Sydney Staff for Palestine express our unconditional horror at Sunday’s antisemitic attack at Bondi. We extend our deepest condolences to all those bereaved and grieving as a result of these crimes. We express our particular solidarity with all our Jewish colleagues, and to everyone traumatized by the events at Bondi, whatever their background or religion.

Our group was formed by Palestinian, Jewish, and other members of staff in response to the genocide unfolding in Palestine, to advocate non-violent tactics such as BDS. In that context, we note again the impossibility of combatting antisemitism without simultaneously fighting all forms of racism. Alongside our horror at Sunday’s gratuitous and criminal loss of life, we are deeply troubled at the prospect of heightened repression of civil liberties, and an anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic backlash.

We also note with alarm renewed calls to further erode freedom of speech and intellectual freedom at universities. Such restrictions have gone too far already. Astonishingly, the university’s current ‘lecture announcement’ policy prohibits academic staff from discussing Sunday’s attack in class. This is censorship pure and simple, as unjustified as it is counterproductive. Universities must be places where the most urgent issues of our society can be freely discussed.

Antisemitism, like all forms of racism, is abhorrent and has no place in our society or on our campus. We are committed to the struggle to stamp it out wherever it arises.

11am, 16 December 2025