5 key takeaways from the primary week of antisemitism royal fee hearings

Public abuse, faculties graffitied and a worry of being visibly Jewish have been simply a few of the testimonies heard throughout The Royal Fee on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion’s first week of hearings.

Over the previous week, which centered on Jewish Australians’ on a regular basis experiences of racism and discrimination, Commissioner Virginia Bell heard from dozens of witnesses, a lot of whom spoke anonymously out of worry for his or her security.

Whereas these giving testimony have been of various backgrounds, ages and locations of residence, a number of widespread themes emerged from their proof to the inquiry launched in response to the December 2025 Bondi terror assault.

Listed here are 5 key takeaways from the week.

Focused in public

A Jewish Yr 10 pupil talking beneath a pseudonym mentioned college students had carried out Nazi salutes in the direction of her at school whereas learning The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, a 2006 novel concerning the Holocaust.

The daughter of a Bondi terror assault sufferer mentioned she had been strolling by means of Westfield Bondi Junction together with her child when a person pointed at her Star of David necklace and referred to as her a “f—ing terrorist”.

One other man informed the inquiry he’d been approached and abused by a person on Sydney’s Oxford Road shortly after the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 assault on southern Israel.

The person used racial slurs, together with “soiled Jew”, carried out Nazi salutes and made a gun-like movement on the brow of the person, who mentioned he was sporting a Jewish kippah (skullcap) on the time.

Regardless of the abuse occurring in broad daylight on a busy road, the witness mentioned just one different particular person — an American vacationer — tried to intervene, and he was assaulted within the course of.

One other particular person, utilizing a pseudonym, mentioned “a variety of us do not feel secure” in Australia anymore.

“We do not really feel welcome anymore. We thought that issues is perhaps difficult. We by no means anticipated synagogues to be burned down. We by no means anticipated Jews to be hunted on Bondi Seashore. We actually did not anticipate this type of factor on this nation.”

A necessity to cover one’s id

On account of the more and more widespread experiences of abuse in public locations, quite a few witnesses informed the inquiry they felt the necessity to cover their Jewish id.

One witness described sporting his kippah beneath a baseball cap.

A teen informed the enquiry she was now “scared” to put on her Jewish jewelry in public, as an alternative tucking it behind her garments if she wore it in any respect.

One other girl, who grew up in Hungary — the place public shows of Jewish id might “convey violence or arrest” — mentioned after 66 years in Australia, she now felt the necessity to cover once more.

“I discovered myself for the primary time since childhood afraid to put on my Star of David in public. I discovered myself for the primary time since I fled Hungary feeling that my id was one thing I ought to cover.”

A mom informed the enquiry she did not permit her youngsters to put on their Stars of David locally and that they’d toned down their Jewish visibility out of worry.

The Bondi assault’s deep scars

Many witnesses informed the inquiry that, though antisemitism had elevated since 7 October 2023, the Bondi terror assault was a profound escalation in anti-Jewish hatred that had left deep scars.

The assault despatched shockwaves and grief by means of a tight-knit group for whom the seashore has lengthy been a focus.

Nevertheless, after the 15 December bloodbath that left 15 individuals useless, the place is now a website of trauma for a lot of.

One girl informed the inquiry her daughter now “thinks about dying” each time she visits the seashore.

A teen who was locked down at a Bat Mitzvah — a Jewish coming-of-age ritual for females — throughout the assault mentioned she lived with “fixed nightmares”.

One other girl, whose dad and mom met at Bondi, mentioned the place that was as soon as stuffed with “lovely recollections” now held a “actually heavy weight in [the] group’s coronary heart”.

One man informed Commissioner Bell: “It modified the course of my life, and it modified the course, sadly, of so many different individuals’s lives.”

 “I’m going to Bondi Seashore rather a lot. You see the menorah and the memorial that simply sits there. You might be reminded of it on a regular basis.”

Mother and father frightened about their youngsters

Dad or mum after father or mother informed the inquiry that, whereas they have been distressed by what they skilled on daily basis, they have been deeply anguished by the considered their youngsters rising up in a world the place they didn’t really feel secure.

They described the heightened safety at Jewish faculties, from paid safety guards and barbed wire to safety cameras.

One girl, the college board president of a Jewish faculty in Sydney, mentioned the establishment appeared extra like a “jail than a main faculty”.

The varsity was graffitied final 12 months with textual content branding Jews as “terrorists” and “canine”.

“The truth that that is being felt by the youngest and probably the most susceptible — our youngsters — is frankly devastating,” she mentioned.

As one father requested the commissioner: “Why do children must go to high school like that? Is it as a result of they’re Jews?”

“It is not proper. Why do I’ve to go as soon as a time period to assist on safety on the faculty? Standing there, watching, trying, trying […] That is the world that the Jews of Australia dwell in now and it wants to vary,” he mentioned.

Conflation of Judaism with help for Israel’s conflict in Gaza

Hamas’ October 7 assaults on Israel — through which militants killed 1,200 individuals and took one other 250 individuals hostage — marked a big turning level for antisemitism in Australia, counsel helping the fee Zelie Heger SC informed the inquiry.

Israel’s subsequent army marketing campaign in Gaza — which has killed greater than 72,000 individuals and injured greater than 172,000 — has been labelled a genocide by an unbiased United Nations fee which doesn’t report on behalf of the UN as a complete, an outline that the Israeli authorities stridently rejects.

It has additionally impressed an upswelling of Professional-Palestinian help, together with weekly protests in main Australian cities attended by a variety of individuals, together with present and former Labor and Greens parliamentarians.

Nevertheless, the inquiry heard that political opposition to Israel’s army effort had turn out to be conflated with antisemitism in some elements of the group, which equated being Jewish with supporting Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Vic Alhadeff OAM, a non-executive director at SBS, informed the inquiry that “a lot of the manifestation of antisemitism incidents and assaults is interlaced with, and references, what’s happening within the different facet of the world”.

In response to his issues about rising antisemitism, Alhadeff mentioned a consultant from one other religion group informed him: “However look what’s taking place to the Palestinians in Gaza”.

“My response was: ‘It’s important to be product of stone to not care about what is occurring to the Palestinians in Gaza, nevertheless, why are you holding me accountable?'”

“Jewish Australians don’t have any company in what the Israel Defence Power does, or certainly what the Israeli authorities does.”

The Govt Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) has reported greater than 2,000 antisemitic incidents between October 2023 and September 2024, a threefold enhance on the 12 months earlier than.

The info doesn’t embody situations of on-line hate and factors to what ECAJ — Australia’s peak physique of Jewish organisations — considers a big escalation in antisemitism following October 7.

One girl informed the inquiry she had had “free Palestine” yelled at her, adopted by “F the Jews”.

A trainer’s aide gave proof {that a} group of Jewish 12 months 5 college students have been focused throughout an tour to Melbourne Museum by a bunch of older youngsters who encircled them, and began laughing, saying, “free, free, Palestine”.

The royal fee’s first public listening to block will proceed till 15 Might, with a second listening to block slated for the top of the month.

— With extra reporting from the Australian Related Press.

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