Bondi shooting live updates: Tears as funeral begins for ‘sweet, kind’ Matilda; PM says ‘hate preachers’ to be targeted in new reforms, defends action on antisemitism; accused terrorist Naveed Akram charged
After Matilda’s funeral, some mourners shook with fury.
They were angry at the media, furious with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and raging that the country they called home had let them down.
Father of three Wayne, who didn’t provide his last name, moved to Australia from South Africa 17 years ago for a safer life.
“I have been hijacked in South Africa, I have been held at gunpoint, my car taken.
“But that was nothing compared to what I experienced on Sunday … Not knowing where my little baby was, like being in a battlefield. It shouldn’t happen in a civilised country.
“We are burying innocent children,” he said. “It is appalling, it is a horror show.”
He told reporters that Matilda and his three-year-old daughter had bumped into each other while playing with bubbles at the Hannukah event.
Mourners attending the funeral of ten year old Matilda, the youngest victim of the Bondi massacre.Credit: Kate Geraghty
NSW Premier Chris Minns among the mourners.Credit: Kate Geraghty
His daughter only survived when someone shielded her. And he attributes his life and his four-year-old son’s to the bravery of Ahmed Al Ahmed.
Approaching the media, mother of five Chana Friedman said her tears hadn’t stopped, and wouldn’t for days.
“Everybody was crying, the mother was crying. Of course she’s been crying hysterically for days.”
When the hearse carrying Matilda’s coffin was driving away, Friedman said she whispered:
“I am so sorry my baby, we have failed this baby, and we have failed all children.”
Friedman was disappointed with journalists, who she blamed for inciting hate and failing to understand the antisemitism and hatred experienced by the Jewish community.
“Why haven’t you listened to us?” she said, sobbing.
People wrote on her Facebook, “you are a mum, you are a Zionist, you should die”.
“I’m telling you every day we get death threats.”
Israel’s Ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon among mourners attending the funeral of Matilda.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Shadow attorney-general Julian Leeser, Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s Alex Ryvchin, and Ryvchin’s wife holding a balloon outside Matilda’s funeral.Credit: James Brickwood
