The brother of a survivor shot during the weekend terrorist attack in Sydney says it is “utterly shameful” the prime minister has not attended funerals of the victims, and has called on him to resign.
Yaakov Super, 24, was shot during a terrorist attack while volunteering at the Chanukah by the Sea event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday.
Yaakov survived but remains seriously injured in a Sydney hospital, and only came out of ICU on Thursday.
Yaakov Super, 24, is on the “long road to recovery”, his brother says. (Supplied)
Yaakov was one of 40 people injured when two gunmen opened fire into a crowd celebrating the first night of the popular Jewish holiday, while another 15 were killed in the worst gun violence seen in Australia since the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.
His brother, Rabbi Mendel Super, has accused the Australian government of failing to listen to victims in the aftermath of the attack.
Rabbi Mendel Super leads prayers for his brother and other victims of the Bondi terrorist attack at a Hanukkah service in the United States, where he now lives. (Supplied)
“There is so much anger and frustration in the Jewish community that representatives of the government are nowhere to be seen,” Rabbi Super said.
“There is just so much anger that the prime minister hasn’t been at any of the three funerals that have happened.
“People are killed for being Jewish on Australian soil and the leader of the country is hiding out in the prime minister’s residence, it’s utterly shameful.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Wednesday he would not attend any funerals he was not invited to.
Rabbi Super says even if Prime Minister Anthony Albanese might not have been welcomed by all at these funerals, attending “would have been the right thing to do”.
The ABC has contacted the PM’s office to ask whether he attended any of the funerals held on Thursday for Bondi victims, one of which included that of the youngest victim, 10-year-old Matilda, who was remembered in an emotional tribute at a Jewish memorial centre in Sydney’s east as a “righteous, special, sweet, kind girl” who loved animals and the outdoors.
10-year-old Matilda’s funeral was attended by hundreds of people on Thursday. (Supplied)
Mr Albanese earlier on Thursday said he had met with families and victims in their homes, adding that he wanted to respect their wishes.
Law reform to crack down on hate preachers, cancel visas
Rabbi Super also believes the Australian government had failed to “read the writing on the wall” and address the risks posed by radical preachers who teach hatred of Jewish people, despite already having the legal means to do so.
The government today flagged law reform that would target hate preachers and “shifting the threshold” for hate speech.
“We have no time for organisations where their mission is to hate Australia and to hate fellow Australians,” Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said.
Read more on the Bondi Beach shooting:
“There have been individuals who have managed to exploit a nation that had different principles of freedom of speech and have gone right to the limits of language that is clearly dehumanising, unacceptable, having no place in Australia, but have not quite crossed the threshold to violence.”
Mr Burke said drafting hate speech laws was complex, and that previous attempts to reform laws had not been simple.
Under the reforms, the Home Affairs minister will also be given a new power to cancel and or refuse visas on the grounds of antisemitism.
He said under the current law the threshold for cancellation was hard to reach.
Families remember Bondi victims
In the same press conference, the prime minister conceded more could have been done to address antisemitism.
“Of course more could have always been done. Governments aren’t perfect. I’m not perfect. We have engaged in a constructive way,” Mr Albanese said.
Rabbi Mendel Super says the government must take responsibility for failing to act before his brother was shot. (Supplied)
While Rabbi Super welcomed reforms that cracked down on hate speech he said more should have been done under existing laws that already gave the government tools to address support for terrorism and terrorist organisations.
“The government needs to take responsibility for their failure on that first day of Hanukkah,” Rabbi Super said.
“You know, that’s a stain on Australia and that’s not going to go away.
“I think the prime minister needs to resign over this, if the prime minister cannot guarantee the security and the safety of Jewish Australians, if he’s not willing to deal with the elements and the radical ideologies that foment this hate, the hate that almost got my brother killed, then the prime minister needs to step down.”
Do you know more about this story? Contact Rebecca Trigger.
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