[Oe List ...] How do we respond to the Bondi massacre without engaging in cover up or accusations?

[Richard and Maria Maguire]

I imagine that you as well as the rest of the world have heard about the 
horrible killings in Bondi.

This even brings out once again how terrible it must be for people who 
have to be afraid of being attacked at any time by violent people just 
because of who they are, here especially First Nations, people from the 
Mideast, Jews and Africans.  Even though the number of people who would 
do such things is relatively small, the threat is always there.  We hope 
this might move the politicians to do a lot more about guns, the laws 
here were very good, but had many loopholes and have been whittled back 
over the years through political horse trading.

We have been struggling with how to talk about Bondi without being seen 
as defending the indefensible, yet bringing in the larger context.   It 
seems to us that there needs to be a lot more conversation about why 
antisemitic and Islamophobic attacks have ballooned in the past few 
years, since Israel's murderous genocidal attacks on Palestinians.  See 
for instance 
https://theconversation.com/bondi-attack-came-after-huge-increase-in-online-antisemitism-research-272045 
and 
  https://www.visionofhumanity.org/gaza-conflict-leads-to-rise-in-antisemitism-and-islamophobia/ 
<https://www.visionofhumanity.org/gaza-conflict-leads-to-rise-in-antisemitism-and-islamophobia/>This 
dimension of current reality has not been reported much in the media and 
governments have avoided doing much to deal with the causes.  We are 
also concerned that  if the government puts into law the Antisemitism 
statement proposed by their "envoy" it could make things worse on all 
sides 
https://www.humanrights.unsw.edu.au/research/commentary/antisemitism-plan-australia-contentious-definition.

We were grateful to find these two statement in our emails yesterday 
from two Australian organisations, "The Movement" 
https://themovement4point0.au/news/condemn-Bondi-beach-massacre and from 
The Australian Jewish Council https://www.jewishcouncil.com.au/ which do 
a great job of holding the tension.  We notice how Gaza news has been 
wiped off the news feeds this week, even though twice as many innocent 
Palestinians have been killed *per day over the last two years* as were 
the 15 innocent people killed in Bondi.

We, and I believe ICAA, are not interested in making public statements, 
but it would be great if we could converse about how to respond to 
immediate disasters like this and bring out the underlying 
contradictions behind them.

One "positive" arising from the Gaza war and behavior of governments is 
that the interest in Human Rights has grown considerably among the 
populations.  I went to a lecture on international Human Rights and 
government responsibility featuring Chris Sidoti from the UN Commission 
on Human Rights, an international Law professor from U of Sydney and 
Elizabeth Evatt in a large hall that was filled with several hundred 
people.  They commented that if this event had happened five years ago, 
the hall would have had few non specialists attending.

I grew up in a household with a father who was stridently racist and 
antisemitic.  I didn't like the things he was saying, neither did my 
mother or my siblings, but we didn't have the means to engage him 
productively so just stayed quiet.  I have yet to really understand what 
leads people to pick up these and similar beliefs and actions other than 
what dawned on me when I read "You are Accepted" in 1962 long before I 
met the ICA.  That essay changed my life and my life direction.  When I 
learned how the EI was using this piece, as well as its influence on our 
methods and mission, I was really grateful and still am.

Warmly

Richard




On 19/12/2025 1:02 pm, Karen Newkirk wrote:
> Hi Richard,
> Merry Christmas to you and Maria!
>
> I have sent the letters to the ToP Network USA and the ICAI Board, 
> however, as stated in the letter, we should wait until the ICAI Board 
> and/or ourselves have received the hotel invoice before we process our 
> payment.
>
> Thank you
> Karen
>
> Karen Clover Newkirk
> 52 Nelson Rd Queenscliff VIC 3225
> Grateful to the Wathaurung / WadawurungTraditional Owners.
> karennewkirk at gmail.com
> 0419 577 489
>
>> On 19 Dec 2025, at 9:42 am, balmkevin at gmail.com wrote:
>>
>> Karen,
>> I’m good to go with the two letters.
>> Regards
>> Kevin
>> *From:*Karen Newkirk <karennewkirk at gmail.com>
>> *Sent:*Friday, 19 December 2025 8:37 AM
>> *To:*Kevin Balm <balmkevin at gmail.com>
>> *Cc:*David Jago <david at smartmeetings.com.au>; Richard&Maria Maguire 
>> <richardandmaria at unfoldingfutures.net>; Ms. Michelle Rush 
>> <michelle at facilitate.co.nz>; Robyn Hutchinson <rjhutchinson48 at gmail.com>
>> *Subject:*Re: DRAFT Response to ToP Network USA re-$ for conference
>> Hi Kevin (in particular), David, Richard and Michelle,
>> I have a response from Robyn:
>> “Im OK with these - in haste. thanks Robyn”.
>> Michelle has spoken. David and Richard were happy with the original.
>> Kevin, you have been closest to the issue and had significant 
>> feedback on the original draft. Could you please let me know your 
>> opinion on these two letters?
>> Thank you
>> Karen
>> Sent from my iPhone


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