<\/p>\n
Witnesses giving evidence to a royal commission examining antisemitism in Australia have been targeted with death threats and vile abuse, prompting a federal police investigation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The royal commission, launched in response to the Bondi terror attack, featured testimony from Aussies with lived experience of antisemitism earlier this month. <\/p>\n
But after the witnesses gave their evidence, more than 1,000 abusive posts and comments were directed at them online. <\/p>\n
The revolting comments included calls to \u201cexecute all Zionists\u201d and \u201ckill all Jews\u201d, branding witnesses as \u201ccockroach\u201d, \u201cparasite\u201d, and \u201crat\u201d. <\/p>\n
They also featured Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories, described the Bondi attack as a \u201cfalse flag,\u201d and called for \u201cconcentration camps\u201d to be set up in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I could tell you I was surprised,\u201d Dor Foundation CEO Tahli Blicblau, whose organisation catalogued the abuse, told news.com.au. <\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately we have been aware of this sort of conduct online \u2014 and increasingly offline \u2014 for a long time. It certainly has escalated,\u201d Ms Blicblau said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is horrific, and I think the fact it\u2019s become normalised certainly doesn\u2019t make it acceptable or tolerable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt absolutely defines the vital importance of the commission and its work. This commission is basically a self-generating evidence machine; every day that it continues, new evidence demonstrating its critical importance is coming to light.\u201d<\/p>\n
President of the Mount Sinai College board, Stefanie Schwartz, was among the witnesses who gave evidence this month, telling the inquiry there was a \u201csense of fear and anxiety\u201d within the school community in the wake of Bondi.<\/p>\n
The school, which has around 400 students, was targeted with antisemitic graffiti last January.<\/p>\n
Just as students were returning from summer break, vandals spray-painted the walls of the school and a neighbouring property with offensive slurs, including the phrase \u201cJew dogs\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ms Schwartz said some Jewish families had decided not to enrol their children there because they felt it was too risky. <\/p>\n
\u201cExecute all Zionists, it is a terrorist cult,\u201d was one of the comments made online in response to Ms Schwartz, while another referred to her as \u201cwhining Zionist scum\u201d.<\/p>\n
Sheina Gutnick, whose father Reuven Morrison was killed while heroically hurling objects at the Bondi gunmen, said there had been a disturbing shift in antisemitism since 2023.<\/p>\n
The grieving mum, 31, opened up about an incident at Westfield shopping centre in Bondi in 2024 when a stranger pointed at her star of David necklace and called her a \u201cf***ing terrorist\u201d.<\/p>\n
In response to her testimony this month, an online commentator wrote: \u201cF*** her and her …subhuman father.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ajax (Australian Jewish Amateur Association) Junior Football Club President Daniel Onas also gave evidence to the commission, describing a string of incidents that included players being called \u201cf***ing Jews\u201d and parents labelled \u201cJewish dogs\u201d at an under-18s final. <\/p>\n
In response to that testimony, a commentator wrote online, \u201cHitler should have completely finished his work\u201d. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, testimony from Australia\u2019s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, attracted comments calling her \u201cZionist pig,\u201d \u201cZionist b****\u201d and a \u201ccockroach (that) needs to be sprayed\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cHow do we eradicate this filth and scum?\u201d another commentator wrote about the witnesses. \u201cCan we rework the no longer used oil refineries as, I don\u2019t know, makeshift concentration camps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Blicblau described the comments as a \u201ccesspit\u201d and said the evidence before the commission should be subject to fair critical debate, but \u201cit\u2019s got to be done in a respectful way, not in a way that calls for violence and death and annihilation\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cImagine if it was said in a playground or in a workplace,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t accept it there, so why do we accept it in a place where it can be seen by thousands, if not millions of people?\u201d<\/p>\n
Royal Commissioner Virginia Bell addressed the issue during Tuesday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have received reports from a number of witnesses concerning a dramatic increase in online hate messages,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI should indicate that in one instance the matter has been referred to the Australian Federal Police for investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioner Bell said the inquiry was \u201ckeeping a close eye\u201d on offensive social media posts and recording them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe AFP has received a report of crime in relation to this matter,\u201d an AFP spokesperson told news.com.au.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn investigation has been commenced by the National Security Investigations team. Further comment will be made at an appropriate time.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Dor Foundation is an Australian not-for-profit organisation established to combat antisemitism and hate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.news.com.au \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Witnesses giving evidence to a royal commission examining antisemitism in Australia have been targeted with death threats and vile abuse, prompting a federal police investigation. The royal commission, launched in response to the Bondi terror attack, featured testimony from Aussies with lived experience of antisemitism earlier this month. But after the witnesses gave their evidence, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2434824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[386846,21823,382836,477817,477821,477822,477809,381927,477819,477812,477801,477825,477816,420185,477814,477827,477828,371172,477810,477829,477807,382828,477823,477815,477806,477808,477804,477820,477802,477813,477799,477811,477805,477826,359871,477818,424475,477803,477824,469362,477800],"class_list":["post-2434823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty","tag-agence-france-presse","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-branding-witnesses","tag-close-eye","tag-concentration-camps","tag-conducting-hearings","tag-conspiracy-theories","tag-daniel-onas","tag-dor-foundation","tag-experience-witness","tag-federal-police-investigation","tag-harrison-christian","tag-intelligence-agencies","tag-jewish-amateur-association","tag-jillian-segal","tag-junior-football-club","tag-law-enforcement","tag-makeshift-concentration-camps","tag-mount-sinai-college","tag-national-security-investigations","tag-oceania","tag-offensive-social-media","tag-oil-refineries","tag-online-hate-messages","tag-permanent-officers","tag-richard-dobson","tag-royal-commission","tag-school-community","tag-security-environment","tag-security-failuressky","tag-security-requests","tag-self-generating-evidence-machine","tag-sharri-markson","tag-social-media-posts","tag-stefanie-schwartz","tag-terror-attack","tag-terrorist-cult","tag-vile-abuse","tag-virginia-bell","tag-witnesses-cop-death"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/\u2018Execute-all-Royal-Commission-witnesses-cop-death-threats-and-vile.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2434823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2434825,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434823\/revisions\/2434825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2434824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2434823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2434823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2434823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}