So, apparently November has been co-opted as ‘International Islamophobia Month’. Well, allow me to make my own contributions.
Let’s start by remembering just two of the victims of Islam in Australia: one of whom, having survived antisemitism 80 years ago, succumbed to injuries inflicted in an antisemitic Islamic terror attack nearly a year ago and another who would have turned 11 last week, but for the same attack.
Matilda Bee Britvan was just 10 years old when her life was taken during the Bondi Beach shooting on 14 December 2025. She was the youngest victim of the mass shooting carried out by father-son duo Naveed Akram, 24, and his 50-year-old father, Sajid Akram, who opened fire on Jewish worshippers gathered to celebrate Hanukkah. Matilda, known as Matilda-Bee to her loved ones, had just celebrated her 10th birthday the month before.
Her grandparents wrote in a Facebook post:
“Stay so cheerful, kind, and delight us with your successes. We love you very much. Big kisses and hugs from grandma and grandpa.”
A photograph shared with the birthday message showed the little girl beaming as she held a bouquet of flowers. Matilda’s family originally came from Odessa, Ukraine, but had lived in Australia for more than a decade. They are Jewish and were at Bondi to attend Chanukah by the Sea, an event they had attended in previous years.
Her parents chose the name Matilda as a tribute to the country that had taken them. She was a former student at Harmony Russian School of Sydney in Bellevue Hill. Her language teacher, Irina Goodhew, described her as a bright, joyful and spirited child.
“While celebrating Hanukkah, her young life was tragically taken. Her memory will live on in our hearts. Matilda was a bright and loving soul who taught us that true goodness is in the love and compassion we share. Her memory reminds us to carry kindness in our hearts and spread it to the world.”
On the day of the attack, Matilda, along with her six-year-old sister Summer, was enjoying the celebrations when gunshots rang out. She was fatally shot in front of her sister.
Eighty years ago, another Jewish girl came to Australia, fleeing antisemitic persecution.
Eva Geller escaped the persecution of Europe’s Jews, rebuilt her life in Australia and lived to see her 90th birthday. But 80 years after the Holocaust, antisemitism found her again.
On 5 November 2026, Eva Geller died in Sydney. She survived yet another attempt on her life by murderous antisemites, but never truly recovered. Eva was shot in the legs. Doctors told her she would never walk again. According to her rabbi, Aron Moss, she defied them. Through sheer determination, she managed to walk. But the injuries took a terrible toll. She spent much of the following year in hospital, rehabilitation or bedridden. She died just days after her 90th birthday.
Eva Geller was a Holocaust survivor. As a child, she had escaped the persecution of European Jews, arriving in Australia from Hungary with her mother and grandmother. Her late husband was also a Holocaust survivor. Together, they belonged to a generation that had witnessed the consequences of antisemitism when hatred became state policy and ultimately genocide. Australia offered them something different: safety, freedom and the opportunity to rebuild their lives.
Unfortunately, Australia has also offered safety and freedom to people whose sole moral compass is murdering ‘infidels’: Jews, especially.
Bondi was not the Holocaust. But the continuity of antisemitic hatred is impossible to ignore. For 80 years, Western democracies have commemorated the Holocaust with a solemn promise: Never Again. We build memorials, establish museums, teach children about Auschwitz and invite survivors to explain what happens when societies tolerate antisemitism. Yet here was a Holocaust survivor, precisely the sort of person we honour as a witness to history, shot at a Jewish religious celebration in one of Australia’s most recognisable public spaces.
There is something profoundly wrong with a society that solemnly commemorates the persecution of Jews in the past while Jewish communities require extraordinary security simply to practice their religion in the present. The murder of Jews because they are Jews is exactly the danger that Holocaust remembrance is supposed to teach us to recognise. And it is not enough to condemn that danger after the bodies have fallen.
Contemporary antisemitism is frequently disguised as political opposition to Israel. We all know that’s a barefaced lie. The Jewish nation is portrayed as a unique evil in the world, much like Jews were in the past, and Jewish communities are expected to answer for the state. But whatever grievances terrorists claim, shooting Jews at a religious festival is not criticism of Israeli policy: it is antisemitic terrorism.
The political class lined up to mouth their platitudes – two years too late. Having done nothing to confront the rising tide of left-wing and Islamic Antisemitism, their condolences rang disgracefully hollow. Sympathy after an atrocity is no substitute for confronting the hatred that precedes it.
If Never Again is to mean anything, it must mean more than remembering Jews who were murdered 80 years ago. It must mean protecting Jews who are alive today – Jews who’ve contributed immensely to Australia.
Matilda would have turned 11 last week. Eve died at 90, her final year defined by the bullets of Islamic terrorists. That is the overriding contribution Islam has made to Australia.
