Antisemitism royal commission LIVE updates: Evidence begins on day five of hearing

Eight witnesses are expected to give evidence today about their experiences of antisemitism in Australia.

They include Mia Kline, Aaron Guttmann, Maya Hockey and Sharonne Blum, along with four others granted permission to testify anonymously.

This first block of public hearings – which continues next week – focuses on the definition and nature of antisemitism, its manifestations, its impact on people’s lives, and how it is measured.

You can watch the proceedings below.

Victorian Jewish studies teacher Sharonne Blum, the next witness, describes anti-Zionism as a “hate movement” and a form of anti-Jewish bigotry.

In her view, anti-Zionism “charges that a central part of Jewishness, that being our connection to our ancestral land, is some kind of evil.” She said that criticism of Israel’s military conduct often employed modern versions of old antisemitic tropes.

Commissioner Bell asked if Blum believed it was possible to hold a legitimate, non-antisemitic view that Israel’s military action in Gaza was disproportionate.

Blum said the view could be legitimate; “whether it’s antisemitic or anti-Zionist, that would require a conversation.”

The royal commission is hearing from non-Jewish Australians who are concerned about antisemitism.

One, a lawyer in her 30s, was at a pub with friends in Sydney’s inner-west last year when they struck up a conversation with a group of men at the same table. Talk turned to their ethnic backgrounds.

A man who refused to believe the woman was not Jewish said “you can tell by your big nose and curly hair” and called her a “Jewish rat”. When she objected, he said “that would be just like a sneaky Jew, to deny being a Jew”.

Having studied antisemitic tropes at university, including the rat trope used in propaganda in 1930s’ Germany, the woman said:

I can’t believe it’s like, almost 100 years later, I’m in a pub in the inner-west of Sydney, it’s the 21st century, and this, this trope is still being used, this slur is still being used.

Parent Aaron Guttmann says he was shocked by the level of security at a Sydney Jewish school he and his family toured after relocating to the city in the 2010s.

The “Get Smart” set-up included three layers of security, including bollards, a long gate and “big, burly armed guards”. The level of protection reminded him of a brief trip to Israel, which he “hated” despite having a strong affinity to the Jewish homeland, given the constant security alarms.

“I don’t know if I can live here,” he recalls thinking about Australia, based on his experiences at schools. “Because I don’t want to be confronted with this arsenal of weapons. I understand the need for it and security, but I don’t think it addresses the key problems.”

Guttmann, who works in risk and compliance, says that even if you posted an armed tank outside a school, it couldn’t follow a Jewish person down the street.

Mia Kline, the day’s second witness, is a 22-year-old arts/law student at university in Canberra.

Actively involved in Jewish organisations, Kline says in 2024 she was called to a meeting by her two housemates, whom she considered good friends. They said:

they felt like they’ve been walking on eggshells in the house around me, and that the house wasn’t a safe space for them to have tough political conversations about current events, and that they couldn’t reconcile my views with their values, and that we couldn’t live under one roof.

Kline says she was distraught and moved out. She describes to the royal commission how she went through a process of “de-Jewing” herself – not referring to Jewish engagements in conversation and taking off a Star of David necklace – to avoid antisemitism.

She later wrote a letter to her housemates, telling them she was a “harsh critic of Benjamin Netanyahu, his government and the actions of the IDF” and that she hoped they would come to understand the hurt they had caused her.

Benjamin, who works at a non-Jewish school, recounts the distress of a Jewish year 12 student in the week after the October 7 terrorist attack in 2023.

She was visibly upset. She was sobbing. She was scared not to be at school. She felt that school was a safe place for her. What she was petrified about was leaving our school gates because she said ‘once I leave school, I don’t know’.

Benjamin went on to say that antisemitism was both tolerated and promoted in progressive circles.

“People have replaced the word Jew with Zionist and feel that that’s an acceptable way to say heinous things about the community or Jewish people,” he said.

Benjamin removes his kippah on the way to synagogue and feels afraid to light Hanukkah candles in his window.

Fighting back tears, Benjamin has told the commission that he “feared for my life” on the night of Mardi Gras when he decided to join the parade and march.

“It was a guttural fear”, Benjamin said. “I genuinely thought we were going to be attacked, I genuinely thought that it wasn’t going to end well.”

He said before the march, he sent a message to his sister telling her that if anything should happen to him, he loved her.

“I messaged a work colleague to tell her that if she was to hear anything on the news, that’s where I was and she could be my point of contact. It was a real and genuine fear,” Benjamin said.

“Once we were walking up Oxford Street, it was probably one of the scariest moments of my life in terms of safety.”

He said people shouted at fellow Jews marching in his group that they were “genocide supporters” and “I had someone look straight into my face as I was walking and said: ‘Your government is f---ed, free Palestine.’”

The first witness, known only by the pseudonym Benjamin F, is a teacher librarian who lives in Sydney’s west.

Benjamin grew up Roman Catholic and came out as gay at 18. More recently, he made the decision to convert to Judaism, a process that was finalised in 2022.

In contrast to his coming out, which was a very positive experience, reactions to his conversion were “quite horrific actually”.

“I lost a significant number of friends,” Benjamin said, becoming emotional. “I had people who I would consider lifelong friends and companions who have abandoned me.”

He had also experienced slurs and was told that he was immoral.

Eight witnesses are expected to give evidence today about their experiences of antisemitism in Australia.

They include Mia Kline, Aaron Guttmann, Maya Hockey and Sharonne Blum, along with four others granted permission to testify anonymously.

This first block of public hearings – which continues next week – focuses on the definition and nature of antisemitism, its manifestations, its impact on people’s lives, and how it is measured.

You can watch the proceedings below.

Good morning and welcome to our coverage of the fifth day of this first block of public hearings held by the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.

Yesterday, Commissioner Virginia Bell, a former High Court judge, heard from witnesses working in diverse fields – including sport, media, nursing and the union movement – about the impact of antisemitism on their lives.

Jillian Segal, the special envoy to combat antisemitism, also gave evidence, testifying that antisemitism had become “almost fashionable”.

“If someone that they follow online, an influencer, is of that view, they adopt that view,” Segal said.

The hearings continue in Sydney today and are set to resume at 10am.