{"id":387291,"date":"2026-01-02T17:46:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T17:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/387291\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T17:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T17:46:09","slug":"why-australias-archbishop-timothy-costelloe-is-calling-for-antisemitism-inquiry-after-bondi-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/387291\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Australia\u2019s Archbishop Timothy Costelloe is calling for antisemitism inquiry after Bondi attack"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n \"AC
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

By AC Wimmer<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

Jan 2, 2026 \/
\n 09:33 am<\/p>\n

The president of the Australian Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference is calling for a dedicated national inquiry into antisemitism beyond the government\u2019s recently announced security inquiry following the deadly Bondi Beach terrorist attack.<\/p>\n

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth said in a Jan. 1 statement<\/a> that the Richardson Review<\/a> into law enforcement and intelligence agencies was \u201can important step\u201d but argued that Australia needs \u201csome form of wider, national inquiry with sufficient authority and resourcing which can probe into the deeper issues which lie at the heart of antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is only by shining a light into the dark corners of our society \u2014 including its political, business, academic, media, religious, and cultural institutions \u2014 that we can hope to unmask the antisemitism which might otherwise go unseen, unacknowledged, and unaddressed,\u201d Costelloe said.<\/p>\n

Islamist attackers killed 16 people<\/p>\n

The archbishop\u2019s call comes 18 days after Islamist gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, killing at least 16 people and injuring more than 40 others. Among the dead were a 10-year-old girl, two rabbis, and a Holocaust survivor.<\/p>\n

Australian authorities declared the massacre a terrorist incident and identified the attackers as 50-year-old Sajid Akram and his 24-year-old son, Naveed Akram. The elder Akram was killed by police at the scene, while his son remains in critical condition under police guard. <\/p>\n

Federal police confirmed the attackers were inspired by the Islamic State, had pledged allegiance to ISIS, and traveled to an Islamist hotspot in the Philippines<\/a> in November 2025 for what security sources believe was military-style training, though investigators found no evidence of a broader terrorist cell.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced<\/a> the Richardson Review on Dec. 21 to examine the performance of federal law enforcement and intelligence-sharing bodies charged with preventing terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n

Pope Leo condemned the violence<\/p>\n

\u201cA society that protects its Jewish community is a society that protects everyone,\u201d Costelloe said. <\/p>\n

\u201cTo fight antisemitism is to commit to a shared humanity in our country that seeks to \u2018 advance Australia fair<\/a>.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney condemned what he called a \u201cfestering\u201d atmosphere of antisemitism<\/a> in Australia and called for an end to \u201cblind prejudice and hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fisher, who has Jewish heritage through his great-grandmother, said any attack on Jews \u201cis an attack on all of us\u201d and announced that the Catholic community would \u201credouble its efforts\u201d to combat antisemitism through education and preaching.<\/p>\n

Pope Leo XIV also condemned the violence<\/a>, entrusting the victims to God in prayer and calling for an end to \u201cthese forms of antisemitic violence.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n \"AC
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

AC Wimmer (\u5218\u5a01\u731b) is the News Editor for Europe and Asia at EWTN News. The multilingual Australian, raised in Bavaria and South Africa, served as editor-in-chief of several news media outlets. A graduate in Philosophy and Chinese Studies from the University of Melbourne, the veteran journalist is a former Honorary Research Fellow in Communications at his alma mater and served on the Board of Caritas in Munich.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By AC Wimmer Jan 2, 2026 \/ 09:33 am The president of the Australian Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9903,77,64,63,207727,80292,207725,207726,44],"class_list":["post-387291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-antisemitism","tag-asia-pacific","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-catholic-bishops-conference","tag-catholic-news","tag-islamic-extremists","tag-islamism","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}