Speaking at the U.N. Human Rights Council on behalf of UN Watch, terror survivor and human rights attorney Arsen Ostrovsky delivers a harrowing and emotional testimony regarding the rise of antisemitism. Having traveled from Sydney to address the Council’s review of Australia, Ostrovsky details his personal experience surviving a brutal terror attack at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach, where 15 people were killed and he was shot in the head.
Full Speech:
Mr President, Excellencies, My name is Arsen Ostrovsky. I have travelled from Sydney today to speak not only on behalf of UN Watch and the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, but as a survivor of antisemitic terror.
Last November, Australia submitted its Universal Periodic Review to this Council. But just weeks later, during a Chanukah celebration on Bondi Beach, my country suffered the worst terror attack in our history.
Fifteen people, including a 10-year-old girl, were murdered. I was at the festival with my family, but was shot in the head when I ran towards them.
I speak before you today though not seeking sympathy, but sounding a warning. That hatred directed at Jews, when ignored, excused or mainstreamed, inevitably leads to violence.
Mr. President, Excellencies, Bondi did not occur in a vacuum. It was built chant-by-chant, march-by-march.
For two years, repeated warnings from the Jewish community went largely unheeded. Synagogues firebombed. Jewish children harassed. People afraid to wear the Star of David. Even teachers now reluctant to teach about the Holocaust for fear of causing offence.
This should indeed concern us all. As the late Chief Rabbi Sacks warned, antisemitism is the early warning sign of a wider societal breakdown.
When antisemitism is allowed to thrive, it erodes the very foundations of a free society: tolerance, social cohesion, the rule of law and moral clarity.
Australia has taken important steps, including establishing a Royal Commission into Antisemitism, which I addressed just days ago. But more must be done.
I urge this Council to encourage Australia to confront antisemitism in all its forms, including when it masquerades as anti-Zionism, so every citizen can live openly and safely.
Because history teaches while Jews may be the first target when antisemitism flourishes, we are seldom the last.
Thank you.
