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What Does the Bondi Beach Attack Show Us About Chinese Attitudes Towards Jews and Israel?
People stand near flowers laid as a tribute at Bondi Beach to honor the victims of a mass shooting that targeted a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach on Sunday, in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 16, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Flavio Brancaleone
The Bondi Beach massacre on December 14, 2025, shocked the world and sparked intense online debates across multiple platforms, including Chinese-language forums.
Based on my observations, reactions to the tragedy across these platforms do not reflect a monolithic “Chinese public opinion,” but rather a fragmented digital ecology in which platform design and online distortion shape whether Jewish victims are humanized — or erased.
Antisemitic commentary appears most visibly in certain Chinese online spaces, appearing as both blatant hatred and indifference towards the victims. When going offline, however, the general population of overseas Chinese students display far greater empathy.
That being said, treating these online reactions as representative of real-world attitudes obscures both the structural production of hate and the quieter presence of solidarity.
On a Reddit-like platform called Zhihu, the focus was rarely on the violence itself, but on blaming the victims.
After the news first broke, many users chose to frame the dead as deserving of harm rather than condemning the attack. In one discussion thread, a post explicitly stated that because one of the people shot fatally — a rabbi — was “pro-Zionist,” he deserved the violence. Another user constructed a popular argument in one post: he praised the shooter as “a heroic figure of resistance.” A third user condemned Australia’s act of criticizing extremism as “cruel and unjust.”
The comment sections for these posts were even more unsympathetic. Commentators used dehumanizing emojis such as squid emojis, comparable to the “juice” emojis circulating in English-language antisemitic spaces to mock not only the victims of the Bondi Beach attack, but Holocaust victims as well. Then, not long after, these posts and comments were quickly deleted by the platform.
On an Instagram-like platform called RedNote (Xiaohongshu), the tone was remarkably different. Praising violence becomes more scarce, but most posts completely ignore the casualties at hand. Users focused on expressing fear about their own public safety, and imagining what it would feel like if such an attack occurred in one’s own neighborhood, while showing no empathy to the dead and the wounded.
Rather than debating what the victims “represented” in the grander political discourse, users spoke about the violence that was displayed at Bondi Beach without mentioning what motivated the attack — which was antisemitism.
After reading these online reactions, I brought the topic into conversations with Chinese international students in my social circle. Unsurprisingly, the students I spoke with were overwhelmingly sympathetic. A male student at UCLA told me that he donated 10 dollars to a fundraiser for the shooting survivors. A female student at USC canceled her planned trip to Australia after the incident and sent messages of condolence to the victims’ families. An Australian friend and a graduate student at the University of Sydney helped organize members of the local Chinese community to send flowers in memory of those who were killed.
Finally, I must address one question: if most people I talk to are sympathetic in real life, then why do hateful comments dominate certain online Chinese platforms?
Incentives offered by these platforms in the form of likes and upvotes by other users drives the disconnect between online hostility and offline sympathy, suggesting that visibility online is shaped less by majority opinion. Instead, the more radical you are, the more rewards you get.
In recent years, official Chinese media rhetoric toward the Jewish people has grown increasingly hostile, particularly following developments in the Middle East and Israel.
Within this environment, antisemitic narratives — often framed as “anti-Zionism” or critiques of Western power — can circulate online with relatively little resistance, especially when they align with prevailing geopolitical sentiments of uniting the third world. However, this tolerance has clear limits. When such commentary becomes too explicit, too violent, or risks drawing international scrutiny, it is often quietly censored or removed. As a result, the opinions that remain visible online are already shaped by political filtering, rather than representing an unmediated public conversation.
The result is a contradictory system in which antisemitic discourse is neither fully endorsed nor consistently suppressed, but selectively managed to avoid reputational damage rather than to protect Jewish communities themselves. In this sense, censorship functions less as a moral boundary than as a tool of image control, intervening not to challenge antisemitism, but to ensure it does not undermine the state’s global standing. What appears as “public opinion” on these platforms therefore reflects layers of moderation and selective visibility rather than the full range of social attitudes.
Taken together, these contrasts suggest that antisemitism in Chinese-language online spaces cannot be understood simply as a reflection of popular sentiment. Rather, it emerges at the intersection of platform design incentives that empower users to share radical thoughts, geopolitical narratives, and selective censorship that prioritizes image over accountability.
When the most extreme voices are the most visible, Jewish suffering risks being reduced to abstraction or spectacle. Recognizing this distortion is a necessary first step toward confronting antisemitism without reproducing new misreadings or stereotypes of Chinese communities themselves. In a censored environment, silence and removal are themselves forms of distortion, shaping not only what can be said but what can be seen.
Angella Tang is a UChicago Biology student and a CAMERA fellow passionate about fostering cross-cultural and interfaith understanding.
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Providence voters pass ballot initiative that could lead to divestment of city funds from Israel
(JTA) — Voters in Providence, Rhode Island, have approved a ballot measure that could result in the city divesting public funds from Israel, according to local media, in a major victory for the Israel boycott movement.
In a major victory for the Israel boycott movement, voters in Providence, Rhode Island, have approved a ballot measure that could result in the city divesting public funds from Israel, according to local media.
With 81 of 82 polling locations partially reported, the Rhode Island Board of Elections tallied 75% voting to approve the measure versus 25% rejecting. Both the Rhode Island Current and the Boston Globe report the measure was approved.
“We are overjoyed that the city of Providence has voted — by more than a 3 to 1 margin — to divest our collective dollars from support for genocide and ethnic cleansing,” Lex Rofeberg, who runs the alternative Jewish engagement network Judaism Unbound and was an organizer with the Providence divestment initiative, told JTA. “This historic moment can serve as an example for other cities around the country hoping to align their investments with their values.”
The ordinance calls for the capital city to refrain from investing in “foreign countries conducting ethnic cleansing, apartheid, illegal military occupation, or genocide.” Though the ballot language does not mention Israel by name, it was heavily supported by local pro-Palestinian groups and opposed by some Jewish and pro-Israel groups.
A representative for the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island previously told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the group would explore legal options to challenge the ballot measure in the event that it passed.
The vote makes Providence the largest municipality yet to vote in favor of some form of Israel divestment, following the lead of Somerville, Massachusetts, whose voters approved a nonbinding divestment measure last year. Providence is home to an estimated 15,000 Jews, or around 7% of its population. Progressive Jewish groups, including the local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, were among the ballot measure’s advocates.
The city’s mayor, Brett Smiley, a pro-Israel Democrat who converted to Judaism while in office, lost his primary to a democratic socialist, an early indicator of which way the divestment vote would go.
Activist initiatives to challenge U.S. financial aid to Israel have picked up steam in the years since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks and ensuing Gaza war. On the morning of Election Day, President Donald Trump, who described aid to Israel as a political liability, announced the U.S. would end nearly $4 billion in annual military aid to Israel by the end of the year.
The post Providence voters pass ballot initiative that could lead to divestment of city funds from Israel appeared first on The Forward.
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Republican Lawler concedes to Democrat Conley in fierce battle for Jewish vote in NYC suburbs
(JTA) — Republican congressman Mike Lawler has conceded to Democratic challenger Cait Conley, a former national security official, after competing fiercely for Jewish voters in the lower Hudson Valley of New York.
Lawler has been a staunchly pro-Israel member since joining Congress in 2023, and was endorsed by the Republican Jewish Coalition and the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC.
Conley was endorsed by the pro-Israel group Democratic Majority for Israel, and has said she supports Israel while opposing the Benjamin Netanyahu government.
Lawler, who is Catholic, has deep ties to the district’s large Orthodox Jewish population, and touted their support recently when asked about the neck-and-neck polling.
Both Lawler and Conley have tried tying their opponent to polarizing figures in their respective parties. Lawler has asserted that Conley, a moderate, will not separate herself from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and particularly New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who has a lower favorability rating outside the city. Conley denounced Mamdani’s statement on the three-year anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack after Lawler challenged her to do so during a debate.
Conley, meanwhile, has tied Lawler to President Donald Trump, accusing him of being a rubber stamp for Trump’s legislative priorities.
The post Republican Lawler concedes to Democrat Conley in fierce battle for Jewish vote in NYC suburbs appeared first on The Forward.
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In early LA mayoral results, Karen Bass holds slim lead over Nithya Raman, who sparred with DSA on Israel
Early returns in the Los Angeles mayoral election showed incumbent Karen Bass with a slim lead over Councilmember Nithya Raman, whose comments on Israel became a flashpoint in the race.
The first batch of results — totaling about 500,000 votes — showed Bass leading Raman, 50.8% to 49.2%.
The final outcome may not be known until Wednesday or later, a common occurrence in tight California races due to the preponderance of mail-in ballots. Nearly 90% of California voters did so by mail in the June primary.
But if the primary results are any indication, Bass’ lead may evaporate as more votes are counted.
In the June 2 open primary — a system in which the top two vote-getters from any party advance to a runoff — Raman trailed a Republican, Spencer Pratt, by eight points for second place behind Bass. She won the ensuing batches of mail-in ballots, but did not pass Pratt until June 7. She ultimately surpassed him by more than four percentage points.
Raman, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, has clashed with the organization — and frustrated many of her Jewish constituents — while trying to strike a balance on Israel. She has called the war in Gaza a genocide, but declined to adopt the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions platform — a stance that led the DSA to consider expelling her.
Bass, a mainstream Democrat who served six terms in Congress before running for mayor in 2022, entered the race as a historically unpopular incumbent, largely thanks to her response to the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires. Raman endorsed Bass prior to declaring her own candidacy on the last day to enter the race, a move Bass has characterized as a personal betrayal.
The polls swung back and forth in the weeks leading up to the election. Bass, who won most labor endorsements, was leading until September, when one poll sponsored by the Los Angeles Times showed Raman ahead by 11 points with a third of voters still undecided. A follow-up poll by the Times last week showed the two in a dead heat.
Unlike many other DSA candidates up for election across the country on Tuesday, Raman, an urban policy wonk who immigrated to the U.S. from India when she was 6, never made Israel a focal point of her campaign. Instead, she focused more on housing, homelessness and budget policy.
But her membership in the DSA, an interview she granted Hasan Piker during the primary and the genocide comments dogged her anyway, especially among Jewish Angelenos.
Raman, after publicly condemning the DSA’s anti-Israel statements after Oct. 7, sponsored a resolution for a ceasefire and return of hostages in March 2024, disappointing mainstream Jewish groups who called the motion one-sided. Then, during the primary, Raman told Piker she believed the Gaza war was a genocide and that Israel was an apartheid state. She also said she would not seek the endorsement of pro-Israel Democratic party groups as she had in 2024.
Her record on Israel seemed likely to come up when Raman participated in the candidate forum for Jewish voters Sept. 29. But Raman struggled to get through answers about the DSA, Piker and especially genocide and BDS — which she called a “legitimate form of peaceful protest” — leading to loud audience groans. During Bass’ turn on stage, the mayor said she did not support BDS and did not believe the war in Gaza was a genocide.
Mail-in voters historically skew to the left, and the primary vote may offer a preview of the margin Raman might need.
In that election, about 58% of the total votes were tallied election night, when Bass led Raman 36.5% to 21%. Raman got the biggest share of the ensuing ballot batches, beating Bass by about five percentage points.
The post In early LA mayoral results, Karen Bass holds slim lead over Nithya Raman, who sparred with DSA on Israel appeared first on The Forward.
