Crowds who gathered to watch New Year celebrations at Sydney Harbour Bridge held a one-minute vigil on Wednesday to honor victims of the attack on a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach weeks earlier that killed 15 people.
Thousands of people stood in silence for a minute, an hour before the stroke of midnight, holding candles or shining phone lights. The Harbour Bridge was lit in white and a menorah candelabrum, a symbol of Judaism, was projected onto the bridge’s pylons.
Ahead of the vigil, Clover Moore, the Lord Mayor of Sydney, said: “I invite people at home and around the harbor to join with us by shining their phone torch in solidarity to show the Jewish community that we stand with them, and that we reject violence, fear and antisemitism.”
Two men opened fire at the celebration on the beach on Dec. 14, in the worst mass shooting in Australia in decades. Dozens of people were also wounded in the attack.
The authorities said the police shot and killed one of the gunmen, while the other, his son, Naveed Akram, 24, was shot by officers but survived and was arrested. He has been charged with offenses including murder and terrorism.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia said the attack was motivated by “Islamic State ideology,” but the police have said there was no evidence that the men were part of a wider cell.
Within Australia’s small Jewish community, the shooting confirmed fears of antisemitic violence that had escalated following the attack on Israel led by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and the outcry over Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza.
Matthew Mpoke Bigg is a London-based reporter on the Live team at The Times, which covers breaking and developing news.
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