Bondi Report

This report is dedicated to the memory of those who died in the Bondi Beach Chanukah Massacre. May their memory be a blessing.

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Press Release

New report warns extremist language and public erasure are reshaping Australia’s civic space

A new research report by the Online Harm Prevention Institute (OHPI) examining the aftermath of the Bondi Beach massacre warns of the need for urgent action to stop what has become a normalisation of antisemitism which feeds extremism and leaves communities in fear.

The report, grounded in online data gathered since the Bondi attack, historical analysis, global case studies and contemporary protest movements, argues that language matters as much as physical response and that slogans and decisions once considered unthinkable have become normalised in public life and given a green light to extremism.

Key findings of the report include:

Phrases such as “globalise the intifada” in protests represent the mainstreaming of language historically associated with campaigns of violence against civilians, not abstract political dissent.
There has been widespread atrocity related antisemitism. There is now Bondi denial which closely mirrors Holocaust denial and October 7 denial. It includes glorification, justification, minimisation, denial, and distortion. Often it blames the Jewish community itself or Israel for the Bondi attack.
The rise in antisemitism since the attack has been an all-out assault on the Jewish community. It occurred across social media in discussions about the attack and the response to it.
Both Jewish and Muslim leaders have seen their online posts flooded with hateful comments.

The report argues that:

Violent or terror-adjacent rhetoric, when excused as “symbolic” or “contextual”, lowers social thresholds and increases the risk of real-world harm.
Public institutions are increasingly ill-equipped to respond to extremist language and greater education, and resolve, is needed.
The campaign to minimise the Bondi attack and undermine responses tackling extremism and antisemitism has already begun in earnest and must be recognised and rejected.

The report situates the Bondi Beach massacre as a critical case study: an act of terror carried out in one of Australia’s most recognisable public spaces, during an ordinary moment of community life. It occurred after warnings has been issued, including from the Online Hate Prevention Institute, that an attack was increasingly likely.

The authors are calling for:

Clear public leadership on extremist language, regardless of political or community alignment
Stronger norms around protest language that reject violence without ambiguity
Recognition of the role of social media in normalising hate and extremism and the need for proper government support for civil society groups monitoring and addressing this threat

The report is being released at a moment of heightened tension, global conflict and domestic polarisation. Its warning is direct: how societies respond to terror, and how seriously they take the power of language, will shape not only safety but the character of public life itself.

The report is available at: https://ohpi.org.au/bondi-report/

Executive Summary

On Sunday the 14th of December, 2025, a mass shooting occurred at Bondi Beach in Sydney. Two armed men, inspired by ISIS, fired on the crowd at a Chanukah celebration. Authorities confirmed it was a targeted terrorist attack against Australia’s Jewish community. Fifteen innocent people were killed and dozens more were injured. This was the worst terrorist attack on Australian soil, and the second worst mass shooting in the history of modern Australia. It devastated the Australian Jewish community, and shocked the nation. We offer our condolences to the families of those killed, and our support to those injured.

The Online Hate Prevention Institute activated an emergency response within 15 minutes of news of the attack breaking. Just over 60 hours later we released our preliminary report examining the online response to the attack. It found high levels of antisemitism, denial of the attack claiming it was a false flag, and Islamophobia.

This more detailed report is based on a larger sample of data, gathered over the month since the attack, as well as greater analysis and discussion as we examine responses to the attack and share our recommendations.

Key findings:

There was a sharp increase in online antisemitism following the attack. This included both specific atrocity-related antisemitism and general antisemitism surging.

The widespread atrocity related antisemitism closely mirrored Holocaust denial and October 7 denial. This included Atrocity Glorification that celebrated the attack, Atrocity Justification that rationalised the attack, Atrocity Minimisation that down played the attack, Atrocity Denial that claimed it was a false flag staged using crisis actors, and Atrocity Distortion which promoted a false flag conspiracy theory claiming the attack was real but instigated by others and often claiming these others were Israel, its intelligence service Mossad, or the Australian Jewish community itself.

The rise in general antisemitism was an all-out assault on the Jewish community. There was a gratuitous sharing of antisemitic content unrelated to the atrocity itself, including traditional antisemitism, Israel-related antisemitism, and Holocaust-related antisemitism, in threads discussing the attack and the response to it. There was gaslighting of the Jewish community, a denial of empathy, and claims Jews were seeking to make racism against them more important than other forms of racism. Support and empathy from politicians, sporting legends, business leaders, and other Australians was presented as signs of a Jewish power conspiracy and “undue foreign influence”.

The link between the Jewish community and Zionism is explained and the report documents both New Antisemitism and its Racist Anti-Zionist variant.

The rise in Islamophobia after the Muslim religion of the attackers, and their ISIS based inspiration for the attack, became known is documented. This was used to demonise the entire Muslim community and blame them for the attack. A significant amount of the Islamophobia presented all Muslims as a threat to public safety. The heroic actions of Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Muslim bystander who helped disarm one of the gunmen, helped to mitigate and slow the spread of this hate.

The report also compared the density of hate in the comments on Jewish, Muslim, and neutral posts

Some Jewish and Muslim individuals and organisations experienced a backlash of hate to their posts on Facebook. We measured the level of hate in the comments and found it was at almost identical levels for both the Jewish and Muslim targets. This was at almost the same level as seen on Facebook posts deliberately promoting antisemitism over the past two years.

On posts from neutral sources the density of antisemitism in the comments was at the same level as for hate posts prior to October 7, 2023, and the level of Islamophobia was a third lower than the level of antisemitism.

The report examines how the normalisation of antisemitism in Australia over the last two years contributed to the attack. It made the unthinkable possible by creating a climate where those planning to kill Jews could delude themselves into thinking history and a large segment of society would see them as heroes. It discusses how disinformation fed the normalisation of antisemitism, which in turn fed extremism. The deliberate undermining of efforts to combat antisemitism contributed to the problem.

Addressing the threat means recognising antisemitism and Jews. It means countering the normalisation of hate and the threat of radicalisation. The report discusses hate speech, providing background on slogans like “Globalise the Intifada” and other phrases promoting hate. It discusses law reform in general terms and considers aspects of the Combatting Antisemitism, Hate and Extremism Bill 2026.

Online safety, community and government responsibility for security, gun control and charity regulation are all discussed.

The role of artificial intelligence in the aftermath of the attack is discussed. Generative AI was used to create disinformation about the attack. Multiple generative AI platforms also became confused and denied the attack was real.

How a society responds to terror matters as much as the act itself. This act of terror occurred in an environment saturated by hate. The two are connected. As the head of ASIO, Australia’s security agency, warned in a national security assessment delivered almost a year before the attack, the “normalisation of violent protest and intimidating behaviour lowered the threshold for provocative and potentially violent acts.”

The problem we face in Australia is not Israel’s actions, but how some have been allowed to use those actions to excuse their antisemitism and that of others, creating a culture where antisemitism has become normalised and pervasive. The moment we excuse violent language as ‘contextual’ or ‘symbolic’, we lower the bar for real-world harm.

As we warned months before the Bondi attack:

“[Racist Anti-Zionism] implies Israel deserved the October 7 terrorist attacks, but also that attacks on Jews around the world are justified – with some making an exception for anti-Zionist Jews. Those who point out the racism in this are accused of ‘weaponising antisemitism to silence Palestinian voices’, and increasing the charge of ‘anti-Palestinian racism’ is being used to silence legitimate antisemitism concerns.”

Now is the time to urgently reverse the normalisation of hate and make antisemitism, indeed forms of racism and hate, no longer acceptable in Australia. Democratic societies do not respond to terror by forgetting. They respond by remembering with care and resolve.We can and must make this change.

The Online Hate Prevention Institute was established in January 2012 as Australia’s national Harm Prevention Charity to tackle all forms of online hate and extremism. Our work has been recognised by the United Nations, foreign governments, and international experts, as well as being regularly cited in government and parliamentary reports.

Unfortunately there has been a lack of support for this vital work, whether for antisemitism or the other forms of online hate we tackle, from both federal and state governments. It is critical that this urgently change. The online world is not just a facet of a broader problem, it is what drives hate and incitement. It is where radicalisation takes place. We’ve been on that front line for 14 lonely years, it’s past time governments step up and back this vital work.

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