Hate inquiry hears how rising anti-Semitism has scarred lives
Jewish artists wounded by hate campaigns shared traumatic stories about canceled shows and lost friends; One of them claimed he was kicked out of an award-winning group after seven years.
Melbourne saxophonist and composer Joshua Moshe told the royal commission following the Bondi attack that he lost friends and the band he played with for seven years when his renowned artistic career disintegrated as a result of online hate campaigns.
After Moshe’s personal information was disclosed, his photos with the words “Zios”, “Boycott” and “Zionist” spread on social media.
Moshe told the commission on anti-Semitism and social cohesion: “This was devastating to experience… the ongoing flood of messages… I felt extremely anxious, devastated, felt like my life was starting to unravel.”
Leading Australian singer and songwriter Deborah Conway was also subjected to a boycott campaign that cost her many shows. 70 people wearing ski masks came to a venue and banged pots and pans together to protest the demonstration.
“That’s why they did it, which I don’t blame them for, that’s what I would have done,” Conway said.
Expressing similar concerns, expert witnesses warned of the alarming rise of antisemitism both online and offline; some told the royal commission of the worrying findings of the post-October 7, 2023 surveys.
The Executive Council of Australian Jews’ annual report for 2024-2025 showed a 316 per cent increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Australia.
The National Council of Australian Jewish Women surveyed 668 Jewish women and found that 81 per cent had either directly experienced antisemitism or had close family members experience it.
The Institute for Preventing Online Hate analyzed 13 social media posts by politicians or mainstream media and found more than 3,000 anti-Semitic comments.
“These numbers are high. This is not a debate started by an anti-Semite to attract other anti-Semites. This is literally, you know, a public square where Australians participate in debate every day,” Chief Executive Andre Oboler said.
The institute’s systematic monitoring of online antisemitism, which relies on trained human analysts to detect coded tropes, found a fivefold increase in online antisemitism after October 7, with Gab and X (Twitter) hosting the highest concentrations.
Monash University professor Andrew Markus said nearly 50 per cent of respondents to a survey on attitudes towards Jewish people said “not sure” when asked whether reports that Hamas had killed nearly 1,000 Israelis on October 7, 2023 were true.
He told the royal commission that the survey highlighted that people were “disproportionately unsure on a range of issues”, describing this as an important pattern in relation to contemporary anti-Semitism.
Mr Markus said combining surveys with accounts of lived experience could help create a clearer picture of anti-Semitism in Australia.
The first week’s testimony was filled with stories of anti-Semitic incidents on the schoolyard, including Nazi salutes and horrific insults.
A teenager traveled interstate with her parents to give evidence of more heartbreaking abuse in a Minecraft group chat.
“Jewish, iron-domed bank owner, rabid, dirty, heartbreaking, weird rabbi Yamaka,” teenagers at his school wrote in a group chat.
“It made my stomach turn,” the 15-year-old said.
He didn’t tell his family right away because he thought he could handle it, “but it got out of hand,” he said.
“I entered their room and said I had no friends left,” the young man said at the hearing.
His mother said her son’s “eyes filled with tears” as he described how his friends had locked him into a part of the game and left him to die.
Dave Rich, director of policy and antisemitism at the Community Security Trust, was the last witness to give evidence to the royal commission in the current tranche of hearings, which was streamed online from the UK.
He described anti-Semitism as a conspiracy theory that inherently undermines democratic values.
“The growth of antisemitism, the spread of antisemitism from the fringes of society to the mainstream, should be a great alarm call for everyone who cares about liberal democracy, truth, the rule of law, trust in institutions and social harmony,” he said.
In his report to the royal commission as an expert on anti-Semitism, he supported the use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition, which was coined and adopted as a result of a “significant increase” in anti-Semitic incidents around the world and Europe in the early 2000s.
The Jewish Council of Australia, represented by Peggy Dwyer SC, was given “limited permission” to cross-examine Dr Rich on the definition of antisemitism. The discussion involved two definitions; Definition of IHRA and definition of the Jerusalem Declaration on Anti-Semitism.
Dr Rich rejected claims that the IHRA definition had “serious flaws”, as Dr Dwyer suggested the definition was “vague”, while Dr Rich insisted “flexibility” was crucial.
He described the IHRA definition as “a set of lights to guide you on your path as an investigator” when determining whether an incident is anti-Semitic.
The second block of hearings, which will examine the circumstances surrounding the Bondi attack on 14 December, will begin on 25 May.
The commission’s final report is expected to be published in December, a year after the Bondi attack.
