“The massacre of Jews in Bondi is not anti-Semitism,” assures the multi-award-winning writer Flanagan

Richard Flanagan is an award-winning novelist, winner of the Booker Prize, whose works are published in Italy by Nave di Teseo. Flanagan stated at a festival in Sydney that the ISIS attack at Bondi Beach was not anti-Semitic. “Apart from the murderous evil of the two armed men, where was the anti-Semitism at Bondi on that terrible day? Nowhere, nowhere, nowhere,” said Flanagan. Two men, inspired by the Islamic State, opened fire on a Jewish celebration. Sixteen Jews were killed: rabbis, a Holocaust survivor, a ten-year-old girl. The target was a Jewish celebration. But for Flanagan, this is not anti-Semitism. The blame, he argues, lies with the “politicisation of the massacre by the Israeli lobby”. To claim that the terrorist attack was the result of Australian anti-Semitism is, according to Flanagan, a “destructive myth constructed around the Bondi massacre”. “Freedom of speech and expression is now under threat in Australia due to the politicisation and exploitation of the Bondi massacre,” said the writer. Australia’s most prestigious cultural festival had been cancelled following the decision to uninvite a prominent Australian-Palestinian writer, a move that sparked a massive backlash, an exodus of other authors and the cancellation of the festival.

Randa Abdel-Fattah was removed from the festival following the massacre at Bondi. From former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to British writer Zadie Smith, many have in turn withdrawn their participation, even though Abdel-Fattah had written that “Zionists have no right to cultural security” and that “the goal is the end of this murderous Zionist colony” (Israel). Among the controversies surrounding her is an image posted on social media in the hours following the attack on 7 October, depicting a person parachuting with a Palestinian flag. The Nova Festival knows a thing or two about this. Meanwhile, in Paris, preparations are under way for the trial of Rima Hassan, an MEP from France insoumise, who faces charges of ‘glorifying terrorism’. At the heart of the matter is a post on X in which Hassan cites Kozo Okamoto as an example – a former member of the Japanese Red Army and one of the three perpetrators of the massacre carried out on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine on 30 May 1972 at Tel Aviv airport in Israel, which left 26 people dead. The post read: “Resistance is not only a right, but a duty.”

After two years of reports and complaints regarding ambiguous and at times shocking statements on terrorism, the public prosecutor’s office has changed its stance on the first female MP to be put on trial for glorifying terrorism. Indefensible, but not in the eyes of the UN. Thus, a letter addressed to the French government and signed by five UN Special Rapporteurs expresses “grave concern” regarding Hassan. “Political and judicial harassment as part of the French authorities’ crackdown on voices defending the rights of the Palestinian people”. From the UN to the literary establishment, terrorist massacres in which Jews are killed always elicit so many distinctions and expressions of understanding.