The narrow benches of the public gallery are filled. They have come from all over to offer their testimony, to support friends, to give and receive comfort. They come too, to listen.<\/p>\n
This, in this small, quiet room, is Australia\u2019s attempt to reckon with the violent modern manifestation of an ancient bigotry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sharp spike in antisemitism that we\u2019ve witnessed in Australia has been mirrored in other western countries and seems clearly linked to events in the Middle East,\u201d the commissioner, Virginia Bell, said on the first morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important that people understand how quickly those events can prompt ugly displays of hostility towards Jewish Australians simply because they\u2019re Jews: displays of hostility that are sometimes expressed in images and sentiments that can sometimes be traced back to the Middle Ages if not earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n
This royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion<\/a> was established in the wake of December\u2019s Bondi massacre, in which two antisemitic gunmen opened fire on Jews attending a beachside Hanukah celebration, killing 15 people and injuring 40 others.<\/p>\n Below is the testimony of witnesses, click on the quotes to expand:<\/p>\n double quotation markThe reality is, they came to kill us. We just weren\u2019t there. And it\u2019s living with that truth that makes it very hard to feel safe as a Jew in Australia<\/p>\n It\u2019s impossible for children not to internalise that they are living through that reality. They hear antisemitism around them all the time \u2026 they see the stickers \u2026 they see the graffiti, they know about Bondi. It\u2019s become part of their psyche.<\/p>\n The Australian Jewish community is living a very different reality to what I think the rest of the Australian community is living.<\/p>\n We arrived in Bondi [for dinner one evening] and my eight-year-old just started crying, which is strange, and I said to her, \u2018What\u2019s wrong?\u2019 And she said, \u2018Now when I come to Bondi, I think about dying.\u2019<\/p>\n Now when you hear the word Bondi, it\u2019s associated with a massacre, with a terrorist attack, with the death of Jews, and it\u2019s extremely confronting and distressing for the Jewish community.<\/p>\n The reality is that they came to kill us. We just weren\u2019t there. And it\u2019s living with that truth that makes it very hard to feel safe as a Jew in Australia.<\/p>\n \u2013 Dina<\/p>\n double quotation markThey can\u2019t bear the risk of receiving the kind of backlash I have received<\/p>\n I was hearing from family members sitting around the Shabbat dinner table that they were concerned as to whether this was still a safe place for Jews to live. And I wanted to be part of making sure that they felt safe and heard by the political system \u2026 and to me, [running for the NSW Legislative Council] felt the best way to do that.<\/p>\n [My campaign] ads \u2026 were deluged with antisemitic comments of a nature that was particularly vitriolic, in the sense of \u2026 \u2018Fuck off you Zionist cunt\u2019.<\/p>\n And there were a range of conspiracy theories about Israel<\/a> paying people to firebomb places in Australia, that the October 7 massacre was a false flag, that we\u2019ve got enough Jewish politicians already.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve had a lot of conversations with people in the Jewish community who are incredibly bright and talented and would be perfect fits to be more involved in politics in this country. But their view is that they can\u2019t bear the risk of receiving the kind of backlash I have received.<\/p>\n \u2013 Joshua Kirsh<\/p>\n double quotation markIf they say \u2018the Netanyahu government\u2019, then I see it as a perpetrator of violence. But if they say \u2018Israel\u2019, I see it as a country I love, that is my ancestral homeland<\/p>\n When I think about Israel, I think about the beauty of the country, I think about the old city. I think about civil society and all the good people \u2013 Israeli, Palestinians, others \u2013 working for a world of equality. I think about friends and family there and, yes, the regime, but that\u2019s not all of it.<\/p>\n The word Israel is used as a demonised word \u2026 that made me feel offended and humiliated.<\/p>\n I have no problem with messaging that says \u2018free Palestine\u2019. That\u2019s messaging I completely agree with. It was the way that Israel was spoken about \u2026 Israel is used very \u2026 casually and carelessly.<\/p>\n I do want to say that if I\u2019m a Palestinian Australian and I see the word Israel, I am going to think about the regime, I\u2019m going to think about the Nakba of 1948, I\u2019m going to think about the settler violence in the West Bank, and I\u2019m going to think about the Gaza<\/a> war and I completely understand that a Palestinian Australia more think about Israel in that way. And I don\u2019t have a problem with that.<\/p>\n I have a problem with people who are not from a directly affected community, not being able to, just be smart enough to recognise, to be compassionate to directly affected people and to be smart enough to recognise that when I see the word Israel, I see much more than the regime.<\/p>\n And if they describe it as the regime, if they say, the Netanyahu government, then I see it as a perpetrator of violence. But if they say Israel, I see it as a country I love, that is my ancestral homeland.<\/p>\n \u2013 Stephanie Cunio<\/p>\n In the first week of public hearings, witness after witness has plaintively told the commission that they saw the atrocity coming, that the fear they felt before Bondi was real, not imagined, that expressions of love and concern in the aftermath of a massacre pale next to belief before it.<\/p>\n \u201cDead Jewish people don\u2019t need love,\u201d one witness said, \u201calive Jewish people need people to listen to us when we tell people we feel like history is repeating itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Bell spent a dozen years as a justice of the high court, familiar with its robes and protocol, its distant, imperious raised bench.<\/p>\n This place is far more intimate. Bell, not wearing robes, sits at a modest desk on the same level as those giving evidence to her.<\/p>\n double quotation markYou have to be made of stone not to care about what is happening to the Palestinians in Gaza. However, why are you holding me responsible?<\/p>\n After October 7, the impact of the upsurge of antisemitism in this country caused the Jewish community to be reeling \u2026 we were devastated.<\/p>\n I and other leaders of the Jewish community were part of an interfaith dialogue group and we have been meeting regularly for two years. And so it was an absolute expectation\/hope \u2013 naive, it turned out to be \u2013 that this group of all people, our interlocutors on the other side of the table, would be amongst the first to speak out to condemn what is happening in this country, the antisemitism that had become so rife and prevalent in this country. And sadly, there was a silence.<\/p>\n Eventually, I did have a one-on-one meeting with one of the most senior members of this particular faith group, and where I again conveyed how disillusioned I found it that there was silence coming from this individual\u2019s particular faith group in regard to what was happening. And the response was very telling. The person on the other side of the table said to me, quote, \u2018But look what\u2019s happening to the Palestinians in Gaza.\u2019 My response was, \u2018You have to be made of stone not to care about what is happening to the Palestinians in Gaza. However, why are you holding me responsible?\u2019<\/p>\n And this goes to one of the issues which is informing a lot of the antisemitism which has been rocking this country \u2026 for the last two and a half years: holding Jewish Australians accountable for what is taking place on the other side of the world. Jewish Australians have no agency in what the Israel Defense Force does, indeed what the Israeli government does. And yet \u2026 so much of the manifestation of antisemitic incidents and attacks is interlaced with and references what is taking place in the other side of the world. We are not accountable and we are not responsible.<\/p>\n \u2013 Vic Alhadeff<\/p>\n double quotation markBondi holds many complicated and conflicting feelings for me<\/p>\n I always grew up hearing stories on both my mother\u2019s and father\u2019s side where my grandparents had to keep their Judaism<\/a> a secret under the cruel establishment of the USSR. Being Jewish was dangerous \u2026 and they always practised their Jewish customs in secret. And then my father, Reuben Morrison, fled to Australia from the Ukraine at 14 years old. He was deeply proud to have moved to Australia and been an Australian citizen and grateful for a nation that welcomed Jews when so many others turned them away at that time.<\/p>\n Bondi holds many complicated and conflicting feelings for me currently. It was somewhere where my parents had started their history together. Somewhere I had spent many days of my childhood. I have beautiful memories there with my family. I had actually spent a lot of time there with my children \u2026 during the school holidays. And now Bondi holds a really, really heavy weight in our community\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n \u2013 Sheina Gutnick<\/p>\n double quotation markThis man threatened to kill me \u2026 I was encouraged to drop it<\/p>\n I decided to walk from the train station to the bus station on Oxford Street and, as I started walking, a white man wearing military-style clothing and a military backpack approached me and started shouting and getting in my face very aggressively.<\/p>\n He appeared very coherent at the time and deliberate in his actions. And started calling me all sorts of racial slurs, among them \u2018dirty Jew\u2019. [He] started doing the Nazi salute and started doing a gun finger at my forehead.<\/p>\n I actually took my phone out to record him and said, \u2018This is a hate crime, and I\u2019m going to be reporting it.\u2019 This enraged him and he started getting physical. No one intervened, unfortunately, except for an American tourist who jumped in. That tourist ended up getting bashed pretty badly.<\/p>\n I broke down and started shaking uncontrollably and crying again. No one came to my aid. No one came to help. No one came to do anything.<\/p>\n I followed up a few times with the police, and I was told that at the time a Nazi salute was not illegal. So I said, \u2018OK, this man threatened to kill me\u2019 and I was told that the CCTV did not have audio.<\/p>\n Even though I sent in video and pictures of this person, I was eventually told by the police that there\u2019s not much that they could do and that the case would ultimately get thrown out, and it would be a lot of wasted effort for nothing and [I was] encouraged to drop it.<\/p>\n \u2013 Nir Golan<\/p>\n Gently asking questions of children speaking about the antisemitism they\u2019ve endured at their school, Bell leans forward in close attention, close enough almost to reach out in sympathy.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ve done a bit of educating today,\u201d she tells one schoolgirl, distressed by the lack of historical education at her school.<\/p>\n Beyond the sanctity and safety of the commission, the reality of antisemitism, its manifestations and its dangers, is all too apparent.<\/p>\n Outside the commission\u2019s building sits a phalanx of police cars and attendant armed officers.<\/p>\n Witnesses and observers are security screened each time they enter the building, and are accompanied to a secure floor for the hearings.<\/p>\n double quotation markDead Jewish people don\u2019t need love, alive Jewish people need people to listen to us when we tell people we feel like history is repeating itself<\/p>\n We have had many generations of discrimination, and there is a bit of a sixth sense when things are going to be potentially uncomfortable or even dangerous for us.<\/p>\n Many Jewish people who are descendants of Holocaust survivors are keenly aware that antisemitism can start quite innocuously and very quickly become quite escalated and dangerous. There\u2019s certainly that history. We were always taught to be aware of our surroundings from when I was a little child, to listen carefully to the things that were said around us and just know that, even though we lived in a wonderful country, things could turn quickly and we had to be aware of what was happening around us.<\/p>\n I lost a close, close friend of mine after October 7th \u2026 we parted ways. One of the things I tried to articulate to her during that time was that the protests seemed innocuous and, of course, all people want peace for the world, but they end up with Jewish people being hurt. Even years ago I was clearly articulating to her that it seems fine but, one day, someone is going to get hurt and someone might get killed. It took three years but, sadly, after the events of the 14th of December, my words did become devastatingly true.<\/p>\n So, after the massacre in Bondi, this same friend who I hadn\u2019t heard from in years texted me to tell me that she loved me and to check in. At the time, I responded and I told her that dead Jewish people don\u2019t need love; alive Jewish people need people to listen to us when we tell them we feel like history is repeating itself.<\/p>\n \u2013 Anonymous<\/p>\n double quotation markI completely understand those who are thinking about exit strategies and plan Bs<\/p>\n The Jewish people have always carried with them an awareness that a golden age ends, and normally it doesn\u2019t end calmly \u2013 it\u2019s shattered. There\u2019s a sense that no matter how good we have it in a place at a point in time, we may always have to take flight and leave.<\/p>\n And I\u2019ve had families calling me and saying \u2013 completely calmly \u2013 saying, \u2018Will you tell me when the time to go is?\u2019 And I told them I would. I told them that I will counsel them and advise them.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not going anywhere. I\u2019m going down with the ship if that is what is required. I love this country and I will continue to fight for the future of this country and the future of my community in this country but I completely understand those who are thinking about exit strategies and plan Bs. That is what is necessary. History has shown how quickly things can change, what can come from the mob.<\/p>\n \u2013 Alex Ryvchin<\/p>\n double quotation mark[My daughter] sees Swastikas etched all around the school; children saying \u2018Heil Hitler\u2019 and putting up their arm in a salute<\/p>\n She is one of two Jewish children at that school and she sees things that no 15-year-old should see. That shouldn\u2019t be happening.<\/p>\n She\u2019s a very proud Jewish young lady but she\u2019s scared. She finds it very daunting.<\/p>\n The chants and the protests and the words and the online rhetoric \u2013 it feels so surreal. I can\u2019t believe that this, in 2026, in this beautiful country, that antisemitism has become so normalised and people are unashamedly being antisemitic and saying the most vile things about Jewish people, Jewish children.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been called a \u2018kike\u2019, a \u2018dirty Jew\u2019, a \u2018dirty Jewish pig\u2019, a \u2018baby killer\u2019, a \u2018baby eater\u2019 and \u2018genocidal\u2019.<\/p>\n \u2013 Natalie Levy<\/p>\n double quotation markBoth my older kids came home telling me that they didn\u2019t want to be Jewish<\/p>\n [Antisemitism] is in their face because of the apps that they use like TikTok and Instagram. So they might see a video and then they think to themselves, \u2018Well, this doesn\u2019t add up, this isn\u2019t right\u2019 and then they will look at all the comments underneath and be absolutely shocked, as am I, by the type of comments they read.<\/p>\n These are some of the things that the kids have shown me: \u2018We owe Hitler an apology. The Nazis should have finished them off\u2019; \u2018Jews are controlling the government\u2019 \u2026 \u2018Israel has no history, only a criminal record.\u2019<\/p>\n On the Holocaust Memorial Day that we had recently, underneath sad videos there was a comment that said: \u2018I\u2019m so happy. This makes me so happy.\u2019 And then comments under another Jewish video \u2018Why are we normalising racism? Racism only applies to humans.\u2019<\/p>\n There are comments thrown around by ordinary kids. They are not nasty kids, they come from good families, and it\u2019s constantly like, \u2018You dirty Jew.\u2019 They won\u2019t call another Jew that; they\u2019ll call each other that, it\u2019s kind of a joke-insult: \u2018You dirty Jew\u2019, \u2018We hate Jews.\u2019 There\u2019s a chant, \u2018Jew, Jew, Jew, Jew\u2019 \u2013 things about Jews and money, just all the time, it\u2019s prolific.<\/p>\n My kids know right from wrong and so for them to hear this, especially to hear it from mates or contacts at school \u2026 they can\u2019t understand it. They can\u2019t understand why people don\u2019t like Jews.<\/p>\n \u2013 Anonymous<\/p>\n On Wednesday, a man was arrested after sitting in a cafe outside the commission wearing an antisemitic T-shirt that merged the flag of Israel with a swastika. It bore the slogan: \u201cAntisemitism, proud to be accused.\u201d He claimed he didn\u2019t know the commission was going on.<\/p>\n On the same day, a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi was charged with hate speech crimes after a protest by the National Socialist Network at the New South Wales parliament: the protest featured a banner declaring \u201cAbolish the Jewish Lobby\u201d.<\/p>\n This is Australia\u2019s reality.<\/p>\n The evidence before the commission is passionate but not monolithic.<\/p>\n The international context is acknowledged: attacks on Jews in the UK and the US; illegal settler violence in the West Bank. The unremitting suffering in Gaza is ever-present.<\/p>\n Witnesses tell the commission that Netanyahu\u2019s government is a \u201cperpetrator of violence\u201d but that Australia\u2019s coarsening debate appears to lack the mental acuity to separate Jewish schoolchildren in Sydney<\/a> from the policies of the state of Israel, from the actions of the IDF.<\/p>\n The gallery is full. Still the witnesses come, in sadness and in fear, in defiance and in anger. They come to bear witness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The narrow benches of the public gallery are filled. 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