A royal inquiry heard disturbing accounts of anti-Semitic bullying and online targeting of Jewish children and adults.
Fifty-six witnesses were called in the Royal Commission on Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion last week, sharing how “Nazi style slurs” are being hurled at children in schools that now look more like prisons due to increased security concerns in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.. A 15-year-old Jewish boy, known only as ABB, detailed how he had been bullied since the end of 2024 and was targeted in a Minecraft
chat group comprised of children from his school.. Someone had written “I hate the Jews” in the chat group at one stage, but his stomach turned “upside down” after someone commented “rabid filthy rotten gut-wrenching grotesque rabbi yamaka wearing bank owning iron doming Hashem following Jew” on another occasion.. “It made my stomach turn upside down, I really just had to step away from my computer for a little bit and then, when I came
back, I think I just closed and logged off for the day,” the teen said.. The children continued with the abuse after the 15-year-old confronted them at school and “told them to stop because it was destroying my mental health”.. He didn’t tell his parents right away because he thought he could handle it, “but it just got out of hand”.. “I walked into their room and said I have no friends left,” the
teen told the hearing.. His mother, ABD, said her son had “tears in his eyes” as he told them how his friends had locked him in a part of the game and left him alone to die.. “Appalled”, ABD said her stomach drops knowing how her son had “normalised” and had to “make his peace” with the ordeal.. “(He) accepted it as part of his school life,” she said.. His parents said the school handled
the situation really well and held an investigation, with three of the children also apologising to ABB.. However if ABB is near the group too long at school they tell him to leave, the boy said.. “Every time I go up to them, because some of my other friends sit with them … if I stay there for a little too long, they’ll be like ‘get out of here’ or something like that,” ABB said..
ABB also told the hearing of how a group of Year 12s recently shouted something along the lines of “Hitler was right to kill them all”.. “I turned around expecting to see somebody staring at me or pointing at me but I found it was just a group of Year 12 boys who were just talking amongst themselves using it for general conversation,” he said.. The boy’s father, ABE, said he no longer recognises this
country, telling the hearing people used to be “a lot more tolerant”.. “All of those Australian idioms that we have for people having a fair go, that seems to have been lost,” he said.. “I would like to see something come out of this commission where we can chart the course back towards that Australia, or that attitude that we had in Australia.” ECAJ researcher targeted with ‘horrifying’ anti-Semitic caricature Executive council of Australian Jewry
(ECAJ) research director Julie Nathan described the “horrifying” moment a sexualised caricature of her was shared on the internet.. The caricature was accompanied with the words “Julie simply desires to be filled with Aryan seed”.. “It’s very much a sexualisation, so you have this Jewish caricature, this is the feminine version of it, with the long, curly hair, and the long fingernails … It was horrifying to see” Ms Nathan told the royal commission.. Ms
Nathan, who authors the Jewish group’s annual report on anti-Semitism in Australia, said a new form of anti-Semitism has emerged since October 7, 2023 telling the hearing there was a 316 per cent rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Australia according to their 2024-2025 annual report.. “We’re getting much more brazen and much more confident coming out and not ashamed or worried about it being anti-Semitic and inciting violence against Jews,” she said.. Online posts or
publications are not included in the report “because there are so many it’s uncountable”, Ms Nathan said.. “It’s like trying to count the stars,” she said.. Pro-Palestine material is also not counted as anti-Jewish, with Ms Nathan explaining a “free Palestine” sticker would only be considered anti-Semitic if it was stuck on a synagogue or a Jewish school, for instance.. “Israel is a state like any other state, and just as we in Australia are
free to criticise our government, our country … we accept that, and even though people may lie about things or may use offensive language,” Ms Nathan said.. “We accept that as being, you know, political discourse or political language.. It’s only when it crosses the line into anti-Semitism, that’s when we will count it as anti Semitic.” The incidents, which are all personally reviewed by Ms Nathan, are recorded under six different categories including: physical
assault, vandalism, verbal abuse, hate messages, graffiti and material such as banners and stickers.. She spoke of some people on social media screenshotting the annual report and making fun of it, saying: “We’re doing well boys, let’s keep the momentum going”.. Fireworks in the street is Israel was ‘counting its dead Fireworks in the streets as Israel was “still counting its dead” in the wake of Hamas’ 2023 attack “set the tone” for the normalisation
of Jewish hate in Australia, the leader of a Jewish organisation has told a hate inquiry.. Many pointed to the Sydney Opera House protest on October 9, 2023, as a critical turning point in the rise of Jewish hate; however, Dor Foundation Tahli Blicblau chief executive instead submitted that scenes at a Western Sydney protest the day prior were pivotal.. “The events of October 7 were described as a day of pride and courage,” Ms
Blicblau told the royal commission on Monday.. “Cars were driving through Western Sydney setting off fireworks … that glorification of violence that night at a time when Israel was still counting its dead really set the tone for a permissive environment in which glorifying violence was accepted and permissible.” Research from the Jewish body, which was established in 2024 to combat anti-Semitism, has revealed that most Australians can’t recognise anti-Semitic tropes.. Radical ideologies had converged
in such a way that anti-Semitism was slipping into public discourse easier, Ms Blicblau said.. “They’re shrouded just enough in language, often of human rights, to be acceptable,” she said.. “Most Australians can’t recognise anti-Semitic tropes when they see them, so they’re presented with these hateful tropes and because they don’t recognise it as being anti-Semitic, it’s more likely to become normalised and accepted.” Ms Blicblau also spoke to the role of online spaces in
helping move anti-Semitism away from “shameful radical fringes”.. “The role of the internet and social media allows these hateful comments to reach millions of people within milliseconds, so in order to combat the new form (of anti-Semitism) … we need to operate there,” Ms Blicblau said.. Eight more witnesses are due to be called on Monday in the second week of hearings.. More to come
Royal Commission anti-Semitism, Jewish teen bullying, Minecraft hate chat, Julie Nathan caricature, ECAJ annual report, Dor Foundation hate inquiry