Writing an article that references the murders of innocent people is difficult. Concerns of invading privacy, of not being sufficiently empathetic to the tragedy, and of clumsily using the deceased for undeserved purposes hampers the narrative. By treading softly and expounding sincerely, the screams of anguish heard at the Bondi Beach massacre diminish, the reverberations to its aftermath increase, and the aftermath emerges as a turning point in history.
Bondi Beach is not new to the American public. Bondi Rescue, an Australian television program, which follows the daily lives and routines of the professional lifeguards who patrol Bondi Beach, has been available on You Tube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video. Simple rescues from swimming accidents have exploded into deadly actions that no reality TV can duplicate.
The deadly action at Bondi Beach, on December 14, 2025, cannot be rationalized and cannot be deemphasized. Nevertheless, it has been insufficiently studied. Was it a single unrelated act or did events excite extremists who enlarged upon previous conflicts between two factions? A YouTube video, Bondi Beach Palestinian Protest and Israeli Counter Protest, 7 September 2025, provides clues. On that date, a small group of Bondi Beach citizens, which included Jews Against the Occupation, displayed signs on the beach that protested the genocide and waved two Palestinian flags. A few counter protestors gathered at the top of the stairway entrance to the beach. From observations of a video of the event, nobody on the beach confronted the protestors. The protestors and anti-protestors soon met face-to-face and engaged in serious scuffles. The police immediately intervened and no violent confrontations occurred. From the top of the stairs, an uncalled for rhetoric, including “arrest them,” “terrorists,” and “Bondi Beach is ours,” emanated from the growing number of counter protestors.
The beach protest grew in size, scope, and intensity. As the morning progressed, other groups joined the genocide protest and more Palestinian flags appeared. Coincidentally, the number of counter protestors increased and Israeli and Australian flags appeared. Some people on both sides welcomed confrontation and others enjoyed combative words that invited confrontation. If police did not keep the sides separated, they would have seriously harmed each other. For two hours, the police cordoned both sides and they were able to disburse without incident.
SKY News Australia reported, “Pro-Palestine and pro-Israel protesters have clashed at Sydney’s Bondi Beach as police were forced to intervene in several scuffles.” This report is an example of how almost all the protests have been carelessly reported. This demonstration, as others, was a demonstration against a genocide and not directly a pro-Palestinian demonstration. The counter demonstrators approved the genocide. Because the Palestinians are victims of the genocide and Israelis are the perpetrators, it is natural that the Palestinians are favored and the Israelis are condemned. The counter demonstrators, those who challenged the genocide, favored the perpetrators and demonstrated hatred for the Palestinian victims. The misuse of demonstrable nouns has skewed the understanding of the demonstrations. Protesting against genocide is an honorable activity and has no counter arguments; counter demonstrations come from those who are dishonorable and favor the genocide. This is not semantics; this is the reality and establishing the reality, by using correct words, is essential for knowing the truth. Care should be taken in properly identifying demonstrations against the genocide and characterizing those who glorify the genocide.
Another event that brought tension and dissension to the Bondi Beach community occurred from threats made to an Australian couple who had previously spoken and written against the genocide on social media and opened a store in Bondi Beach. Protests occurred in front of the store, with shouts of “Bondi Beach is Jewish.” Threats were made upon the lives of the store owners. Efforts to gain support from authorities did not materialize, and I believe the couple vacated the premises and left Bondi Beach.
Counter-demonstrators modified the arguments from arguing genocide to arguing “who controls Bondi Beach?” Knowing that tensions will be aggravated by appearances of demonstrators on the beach, why have a huge Hanukkah celebration by a Jewish contingent of more than 1000 participants, which could be interpreted by extremists as an “in your face” message that said, “Jews control the beach?” And who organized the celebration ─ ultra-orthodox Chabad that actively raises funds for the IDF, has purchased drones and body armor for the Israel military, and strongly approves the concept of Greater Israel and not abandoning stolen lands. The insignificance of the Hanukkah holiday added to the inanity of having a huge beach celebration. Hanukkah is a minor holiday in Judaism and its strappings are a modern concept.
All Jewish holidays are described in the Hebrew Bible and, in all Jewish holidays the observers attend synagogue. Hanukkah does not appear in the Hebrew Bible and has no synagogue observance. It appears in the Septuagint, the Greek interpretation of the Hebrew Bible, which is not used by modern Jews, and in the Books of Maccabees, which are part of the Catholic Bible. Why Jews celebrate Hanukkah and what they are celebrating has been elevated for chauvinist and political purposes; the Zionists need heroism from ancient history to bridge the gap between the Jews as occupiers and the Jews as occupied.
Just as the history of Masada has been twisted from a “complex, mixed group of refugees, local fighters, and possibly brigands, whose story is far more nuanced than the myth” to a band of Zealot Jews going to heroic death before succumbing to Roman rule, the history of the Maccabees has revisions. At Masada,
…the dominant faction was indeed “the bandits,” who, as noted by Josephus, sometime after the destruction of Jerusalem went down from Masada to Ein Gedi in a raid. They killed hundreds of women and children at the balsam plantation there after the workers fled, and disrupted production of the precious fragrance. It was an effective raid designed to damage Roman interests in the region.
The moment that they damaged the balsam production, they affected empire finances… We know that the revolt happened during a period of weakness in the Roman Empire. They needed money. And it seems [the raid] crossed a red line for the Romans, so they sent their soldiers to destroy the perpetrators.
At Hanukkah, the history of the Maccabees has been erroneously portrayed.
Portrayal as the first victory of an oppressed society in defeating its oppressors is disputed by the historical narrative.
- The Akkadian Empire vs. Sumer (c. 2334 BCE) ─ The world’s first true multi-ethnic empire was formed, unifying Mesopotamia under Akkadian rule and ending Sumerian political dominance.
- The Mycenaean Greeks vs. Palace Kings (c. 1200 BCE) ─ Collapse of elite rule during the Bronze Age collapse.
- Roman Republic (509 BCE) – Romans overthrew their last king, Tarquin the Proud, establishing a republic.
- Athenian Democracy (508 BCE) – Cleisthenes’ reforms followed the overthrow of the Athenian tyrant Hippias.
- Rebellion Against Qin Dynasty China (209–206 BCE) ─ Rebel leader, Liu Bang defeated his rivals and founded the long-lasting Han Dynasty, which adopted a more moderate Confucian system.
Portrayal as a rebellion against Seleucid oppression has detractors.
The Priestly class, which maintained the Temple, favored Hellenism and its Greek culture; the middle class Pharisees intended to maintain traditional Judaism. These forces clashed in a Civil War which brought the Seleucids (Greeks) and Ptolemy’s (Egyptians) into a battle for control of the area.
Portrayal as liberation of the Jewish people might have been otherwise.
Israelis glorify the Hasmoneans for purifying the Temple and liberating Jerusalem, but the Hasmoneans behaved as a bloodthirsty clan whose members turned on each other. Later high priest and ruler, John Hyrcanus, forced Idumaeans, who wished to maintain their land, to be circumcised and adopt Judaism.
Portrayal as a Maccabee victory against the Seleucids has been contradicted by archeology.
Recent archeologic discoveries, described in the conclusion of The Rise of the Maccabees, A.M. Berlin, indicates that the Seleucids, after ending their war with the Ptolemy’s, vacated Judah to defend Damascus. The political and military vacuum allowed Jewish tribes and the Maccabees to occupy and control the area.
Bondi Beach Reappraised ─ A Turning Point in History
Actions against the genocide and sympathy for the Palestinian cause have escalated rapidly during the last three years. Using the hockey stick reference, they are approaching an inflection point, where the asymptote becomes nearly vertical, rapidly involving more people and more frequent demonstrations, and arriving at a turning point in history. The demonstrations in Australia have brought the world perspective close to that turning point — solidifying how it is represented, how it is perceived, and how it achieves victory.
Unlike the United States, where demonstrations against the genocide have featured college campuses and a younger generation, with law enforcement and government colluding to suppress the protestors and charging them with fabricated anti-Semitism, the Australian demonstrations against the genocide have been more widespread. All age groups have participated, efforts by law enforcement and government to limit the demonstrations have failed, and the public has quickly and successfully acted against provocative charges of anti-Semitism and nefarious attempts to relate the anti-genocide demonstrations to attacks on the Jewish community.
Posed as a holiday celebration for gift giving to children, the Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach seems to be an attempt to overshadow the anti-genocide protests, to convince Australians that those favoring the genocide hold the high ground, have been the victims in history, and have the resilience and perseverance to unite and overcome oppression and adversity. This has always been the Zionist duplicity — never compromise, play the victim, twist history, win, win, win, and in the words of Ariel Sharon, “Seize the high ground,” physically and morally. If the provocation causes an eruption of murderous activity from extremists, capitalize on the moment with additional charges of anti-Semitism.
The strength of the demonstrations in Australia, and the success in refuting the charges of anti-Semitism applied to them, places Australia as the focus of the anti-genocide movement. Stitching the movements from several nations together into one fabric, by magnifying the national movements into a coordinate international movement that moves the Asians, Middle Eastern, Africa, all European, North and South American, and Pacific Island peoples to rally voices protesting the genocide, chains and isolates the genocide deniers.
Keeping the protests confined to stopping the genocide of the Palestinian people, with no mention of “Free, free Palestine,” which can be a subject of other protests, enables legal action against those who contest the genocide. A present French probe examines Elon Musk’s X social media violation of laws that contain “denial of crimes against humanity.” A September 16, 2025 report by the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the occupied Palestinian territory including East Jerusalem and Israel “recognised that genocide has been committed, and continues to be committed, against Palestinians in the Gaza strip.” Human rights agencies, nations, and institutions have certified the genocide and indicted Israeli officials for committing “crimes against humanity.” Legal means exist to indict those who speak out in favor of the genocide of the Palestinian people, which is more deadly than other genocides. Other hundreds of genocides that have occurred throughout history, either extinguished memories of peoples, decimated cultures, killed a massive number of lives, or displaced peoples. The genocide of the Palestinian people attempts to do all.
The Zionists are willfully extinguishing existence of Palestinian life and culture in the present, past and forever; erasing all identification and memories, as if the Palestinians never existed, and ordering their replacement with a fraudulent history that has the Jews as a continued presence in the lands of Judah and Samaria. We know of
- Hundreds of Palestinian villages destroyed and buried.
- The total destruction of Gaza, levelling it to non-existence.
- Palestinian towns, such as Ashkelon, Jerusalem, Acre, Jaffa, and Hebron either completely Judaized or slowly being converted into Israel appearances.
- Recent expropriation of 182 hectares (450 acres) at Sebastia, a West Bank site of Roman ruins, “an aggression against Palestinian landowners, against olive trees, against tourist sites and a violation of the history and the heritage of Palestine.”
- Golda Meir’s famous remark, “A land without people for a people without land.”
- The constantly uttered, ”There never was a Palestinian state.”
- Replacement of the historical and archeological records with myths and fabrications that make 1,000 B.C. seem like yesterday. Contemporary Jews are intimately linked with ancient Hebrews, who had no birth certificates, no land deeds, and disappeared from history 2500 years ago. Israel is made to appear as a successor to a Hebrew civilization of Judah and Samaria, which was nothing more than hilltop villages that, maybe, in small locations and various times had a minor monarch. The principal feature of the Hebrew “civilization” is that it left nothing of value to future civilizations.
The struggle to prevent the complete annihilation of the Palestinian people contends hundreds of millions of voices against hundreds of thousands who carry arms. Distressing that few nations have joined the struggle and few nations show tendency to join the struggle. The intensity of citizen voices asymptotically multiply and approach a level where sound becomes a weapon, where decibels are so great, the sound wave can pulverize a wall and cripple those who shield themselves behind the wall; a wall of indifference crushed by those who make a difference, a genocide prevented by a turning point in history.
The post Bondi Beach Reappraised: A Turning Point in History appeared first on Dissident Voice.
This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Dan Lieberman.