Australia, it’s time to speak up

I HAD yet to speak up.

Not because I didn’t care, but because I didn’t have the words.

I am far from a political expert and have never cared much for politics. But on Sunday evening, that changed.

I am not Jewish. And yet what I have witnessed has left me unable, and unwilling, to stay silent.

Australia, you have failed.

The attack on the Chanukah festival in Bondi, in our own backyard, on Sunday evening was not an isolated incident. It was the predictable result of prolonged government inaction and a deliberate decision to look away as the problem worsened.

For too long, antisemitism in this country has been minimised, excused or ignored by those entrusted with protecting all Australians.

This did not happen without warning. Jewish community leaders repeatedly warned government officials, law enforcement and policymakers that escalating antisemitism would lead to serious violence, and eventually, to murder. Those warnings were clear, consistent and urgent.

They were ignored.

Synagogues have been firebombed. Jewish schools have been graffitied. Jewish institutions have required constant security simply to function. All on Australian soil.

These were not warning signs recognised only in hindsight. They were visible, ongoing and premeditated. Yet meaningful government intervention failed to follow.

Week after week, mass disruptive protests were allowed to proceed through Australian cities where chants calling for the destruction of Israel, the death of IDF soldiers and the eradication of Jews were heard openly. These were not fringe murmurs. They were loud, public and repeated.

The Australian government watched on.
 State authorities deferred.
 Law enforcement hesitated.

The message received was unmistakable: this was something the Jewish community would be expected to endure.

This was not balance. This was not caution.
 This was neglect.

Over the last two years, and particularly in the days since the Bondi attack, I have watched my Jewish friends and colleagues live with escalating fear. Fear when walking to shule. Fear when sending children to school. Fear when gathering to celebrate who they are.

These experiences have left me shattered – and I am not even the target.

I have felt their pain, sorrow and loss. I have shed tears with them. And I am angry that Jewish Australians have been forced to justify their fear and defend their right to safety in their own country.

Let us be unequivocal: this is not a failure of gun laws. Australia already has strict firearm regulations. The attackers on Sunday did not need a gun to act on hatred. The weapons, while capable of causing mass destruction, were not the cause. The ideology was.

Antisemitism does not appear overnight. It grows when radical ideology is tolerated, when incitement is reframed as activism, and when governments are unwilling to confront extremism for fear of political discomfort.

When hateful rhetoric is left unchallenged, it escalates.
When extremist chants are dismissed, they embolden.
 And when governments fail to act, violence becomes inevitable.

This is what that failure has become.

Inevitable death.

The Australian government must do more than issue statements after blood is shed. It must name antisemitism without qualification, enforce laws consistently, and take proactive action to disrupt radicalisation before it turns deadly.

This is not about silencing political debate. It is about drawing a firm line between free expression and calls for violence.

If the Australian government cannot protect Jewish Australians; at schools, at shules, at festivals, then it has failed in its most basic duty.

I didn’t have the words before. Now I do.

And I refuse to look away.

To my fellow non-Jewish Australians: this is not only a Jewish problem. It is a test of who we are as a society, as a nation. If we do not speak up, stand alongside our Jewish neighbours and demand better from those in power, then we are complicit in the consequences.

Change is no longer optional.

Marina Yuksel is the COO of The AJN.