Police have issued a $1 million reward for information about the bombings of two Jewish institutions in Sydney 40 years ago.
The award was increased to $1 million on Monday to coincide with the first day of a coronial inquiry into the 1982 attacks at the Israeli consulate in Sydney’s CBD and the Hakoah Club in Bondi. Police described the bombings, which were quickly linked, as Australia’s first terrorism cold case.
In December 1982, a bomb exploded in front of the consulate in Westfield Towers, injuring multiple people who were hit by shrapnel and glass, or thrown across the room from the impact of the explosion.
Later that day, a bomb was detonated in the basement of the Hakoah Club, a cultural and sporting institution that at the time was hosting hundreds of competitors for the Maccabi Games.
The Bondi bomb was found in the boot of a Valiant car, but it did not fully detonate, and no one was injured. Police believe the car bomb was intended to collapse the building.
The two attacks were linked, and police deemed them to be acts of “international terrorism motivated by Palestinian nationalism”.
Speaking at Lidcombe Coroners Court on Monday on the opening day of the inquiry, counsel assisting Dr David Kell, SC, said the bombs had been made offshore by Hussayn al-Umari, a known terrorist and part of the Palestinian May 15 Organisation.
Read the article in The Sydney Morning Herald.