Tributes in memory of the victims of the Bondi Beach shooting in Sydney on Jan. 22.STEVEN MARKHAM/AFP/Getty Images
The scene on a recent afternoon at Bondi Beach might have been taken from a tourism video.
A line of surfers bobbed in the surf, waiting for the next good wave. Laughing kids chased gulls and pigeons as their parents looked on. Fit young men and women in the standard Bondi uniform – next to nothing – paraded across the sand, hair slick from a plunge in the ocean. In front of the beach pavilion, couples taking a salsa class weaved and twirled, their faces alight with the pleasure of movement.
The only reminder that anything awful had happened was an outsized silver menorah standing on the grass. Dozens of remembrance stones like those placed on Jewish graves were clustered at its base.
For it was here that, just a couple of months ago, a pair of men with guns opened fire on a group celebrating Hanukkah. The 15 victims included a Holocaust survivor, a 10-year-old girl and a couple in their sixties who tried to stop the attack before it started. It was the deadliest terrorist attack Australia has ever experienced and the country’s deadliest mass shooting since a gunman killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996.
Suspect in Bondi Beach mass shooting appears in court
The country has responded with shock, grief and determination. The Sydney Opera House projected an image of a menorah on its sail-like roof in December. Surf lifesavers in their yellow and red uniforms lined up along Bondi Beach and observed three minutes of silence.
Mourners who came to visit the site left candles, stuffed toys, handwritten notes and thousands upon thousands of flowers. An artist working with the Sydney Jewish Museum is drying and sorting the leftover blooms to create a commemorative work of art. The whole country marked a national day of mourning on Jan. 22.
Authorities are prosecuting the surviving suspect, with all the due respect for his right to counsel and other legal formalities. He faced court for the first time this week, appearing by video link.
The government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is toughening Australia’s already-tough firearms laws – brought in after the Port Arthur attack – and launching a gun buyback program. It is striking a royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion. Australia, like Canada, has seen a wave of hate incidents targeting Jews since the start of the war in Gaza.
The country is cracking down on those who spread hatred, though, thankfully, objections from civil-rights and opposition groups caused it to ditch some of the provisions that could threaten free speech.
Most controversially, Australia invited Israeli President Isaac Herzog to visit, sparking protests and clashes between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and police. It was the right and obvious gesture to make. Mr. Herzog laid a wreath at Bondi Beach and met with survivors and families.
The most powerful thing that Australians have done, though, is simply to carry on. The purpose of attacks like the one on Dec. 14 in Sydney – if purpose is the right word for such an act – is to sow fear, doubt and insecurity. The best response is to return to ordinary life as quickly and smoothly as possible.
It is what Londoners did after four suicide bombers attacked the city’s transit system on July 7, 2005. They headed in to work. They flocked to the pubs. They went about their business.
As the British prime minister of the day, Tony Blair, put it: “When they try to intimidate us, we will not be intimidated. When they seek to change our country, our way of life, by these methods, we will not be changed.”
That is the message of Bondi Beach, too. The scene when I visited was an extremist’s nightmare. Couples, both gay and straight, holding hands. Women acting proud and strong, not meek and cowed. People of all races and nationalities – both tourists and locals – mingling freely in the playgrounds, bars and ice-cream shops.
Just steps from the site of the attack, a little boy with a kippah on his curly head rode a tiny bicycle next to his mother and father. No one paid him the least bit of attention.
Though they may seem tempting targets, big, cosmopolitan cities such as Sydney have a self-healing power that is marvellous to see. Despite the lingering horror of Dec. 14, the city is what it has always been: vibrant, diverse, free and alive. Just visit Bondi Beach. You’ll see.