Jewish Activist Emily Hilton Urges Solidarity With Muslims and Palestinians After Bondi Shooting | Al Jazeera
December 24, 2025
“Jewish activist Emily Hilton, co-founder of Na’amod, urges Jews to build bonds with Muslims and Palestinians in the wake of the Bondi shooting.
In moments of trauma, the choice is clear:
solidarity over suspicion, humanity over hatred.
Healing begins when communities reach toward each other — not retreat into fear.
#Bondi #InterfaithSolidarity #JewishMuslimUnity #freepalestine #fyp
English Script:
Em Hilton: It’s really important at this time that we’re able to hold multiple truths at once. The people who are first and foremost responsible for this attack are the two men who decided to pick up guns and go and shoot innocent people at a Hanukkah celebration by the sea, and that that is very clearly targeting Jewish people at a Jewish event for being Jewish. It’s an anti-Semitic attack. A friend of my dad’s used to say that people used to call Bondi Little Jerusalem when he was growing up because there were so many Jewish people there. I went to bar mitzvahs at Bondi Pavilion. Our family’s restaurant Papa Giovanni’s was on Campbell Parade, which is the main street in Bondi And, you know, in these times, there are a lot of narratives or people who want to push. I think Jewish people, they feel like they’re very alone or that, you know, we are not safe anywhere. And actually, I think what has really shown in the last few days since the attack is how much people see this in Australia as an aberration. I think it is also true, in the wake of what Israel has done in Gaza and in the wake of the Gaza genocide, the way that Netanyahu and the Israeli state has justified its oppression and violence against Palestinians in the name of Jewish safety, using Jewish symbols on their uniforms. You know, the conflation of Jewish people with the actions of an ethno- nationalist violent state has you know, I would say put a target on our backs in many ways. Growing up, Israel was seen as the answer to Jewish safety, that we need a state to keep us safe, we need a state to defend us. And I actually think that is a lie. I don’t think Israel keeps us safe and actually what is really important, and I think actually what has happened in the Bondi attack with this coming together of communities, with the bravery of Ahmed el Ahmed with, you know, this outpouring of solidarity is actually like, no, we keep each other safe. We need to be safe wherever we are. And the way we do that is building the relationships that we have. Or, we can with other communities who are also facing this violence, you know? The real worry here is that this attack will be used to target Muslim communities, it will be targeting or creating more restrictive, repressive laws. We already seen the way that the right wing pro-Israel organizations and the Israeli government have tried to claim that this will happen because, Australia recognized the Palestinian state. You know, that repression strategy will kick into gear very likely. And that’s where I think this sort of collective safety, collective care and the importance of that is really, really crucial in this time, particularly at a time when people are feeling a level of vulnerability and it’s very easy to reach for the answers that sort of force us inwards and sort of into these old patterns. We have to have moral courage, even in the face of deep distress and trauma.
