SYDNEY: Australia’s former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has told Benjamin Netanyahu to “stay out of our politics” after the Israeli Prime Minister linked Canberra’s recognition of Palestinian statehood to the recent Bondi Beach attack.
The shooting, which occurred during celebrations marking the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, left 15 people dead. Authorities said the attackers were Sajid Akram and his son Naveed, who hold Australian citizenship according to immigration records.
Indian police have already confirmed that Sajid Akram was an Indian citizen who left the country 27 years ago.
Australian police have formally classified the incident as a terrorist attack, saying the pair acted under the influence of Islamic State ideology.
Netanyahu argued that Australia’s decision earlier this year to recognise Palestine had intensified antisemitism in the lead-up to the violence, a claim Turnbull strongly rejected, telling the Israeli leader to refrain from intervening in Australian politics.
Responding to the remarks during an interview with Channel 4 News in the UK, Turnbull stated: “I would respectfully say to Bibi Netanyahu, please stay out of our politics.”
“If you’ve got that kind of commentary to make, you are not helping … and it’s not right.”
Turnbull supported the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and his government’s decision to recognise Palestinian statehood in August, joining numerous other Western nations amid rising international pressure over the conflict in Gaza.
Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says Benjamin Netanyahu should ‘stay out of our politics’, after the Israeli Prime Minister said Australia’s support of a Palestinian state is inflaming anti-Semitism in the country.
Netanyahu made the comments after a mass… pic.twitter.com/zH6lyFGyj3
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) December 15, 2025
In a speech after the Bondi attack, Netanyahu said: “A few months ago, I wrote to the Australian prime minister that your policy is pouring oil on the fire of antisemitism.”
Turnbull noted that the vast majority of countries worldwide recognise Palestine and endorse a two-state solution to the conflict.
He added that Australia, as a highly successful multicultural society, cannot allow foreign conflicts to be imported into its domestic affairs.
“We need to ensure that wars in the Middle East or wars in any other part of the world are not fought out here,” he said. “Trying to link them, which is what Netanyahu has done, is not helpful and that’s exactly the reverse of what we want to achieve.”
“Overwhelmingly, most of the world recognizes a two-state solution as being the way forward in the Middle East,” he said. “This is a moment of national unity where we need to come together … We need to wrap our arms around members of the Jewish community who are going through an extraordinarily difficult period.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Ahmed Al-Ahmed in the hospital, the man celebrated as a hero for disarming one of the attackers.
Al-Ahmed, a shopkeeper who emigrated from Syria to Australia in 2007, is recovering after confronting the gunman.
