Antisemitism in Australia was left unchecked after the Hamas-led onslaught of October 7, 2023, fueling violence against Jews, the country’s spy chief testified Monday to an inquiry into the Bondi Beach terror attack.
The comments came during public hearings in the wide-ranging inquiry known as a Royal Commission that focus on the events leading up to last December’s Bondi shooting, in which 15 people were killed in an attack targeting the Jewish community at a Hanukkah celebration.
The spike in antisemitic incidents contributed to the agency’s decision to raise the national terrorism threat level to “probable” in August 2024, said Mike Burgess of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO).
“There is no doubt that the war in the Middle East invoked a range of emotions in Australia,” added Burgess, the agency’s director-general of security.
“Some of those violent aspects… and those behaviors, including antisemitism that, in our view, were left unchecked, were therefore normalized and gave more permission for violence… and Jewish Australians were on the receiving end,” he said.
“Before the Israeli government responded to that horrific attack, we saw the strong emotions appear in this country where we had people celebrating the Hamas terrorist attack,” Burgess said, referring to mass anti-Israel protests in Australia in the immediate wake of the 2023 attacks, before Israel launched its ground operation into the Gaza Strip.
People gather during an anti-Israel rally in Sydney, October 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
ASIO saw threatening and intimidating behavior directed at Jewish Australians through the end of 2023, particularly in the eastern states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, Burgess said.
From late 2024, antisemitism also escalated in severity from “threatening, intimidating behavior to direct targeting of people, businesses and places of worship,” Burgess added.
Such incidents included vandalism and arson attacks on homes, schools, synagogues and vehicles in the months before the Bondi attack.
Burgess said the agency concluded that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was behind two antisemitic attacks on a kosher restaurant in Sydney and Melbourne’s Adass Israel Synagogue.
That finding led to the expulsion of Iran’s ambassador in August 2025.
Antisemitic graffiti likely targeting a specific family in Melbourne, Australia, in this undated photo taken after October 7, 2023. (Courtesy of Heshy Adelist)
Iran was probably involved in more attacks, but ASIO “just can’t quite get there” in its assessments to pinpoint responsibility, he added: “They use their network of proxies and agents to do their bidding, and that is to bring harm to Jewish people wherever they are in the world.”
The commission’s first block of hearings this month focused on the nature and prevalence of antisemitism, taking testimony from members of the Jewish community. It is the highest form of inquiry in Australia, and must report to the government before the first anniversary of what was the nation’s worst mass shooting since 1996.
The father and son gunmen, Sajid and Naveed Akram, were inspired by the Islamic State and brought handmade ISIS flags to Bondi, prosecutors allege.
Both were wounded in a gunfight with police, the father fatally, less than eight minutes after the shooting began. The son has been charged with committing a terrorist act, 15 counts of murder and 40 counts of attempted murder. He has entered no pleas.
A mourner lights candles as people gather around floral tributes outside Bondi Pavilion in Sydney on December 17, 2025, to honor victims of the Bondi Beach Hanukkah shooting (DAVID GRAY / AFP)
‘It was a surprise attack’
Richard Lancaster, who leads a team of lawyers in his role as the Senior Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission, said only four police officers were at the event when the gunmen opened fire on a crowd of around 1,000 people.
Within 29 seconds of the start of the shooting, 10 people had been fatally shot and an 11th had been wounded, Lancaster said.
Within five minutes, 11 police officers were at the scene. Three of those officers were wounded, he said.
A Jewish security organization, the Community Security Group, had requested the New South Wales Police Force post officers at the beachfront park for the duration of the Hanukkah event, Lancaster said. Instead, officers were instructed to attend from time to time.
A Hanukkah menorah is projected onto the sails of the Sydney Opera House in memory of the victims of the terror massacre at a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach in Sydney on December 15, 2025. (David Gray/AFP)
Police gave the Hanukkah celebration the lowest security priority on a three-tier scale, with police resources managed by a local commander, Lancaster said.
Jewish High Holy Days in September and October were top-tier events in which police resources were managed by the specialized Police Force Major Events Group in liaison with the paramilitary Police Force Counter Terrorism and Special Tactics Command.
“There is no evidence that any intelligence agency or law enforcement agency had any actual knowledge or specific information to suggest there might be an armed attack on the Hanukkah celebration,” Lancaster said.
“In that sense, it was a surprise attack,” he added.
