Albanese attends but does not address Chabad memorial for Bondi Beach victims

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese did not give a speech at a memorial event today for the victims of the Bondi Beach Hanukkah shooting that he attended in Sydney alongside visiting President Isaac Herzog.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Albanese read out loud the names of the 15 victims of the massacre during a ceremony at the Chabad of Bondi. The newspaper says that the prime minister then met privately with the families of the victims.

As the event was ongoing, a large pro-Palestinian protest was held in central Sydney. Albanese has defended his invitation to Herzog to visit, despite anger from anti-Israel activists, and has called for calm at the protests.

Some analysts have speculated that Albanese — who has faced harsh criticism from some in the Jewish community for his failure to prevent the attack — was concerned over the reception he might receive in the Chabad House.

In his own address at the event, Herzog said that “what we saw in Bondi, the blood-curdling act of blind hatred, hatred of Jews, hatred of Australian values, simply has no place in this country, or anywhere for that matter.”