EDITORIAL: Bondi probe can start fightback against anti-Semitism

A ute is rammed into the gates of Brisbane’s biggest synagogue.

An 18-year-old Jewish teen is assaulted for wearing a yarmulke and Israeli flag at a Scouts Victoria camp.

Just two incidents that have come to light in the last five days.

When compared to the massacre at Bondi Beach some might feel tempted to downgrade their seriousness.

But for those who are the subject of such attacks they are far from minor. They are frightening and alarming. And yet they are emblematic of what the Jewish community is this country is still facing.

Even more than two years after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 unleashed anti-Jewish sentiment.

Even after the Australian Jewish community warned it was being targeted too, with graffiti, harassment on campuses and the streets, and firebombings.

Even after the murder of 15 people at Bondi Beach.

But on Tuesday there was a glimmer of hope as the Antisemitism and Social Cohesion Royal Commission held its first public hearing at the NSW Supreme Court.

Commissioner Virginia Bell immediately set some caveats around what would be examined.

Ms Bell warned that the time frame for reporting — December 14, the first anniversary of the Bondi massacre — was tight and there had been some delays around folding the security review by top bureaucrat Dennis Richardson into her probe.

While social cohesion would be advanced by addressing discrimination against religious faiths, ethnicities and cultures generally, the focus of the commission would be on tackling anti-Semitism.

Perhaps disappointing to some, Ms Bell said the commission would not include evidence related directly to the Bondi attack to avoid prejudicing the criminal trial of alleged terrorist Naveed Akram.

“One might expect that a Royal Commission set up to inquire into an attack would lead evidence of it: of the heroism of those who sought to confront the shooters, and of those who ran towards the gunfire, to offer medical assistance to the wounded,” Ms Bell said.

But the commission had to go about its work without risking any prejudice to the criminal proceeding.

“Leading evidence … from people who may be witnesses in the criminal proceeding would create that risk, and for that reason, it will not occur,” Ms Bell said.

Nevertheless Jewish groups are set to provide the royal commission with evidence of their experiences, and accounts of how they have been directly affected by anti-Semitism.

These submissions will surely tell a damning story about the forces that have been allowed to take hold and spread across this country.

There may well be some darkly disturbing moments as some of these stories are recounted.

And yet they will provide an opportunity for the truth to emerge.

It is to be hoped that the picture painted will be such that the downward spiral of Australia’s famed social cohesion can be identified and a platform provided to ensure the decline is halted and reversed.

And that the national identity which has served this nation so well for so long can be reclaimed.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore.