Royal Commission Hears Testimony on Rise in Antisemitism in Australia

A counterterror expert has told the royal commission that there has been a steady rise in antisemitism in Australia over the past decade. The Royal Commission into Antisemitism heard testimony on its sixth day of public hearings in Sydney on Monday from several witnesses who described personal experiences of harassment and abuse.

A singer-songwriter told the commission she had been yelled and hissed at during concerts and writers’ festivals because of her support for Israel. She said she lost several performance bookings after expressing her views and described an incident in Western Australia where audience members stood up, unfurled signs and began screaming at her while she was on stage.

At a writers’ festival, one person hissed “shame on you” at her. The witness said she regarded anti-Zionism as a genocidal impulse and stated that she supports Israel’s right to exist while not supporting all of the Israeli government’s actions in the war.

“I think it’s really important to say that I support Israel’s right to exist. ” — Deborah Conway (The Sydney Morning Herald) A Jewish musician described how the leaking of a WhatsApp group for Jewish creatives in 2024 led to him being ejected from a band he had played with for seven years.

After the leak, the musician and his wife received a threatening phone call at their North Melbourne homewares shop, along with a photo of their son taken from social media. Police told him they could investigate vandalism and the threat involving his son but not other online posts because they did not cross the line into antisemitism.

A rabbi from Melbourne told the commission that many members of his community had asked him whether they should leave Australia. He said the questions reminded him of stories from Jewish ancestors in pre-Holocaust Europe and described hearing such questions as confronting.

He said she later cried and asked him why people hate them so much, adding that society must consider how a father could lack an answer to his daughter. The chief executive of an organisation that combats antisemitism on university campuses and online told the commission that antisemitism had been rising well before October 7, 2023.

She said events in Western Sydney on October 8, 2023, where the October 7 attack was described as a day of pride and courage, marked a pivotal moment, with cars setting off fireworks. The research director for the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, who collates reports of antisemitic incidents, told the commission that most criticism of Israel is not antisemitic in itself even though much of it is offensive.

She said any criticism invoking Nazi Germany or anti-Jewish tropes should be counted as antisemitic and described receiving an antisemitic and sexualised caricature of herself after publishing reports. The commission also heard from a Perth teenager, giving evidence under a pseudonym, who described hate comments directed at him on Discord in 2024 while playing Minecraft with students from his high school.

Former High Court judge Virginia Bell is presiding over the hearings, which continue on Tuesday.

Witnesses detailed specific incidents ranging from public confrontations at cultural events to online abuse and threats to businesses and families. One witness described shock at the reaction of protesters near the Sydney Opera House on October 9, 2023, after its sails were lit in blue and white in support of Israel.

Testimony indicated that antisemitic behaviour had increased over the past decade and accelerated after the events of October 7, 2023. The commission heard that many Australians cannot recognise antisemitic tropes and that some people have become less willing to have Jewish friends.