Last Sunday, as the sun rose over northern Europe, 12,000 kilometres away the Lucky Country ran out of luck. In a park, metres from the egalitarian sands of Bondi Beach, evil was inflicted on a community celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
On Saturday, I spoke with my daughter who lives in Sydney. She told me she would be doing her usual summer Sunday ritual and was heading to Bondi for an afternoon swim.
As I listened to the reports of multiple casualties at a place sacred to Sydneysiders, I felt the cold hand of fear reach deep into my stomach and begin to squeeze.
As the reports of horror began piling up, I was still frantically and repeatedly calling my daughter. After what seemed like hours but was only a few minutes, with utter selfish relief, she finally answered my call. She had left Bondi Beach two hours before the terrorists struck by walking across the same bridge that the shooters positioned themselves on to attack the innocent.
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My kids had done their junior life-saving programmes, known as ‘Nippers’ at the North Bondi surf club. Life-saving surf clubs have taught generations how to safely swim at a surfing beach and how to deliver first aid in case of an emergency.
As they have done for over a century, last Sunday the volunteer lifesavers at Bondi and North Bondi surf clubs had patrolled the waters and as their shift ended in the early evening, their club Christmas parties were about to get underway.
It was the screams from the panicked crowd and the sound of gunshots that brought them outside.
When the terrorists’ bullets cowardly attacked the community in the park that sits between the two surf clubs, the professional lifeguards and the volunteer lifesavers ran towards the gunfire. The first on the scene rescued terrified children from the playground that was under fire and carried them into the safety of the clubhouse.
In the chaos, panicked beachgoers had run into the ocean trying to avoid the terrorists bullets. Some became caught in the currents. A few of these incredibly brave young lifeguards then ran from the safety of their clubhouse into the water to rescue people from possible drowning while the gunshots were still being fired. When the bullets finally stopped, after over 100 rounds had been poured into the small park, they then faced the horrors of being the first responders.
The psychological damage done to these amazing young people is yet to be calculated.
On Thursday, the youngest victim of the massacre was laid to rest. She was the first child born in Australia to a Jewish family who had emigrated from the Ukraine, and they wanted to give her the most Australian name possible in honour of their new home. Matilda was only 10.
Peter Meagher was a third generation member of the Randwick rugby club, which is situated only a few kilometres from Bondi. His grandfather, Wally Meagher, played for the legendary 1927 Waratahs and sits in Rugby Australia’s Hall of Fame. His father, Ron, was a dynamic and powerful administrator inside New South Wales Rugby for decades.
Last season, Peter was the Randwick first-grade team manager in the Sydney Shute Shield. He was recently retired from the New South Wales Police Force as a detective sergeant.
I have known Peter since my playing days. His wife works in the office of the Lesser Torah Jewish organisation that was hosting ‘Hanukkah by the Sea’, the event that was the target of the terrorists.
Peter held no ethnic or political ties to the organisation. As the former Wallaby and Randwick player Morgan Turinui said on Australian TV, “Peter was part of the community ... we don’t ... say the Jewish community, we just call it our community.”
Peter had a passion for photography. He was asked to come along and take some photos. For that generosity, he was murdered in cold blood by cowards.
Scott Dyson is a talented water polo player for the Drummoyne club in the Australian National League competition. I have had a connection with Drummoyne water polo club for over 40 years.
Scott is also a probationary police officer, not long out of his training. He was on duty at Bondi last Sunday evening. When the shots began to echo across the beach, he and his fellow officers were close by and without care for their own safety, ran towards the danger. For his unbelievable bravery and selflessness, he has suffered serious gunshot wounds.
The terrorists callously targeted our Jewish community but they killed indiscriminately.
The terrorists had placed an Isis flag over their car and had planted a home-made bomb inside. In November, they had travelled to the Philippines and are believed to have received “military style” training from Islamic fundamentalists in preparation to kill Australians attending a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach. The people and the place that were attacked were tactically chosen. They wanted to kill Jewish Australians and attack the cement that holds together Australia’s multicultural and multi-faith society.
If the terrorists’ actions were a symbol of darkness, then those of Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian refugee of Islamic faith, were a symbol of the light. He displayed unimaginable courage by attacking one of the terrorists and wrenching the gun from his hands.
Al-Ahmed then pointed the gun back at the terrorist, took aim, but did not pull the trigger. He allowed the terrorist to retreat unharmed.
A few moments later, Al-Ahmed was badly wounded, possibly by the same man he had spared, who had taken up another gun. Like Australia, Al-Ahmed was attacked by those to whom he had shown compassion.
Alex Ryvchin, the chief executive of the Council of Australian Jewry, said what many are thinking but are too frightened to express. “You can talk about national pride and history and not letting the bad guys win, but the bad guys won ... They came here to slaughter Jews and they were wildly successful at it.”
Like the symbols of the festival of Hanukkah, the light in Australia is fighting hard to overcome the darkness, but it’s going to be a long battle.
