SYDNEY — Hundreds of mourners bearing bright bouquets and clutching each other in grief gathered at a funeral in Sydney on Thursday for a 10-year-old girl who was gunned down in an antisemitic massacre during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach.
Matilda, whose last name is being withheld at the request of her family, was enjoying a petting zoo at the festivities on Sunday just before she was killed along with 14 other people in a mass shooting targeting Jews. The suspects, a father and son, were inspired by the Islamic State group, Australian authorities have said.
Beaming photos of Matilda have become a focal point for Australia's grief at one of the worst hate-fueled attacks ever committed in the country. The massacre has prompted a national reckoning about antisemitism and questions about whether the country's leaders took seriously enough the threat to Australian Jews.
Matilda's parents, who arrived in Australia from Ukraine, "moved away from war-torn Eastern Europe to come here for a good life," Rabbi Dovid Slavin told The Associated Press as he entered the service.
"They did something that a parent is OK to do, take their child to a family event at Bondi beach," he added. "If it ended this way, it's something for collective responsibility for every adult in this country."
Albanese vows to enact fresh hate laws
Speaking to reporters in Australia's capital Canberra at the same Matilda's service began, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled a tranche of legislative plans he said would curb radicalization and hate.
Among his proposals were measures to broaden the definition of hate speech offenses for preachers and leaders who promote violence, to bolster punishments for such crimes, to designate some groups as hateful, and to allow judges to consider hate as an aggravating factor in cases of online threats and harassment.
Officials would have greater powers to reject or cancel visas "for those who spread hate and division in this country, or would do so if they were allowed to come here," Albanese added. He didn't suggest a timeline for the reforms, citing their legal complexity.
"There have been organizations which any Australian would look at and say their behavior, their philosophy and what they are trying to do is about division and has no place in Australia," Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told reporters.
"And yet for a generation, no government has been able to successfully take action against them because they have fallen just below the legal threshold."
The announcement followed Albanese's pledge to tighten Australia's gun controls, which are already some of the toughest in the world. State leaders, too, have promised additional initiatives on firearms and stricter rules for protest gatherings.
Still, the fact that Albanese has not attended any of the victims' funerals so far — with local media reporting he has not been invited, despite the presence of other political leaders — hints at the fury among some Australian Jews feel toward the leader.
Albanese said measures his government has already enacted, including a ban in February on Nazi salutes, show that he has taken the threat of antisemitism seriously.
"I of course acknowledge that more could have been done and I accept my responsibility for the part in that as prime minister of Australia," Albanese said Thursday. "But what I also do is accept my responsibility to lead the nation and unite the nation."
A probe into suspected shooters unfolds
Meanwhile, investigators continued to probe the suspected gunmen's links in Australia and their travel to the Philippines before the attack, said Krissy Barrett, the country's police chief. Authorities earlier divulged that the younger shooting suspect, Naveed Akram, 24, was investigated for six months by Australia's security services in 2019.
The older shooter, Sajid Akram, 50, who was shot dead on Sunday, had amassed the guns used in the massacre legally. His gun license was granted in 2023, after his son came to the attention of authorities.
Philippine National Security Adviser Eduardo Año told The Associated Press on Thursday that there was no indication that the two received any training for the attack in the Philippines. He said that the suspected gunmen had stayed in a budget hotel in downtown Davao city for the whole of their visit in November.
Año, a former military chief of staff, said in a statement that "the duration of their stay would not have allowed for any meaningful or structured training."
Naveed Akram is being treated at a Sydney hospital and was charged Wednesday with 59 offences, including murder and committing a terrorist act. He has not entered a plea and many details of the case against him are suppressed by a judge.
Health authorities said Thursday that 16 other people are being treated in hospitals across Sydney. Two are in critical condition, with the status of one having deteriorated to critical that morning.
Mourners attend funeral after funeral
As the investigations unfolded, Sydney's closely-knit Jewish community made their way to funeral after funeral. As well as the service Thursday for the youngest person killed, Matilda, mourners attended a funeral for the oldest, 87-year-old Alex Kleytman.
The Holocaust survivor was protecting his wife when he was shot dead, she told reporters outside a hospital this week. Others slain included rabbis, a man shot while throwing bricks at one of the gunman, and a married couple who were killed when they tried to tackle one shooter as he got out of his car to begin the attack.
At Matilda's funeral, a rabbi read a tribute from teachers at the 10-year-old's school, who described her as "our little ray of sunshine."
Matilda, who had been delighted to win a national literacy prized two days before she died, "had an incredible gift to bring joy to those around her," her school's tribute said.
Grief overflowed as the coffin was carried out of the hall. Around the mourners, bumblebee balloons bobbed in the afternoon breeze, a reference to her family nickname Matilda Bee.
Mourners and reporters alike were handed stickers featuring a smiling cartoon bumblebee holding a menorah. Above the image was Matilda's name printed in purple, her favorite color.
"I don't want to sound selfish," Slavin said. "But I and many others are thinking, this could have been my child."
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