4 hours ago
2
Exposure to antisemitism in education and health settings as well as the arts, sport and online is detailed in a “significant number” of the 3500 submissions lodged with the royal commission into the Bondi killings ahead of the release of its interim report next week.
The royal commission on Friday provided an update on the number of submissions it has received and confirmed that it would highlight “issues requiring urgent or immediate action” and make recommendations related to the Bondi attack in its interim report, due next Thursday.
The commission’s first report since its inception earlier this year will focus on the security agencies and any potential intelligence failures that may have led to the terrorist attack, in which 15 mostly Jewish people were killed on the first night of Hanukkah at an event at Bondi Beach on December 14 last year.
However, Commissioner Virginia Bell has previously stressed that the commission “must do its work without risking any prejudice” to criminal proceedings involving alleged gunman Naveed Akram, who was charged with 15 counts of murder and 40 of attempted murder after the mass shooting.
For this reason, she said that hearing evidence from “people who may be witnesses in the criminal proceeding would create that risk and, for that reason, it will not occur”.
The commission has so far received more than 3500 submissions, which are yet to be made public.
“At this point a significant number of submissions cover the breadth of the royal commission’s terms of reference, detailing lived experience of antisemitism across various sectors including education, employment, media, health, the arts, sport and online,” a commission spokesperson said.
Some groups have decided to share their submissions or detail what they contain, including a school principal from The King David School, a progressive Jewish school in Melbourne. Principal Marc Light in a blog post on the school’s website said taxpayers must foot the bill for protecting the Jewish community.
“We ask that the commission recommends that the government takes full responsibility for the full cost of security measures,” Light said in the post.
“We assert that it is unconscionable that it is more expensive to be safe if you are Jewish than if you are not. Jews simply should not be required to pay a ‘safety tax’ to live normal lives.”
Similarly, the Jewish non-profit group StandWithUs says in its submission that Australia should follow the lead of European countries, such as Italy, where the army has a permanent role in protecting Jewish sites and places of worship.
The group calls on the Commonwealth, in partnership with the states and territories, to “urgently review the feasibility of establishing a permanent protective security presence for Jewish sites, schools and places of worship”.
The first block of royal commission public hearings will start in Sydney on May 4 and will focus on defining antisemitism, the lived experiences of antisemitism and its impacts on Jewish Australians, and metrics for assessing the prevalence of antisemitism in institutions and society.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
