7 OCT 2026Opera House
7 OCT 2026 Brussels shooting of Swedish football fans
At about 7pm on 16 October 2023, a gunman on a scooter opened fire with an automatic rifle on Boulevard d'Ypres in central Brussels, killing two Swedish men and seriously injuring a third. The attack happened about 5km from the stadium where Belgium was playing Sweden in a Euro 2024 qualifier, and the match was abandoned at half-time. Belgium raised its terror threat to level four, the highest (BBC).
In a video he filmed after the shooting, the gunman said he had killed Swedes. Sweden's prosecutor's office said it believed he was inspired by Islamic State (BBC). Reports identified the man as Abdesalem Lassoued, a 45-year-old Tunisian whose asylum application in Belgium had been rejected and who had been ordered to leave the country (The Guardian). Police shot him in a café in Schaerbeek on the morning of 17 October, and he died in hospital. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called it "a harrowing act of terrorism". Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said: "Everything suggests this is a terror attack targeted at Sweden and Swedish citizens" (BBC).
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Ahmad Zoud Friday sermon, Masjid As-Sunnah Lakemba
On Friday 22 December 2023, Ahmad Zoud (also spelled Ahmed Zod) gave the Friday sermon, in Arabic, at Masjid As-Sunnah in Lakemba, Sydney. It was streamed on the mosque's Facebook page (NCA NewsWire).
In the excerpt shown, he says (translated from the Arabic by The Evidence Project):
"Who are these monsters from whose hearts mercy has been stripped? These, O people, are the Zionists. These are the Jews. But not all the Jews - rather, most of them. The most important of the characteristics of the Jews is that they are a people thirsty for the shedding of blood."
"They raise their children from a young age and bring them up on terrorism, on violence, on killing. And the Jews remain the Jews; neither the days nor the years change them."
"Among the characteristics of the Jews are treachery and betrayal."
He says this "Quranic truth" was seen "with our own eyes in Gaza, on the day these cowards were falling before the strikes of the mujahideen and fleeing from them like rats."
Raised in Parliament
On 30 May 2024, at Senate estimates (Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, Attorney-General's Department), Senator Michaelia Cash read the quote into the record and asked what remedies existed for "speech such as that":
Senator Cash: "On or about 22 December last year, Sheikh Ahmad Zoud preached a sermon in southwest Sydney attacking Jewish people, saying the following: 'Who are these terrorists, these monsters, who have removed mercy from their hearts? These are the Jews. The most important characteristic of the Jews is that they are thirsty for bloodshed...' In terms of that particular statement, what are the current remedies that groups have for speech such as that?"
Ms Chidgey (Attorney-General's Department): "I don't think it would be appropriate for us to indicate that any particular action was a criminal offence."
Senator Cash: "Do you know if this particular statement has been investigated?"
Ms Chidgey: "No, we're not aware... We don't know."
Later in the hearing, Senator Chisholm for the government said whether it was being investigated "would be a matter for the police", and the department declined to take the question on notice.
Hansard: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=committees/estimate/28096/&sid=0002
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry lodged a racial hatred complaint. On 29 May 2025 the ECAJ said it had been resolved through conciliation at the Australian Human Rights Commission. Zoud apologised in writing, saying he deeply regretted "the way I framed my comments" and "how they could be interpreted as targeting Jewish people as a whole". The resolution included an undertaking by him "not to repeat these or similar statements in the future". The Sunnah Foundation gave a separate written apology.
The footage is a three-minute excerpt. The full sermon has not been located.
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Introduction
On 9 October 2023, two days after the Hamas attack on Israel, the Sydney Opera House was lit blue and white in solidarity with Israel and with those killed and taken hostage in the attack.
A pro-Palestinian rally assembled at Sydney Town Hall and marched through the CBD to the Opera House. Hundreds of protesters gathered on the forecourt while the sails were lit in the colours of the Israeli flag.
Flares and fireworks were set off, Palestinian flags were displayed and an Israeli flag was burned. Among the chants recorded at the demonstration were "f--- the Jews", "Where's the Jews?", "f--- Israel" and other anti-Israel slogans.
Video circulated after the protest with subtitles claiming demonstrators had chanted "gas the Jews." The claim was widely reported by Australian and international media and was repeated in political debate.
NSW Police set up Strike Force Mealing to investigate offences committed during the protest. It gathered extensive audio and video recordings and commissioned specialist acoustic and phonetic analysis of the disputed footage.
In February 2024, NSW Police announced that the forensic examination had found no evidence that "gas the Jews" had been chanted in the recordings examined. The expert concluded with "overwhelming certainty" that the disputed phrase was "Where's the Jews?"
Police said this did not mean the demonstration had been free of antisemitic or offensive conduct. Other offensive language was captured in recordings of the protest.
Government Response
The NSW Government, led by Premier Chris Minns, decided to light the Opera House as an expression of solidarity with Israel after the 7 October attack.
Police knew a pro-Palestinian demonstration was planned, and that protesters intended to travel from Town Hall to the Opera House.
The march was not authorised. Police Minister Yasmin Catley said the organisers "did not fill out the necessary paperwork" and that police "did not approve the march": "There was no Form 1 for this event." The Form 1 process, she said, "generally takes about a week to complete." Assistant Commissioner Tony Cooke said police "became aware of the rally on Sunday", the day before, and that it was "considered the best option for police" to "manage the movement of those people from Sydney Town Hall to the Opera House", adding it was "not the police's position to stop protests" (ABC News, 10 October 2023).
Police advised members of Sydney's Jewish community not to go to the Opera House because of concerns for their safety. One Jewish man carrying an Israeli flag who approached the demonstration was removed by police to prevent a breach of the peace and for his own protection. He was released without further action.
The Opera House had been lit in solidarity with Israel and the Jewish community, yet members of that community were advised not to go there.
Minns at first defended the police's operational decisions on public-safety grounds.
Documents later produced to the NSW Parliament showed that senior police had warned before the demonstration that protesters converging on the Opera House could escalate existing tensions. On 25 October 2023, Minns acknowledged that his government had made a "mistake" by not acting on those warnings.
Strike Force Mealing was set up to identify, investigate and prosecute criminal offences arising from the 9 October protest.
The events became part of a wider debate over whether NSW laws gave police enough power to respond to threatening or hateful conduct at demonstrations. The policing, the treatment of Jewish Australians who tried to approach the site, the chants and the official response continued to be examined through parliamentary processes.
In 2026, the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion made the events of 9 October 2023 a specific focus of its hearing into protests and policing, examining hateful conduct in protest settings and whether policing responses to antisemitic conduct could be improved.
Summary
On 9 October 2023, two days after the Hamas attack on Israel, the NSW Government lit the Sydney Opera House in the colours of Israel. A pro-Palestinian demonstration marched to the forecourt. Antisemitic language was recorded, an Israeli flag was burned and flares were set off. Police had advised members of Sydney's Jewish community not to attend.
The widely circulated claim that protesters chanted "gas the Jews" was not substantiated by the NSW Police forensic investigation. Expert analysis found the disputed recording contained the words "Where's the Jews?" Other antisemitic and offensive language at the demonstration was separately documented.
Premier Chris Minns later acknowledged that failing to act on police warnings about the protest had been a mistake.
Australia's Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism later described the protest as a "critical turning point" in the escalation of antisemitism in New South Wales, and said it "set the tenor" for the hateful and intimidatory activity that followed.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry recorded 2,062 anti-Jewish incidents between October 2023 and September 2024, compared with 495 in the previous twelve-month reporting period.
In 2026 the events were a specific focus of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion's examination of protests, hateful conduct and policing.
You be the judge.
