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Australians will light candles at 6:47 pm (7:47 GMT) on Sunday to collectively remember the moment the first shots were fired in Sydney a week ago. bondi beach in attack on one Jewish The festival in which 15 people died.
federal and new South Wales State governments have declared Sunday a national day of reflection, a week after Australia’s worst mass shooting since 1996 killed 35 people in the state of Tasmania.
Indigenous leaders held a traditional smoking ceremony on Sunday morning at the Bondi Pavilion along the waterfront, where an impromptu memorial has grown over the past week thanks to an accumulation of flowers and heartfelt messages. The memorial is to be cleaned on Monday.
Rabbi Levi Wolfe expected thousands of people to gather in Bondi on Sunday to honor the victims and show solidarity with the Jewish community.
“Australians appreciate that this is an attack that was not just against Jewish people – we are an easy target – but this is an attack on Australian values and they will come here and they will stand shoulder to shoulder with us as they told people in this country last week that there is no tolerance for hatred. There is no place for violence in our beautiful country,” Wolfe told Nine Network television at the memorial.
Last Sunday, two gunmen opened fire on Hanukkah celebrations, the first day of the eight-day Jewish holiday.
Health department officials said 13 of those injured in Bondi were still there sydney Hospital on Sunday.
These include 24-year-old alleged gunman Naveed Akram, who was shot dead by the police. He has been charged with 15 counts of murder and 40 counts of causing hurt with intent to murder in relation to the injured.
His 50-year-old father Sajid Akram was shot dead by the police on the spot.
Flags on government buildings will be flown at half-mast on Sunday, which will be lit yellow on Sunday night in a show of solidarity with the Jewish community.
Television and radio networks have also been asked to stop for a minute’s silence at 6:47 pm
Rabbi Eli Feldman said the wider Australian community was invited to join Jews in Bondi to celebrate the last full day of Hanukkah, which ends at sunset on Monday.
“The Jewish community, along with all our Australian friends, are all invited to come here and light the eighth candle and show that light will always overcome darkness,” Feldman told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Alex Rivchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said grieving families felt “sadly, unforgivably let down” by the government’s failures to combat the rise in anti-Semitism in Australia since the war between Israel and Hamas began in 2023.
“I’ve spent time with the families of the victims. They’re just distraught. They’re still in shock. They don’t know what to do with themselves, let alone think about moving forward and healing,” Rivchin said.
“There’s a lot of anger in the community now, too. I think we’re going through different emotions, different stages, and there’s a real feeling of being let down and betrayed. And the community wants answers and we want change,” he said.