and rights are dismissed as hatred of the Jewish people.

Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. Intifada is not antisemitism. It is a call to resist the occupation of Palestinian lands and the genocide of the Palestinian people.

There would be no need the globalise the intifada were it not that the world has made itself complicit with Israel’s genocide.

Featured image via the Canary

Tags: israel