Avi Benlolo: Canada must do everything to stop a Bondi massacre happening here

Among the hundreds of Canadian leaders I have taken to visit Auschwitz, one prevailing question always emerges: “How could this happen?” The answer is quite simple, I reply: “People chose to look the other way while bad people murdered six million Jews in Europe.” 

When synagogues were attacked, they looked away. When mezuzahs were torn from doorways, they stayed quiet. When Nazis marched down the street calling for their death, they lowered their gaze. After this steady drumbeat of antisemitic rhetoric, the violence finally erupted in Berlin.

This past weekend in Bondi, Australia, after two years of pro-Hamas demonstrations and attacks on the Jewish community, the killing started. Now people are wondering how this could have possibly happened in Australia of all places.

Sound familiar? It should because it’s happening right now in Canada and sadly, across the world in most western democracies. Synagogues here have been torched and their windows broken. Shots have been fired at Jewish schools. Since October 7, we have had more antisemitic demonstrations than in all of Canada’s 158 years as a nation. Our unions, schools and universities have all been infiltrated by extremists and antisemites.

In my urgent letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney following the Bondi Massacre in which 15 Jews were gunned down in cold blood by father and son Islamists, I appealed to his pragmatism: “this is Canada’s Bondi moment. We still have a chance to stop the obvious and predictable attack on the Jewish community that is bound to happen on our soil”. 

Like in pre-Holocaust Europe, all the conditions for violence are evident: foreign entities like the IRGC  and Hamas are suspected to be operational in Canada. Statistics Canada and independent police services point to an extreme surge of hate-motivated crime against Jewish communities from coast to coast. There has already been violence: shootings at Jewish schools, attacks on synagogues, violent demonstrations and mobs threatening Jewish neighbourhoods.

Canadians however are looking away. They just don’t know what to do about the men and women — and even children — dressed in full military terrorist fatigues on their streets. They change the channel when they see news images of them covering their faces and waving the same symbols used by Hamas, ISIS and al-Qaida.   

The massacre at Bondi Beach provides an opportunity for introspection. Canada’s support for a Palestinian state hasn’t appeased the demonstrators. They are still rallying — only now they feel more emboldened, more validated that our government is behind them. Adding fuel to the fire are government policies like the continued funding of UNRWA — an organization that has been accused of staff complicity on October 7.

Canada’s condemnations of Israel and clear leaning to the Palestinian side must be reassessed at a minimum through the lens of domestic security and public safety. In fact, the Integrated Threat Assessment Centre said there is a realistic threat of a violent extremist attack in Canada. The assessment stated that a violent extremist attack on the Jewish community is a real possibility, possibly exploiting the Bondi Beach attack.

The central charge for any government is to protect its citizens. From this perspective, it’s imperative for our government to step back from the brink to safeguard the safety and security of the Jewish community. 

To get Canada back, we must all be more proactive — even if our government is driving on the wrong side of the street. We must start treating extremism as a national security threat, moving from prevention to counter-terrorism. We must end the normalization of extremist ideology and outlaw groups like the Muslim Brotherhood who are using our fertile soil to cultivate hate and violence. 

To immediately ensure a Bondi-like incident does not occur here, we must harden protection for at-risk communities. Jewish institutions and public events are known targets. Bondi was not only an intelligence failure, it was also a failure of a will to defend and protect the Jewish community (only two police officers were posted to the event). Canada should not make the same mistake.  

As a proud Canadian, I vividly recall the days in our school gymnasium when children of all faiths and races sat shoulder to shoulder singing “kumbaya.” Canada was once a safe country for people from all over the world to find refuge and raise their families peacefully. It was a place where neighbours cared for neighbours.   

It turns out not all Canadians are looking away. Here is a note I received in my inbox this morning from a fellow Canadian: As a “cradle Catholic” I wish to express my support for my Jewish fellow Canadians. This is not an issue that affects Jews alone.”

I believe there is a hope.

Avi Abraham Benlolo is the Chairman and CEO of The Abraham Global Peace Initiative, a Canadian think-tank.