On 14 December 2025 fifteen people were killed at a Jewish event at Bondi Beach, Sydney, by a 50-year-old father and 24-year-old son in a mass shooting event. The father was shot and killed by police at the scene after being disarmed by a bystander. The son is in police custody.
There has been an outpouring of sympathy for the victims and their families. This is the deadliest mass shooting in Australia in the 21st century. Twenty years ago it would have sent massive shockwaves through society. But the mood among the working class is less shocked, more sombre. Such events no longer seem out of the ordinary in today’s world, which consists of one crisis after another.
Benjamin Netanyahu wasted no time in playing the usual antisemitism card – going so far as to blame the Australian government’s recognition of a Palestinian state as fuelling antisemitism.
Terrorist attacks have reactionary consequences, which is why marxists oppose them unconditionally. Violent attacks against ordinary Jews only play into the hands of the Zionists. It gives the state an excuse to crack down on legitimate protest.
We even oppose terrorist attacks against regime figures like Benjamin Netanyahu himself – one vile creature would simply be replaced by another, but the same regime would continue.
The system can only be overthrown through mass struggle, not terrorism.
Some reports indicate that the shooters might have been linked to the terrorist group ISIS. There are no links between ISIS and the Palestine solidarity movement, but right-wing commentators have used the terrorist attack to slander the pro-Palestine movement in the most disgusting way. We firmly reject all their lies and distortions.
The enemy of Palestinians is not ordinary Jews but the Zionist apartheid state. We reject the IHRA definition of antisemitism that equates criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
We oppose any moves to use this event to silence people from speaking out against the genocide and the complicity of our governments.
We reject the slander that the slogan “Intifada until victory” is antisemitic. We oppose any moves to criminalise the use of this slogan and will fight to continue using it.
Intifada does not mean terrorism against Jews. It means a mass movement by the Palestinian people to achieve their homeland. For communists, this can only be achieved through social revolution and a single socialist state for all people.
Our job in New Zealand is to support this struggle through international solidarity and taking the fight to our own ruling class.