Pro-Palestinian groups vow court fight

After Bondi attack, Australian state to crack down on protests, terror symbols, guns

New South Wales, site of deadly terror shooting targeting Jews, will give police the right to ban demonstrations for up to three months after a terror attack

The Australian state where Bondi Beach is located was set on Tuesday to approve sweeping laws banning terror symbols, giving authorities the power to bar protests, and cracking down on guns, after last week’s deadly terror shooting there targeting a Jewish event.

A father and son who police say affiliated with Islamic State are accused of targeting a Hanukkah event at Bondi on December 14, killing 15 people in what authorities have called an antisemitic terrorist attack. It was the deadliest attack on Diaspora Jews in decades and came after years of rising reports of antisemitism in Australia.

Facing growing political pressure over the attack, state and federal governments in Australia have focused on laws limiting both hate speech and gun ownership.

Now, the government of the state of New South Wales has recalled its parliament to introduce what it called the “toughest firearm reforms in the country.” The new rules will cap the number of guns an individual can own to four, or 10 for exempted individuals, such as farmers.

The legislation will also ban the display of “terrorist symbols,” including the flag of ISIS, which was found in a car linked to the shooters.

And it will give authorities power to prohibit protests for up to three months following a terrorist incident. Days ago, the BBC reported that New South Wales was also looking to prohibit the slogan “Globalize the intifada,” a frequent chant at pro-Palestinian rallies seen by many Jews as a call for antisemitic violence. The UK banned the slogan last week in the wake of the Bondi shooting and an attack earlier this year on a synagogue in Manchester.

The reforms are expected to pass the upper house of the New South Wales parliament on Tuesday evening or early Wednesday.

State Premier Chris Minns said the laws will “keep the people of New South Wales safe.”

“Whether that’s on gun regulation in New South Wales, or secondly, changes to protest,” he told reporters, the reforms will serve “to lower the temperature in Sydney.”

A broad coalition of groups has vowed a constitutional legal challenge to the anti-protest laws.

Palestine Action Group Sydney, one of those involved in the challenge, accused the state of having “pushed through legislation without due process, attacking our fundamental right to protest.”

It also accused the state of making “unsubstantiated and plainly dishonest links between antisemitism and the Palestine solidarity movement.”

Australia’s federal government is at the same time pushing for new laws creating an aggravated offense for hate preaching, penalties for those deemed to have sought to radicalize minors, and a new register of allegedly extremist groups it will become illegal to join.

It will also pay gun owners to surrender “surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms.” It would be the largest gun buyback since 1996, when Australia cracked down on firearms in the wake of a shooting that killed 35 people at Port Arthur.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has come under heavy criticism from Jewish leaders for what they say was insufficient action to combat antisemitism prior to the attack. He issued an apology for the attack on Monday.

“As prime minister, I feel the weight of responsibility for an atrocity that happened whilst I’m prime minister, and I’m sorry for what the Jewish community and our nation as a whole has experienced,” he said.

“The government will work every day to protect Jewish Australians, to protect the fundamental right as Australians that they have to be proud of who they are, to practice their faith, to educate their children and to engage in Australian society in the fullest way possible,” he said.

Police documents released Monday said the two alleged gunmen, Sajid and Naveed Akram, had carried out “firearms training” in what was believed to be the New South Wales countryside. Sajid, 50, was killed by police during the attack.

His 24-year-old son Naveed was moved from the hospital to Long Bay jail in southeastern Sydney on Monday. He was charged last week with 15 counts of murder, as well as committing a terrorist act and planting a bomb with intent to harm. He has yet to enter a plea over the charges.

Authorities alleged the pair “meticulously planned” the attack “for many months.”

The pair also recorded a video in October railing against “Zionists” while sitting in front of an ISIS flag and detailing their motivations for the attack, police allege.

And they made a nighttime reconnaissance trip to Bondi Beach just days before the killings, documents showed.

On Sunday, thousands gathered at a memorial ceremony at Bondi Beach, celebrating the eighth night of Hanukkah and marking one week since the attack. Speakers there called for an extensive investigation of the massacre.