The royal commission must confront hatred and violence against Jewish Australians while preserving free speech, political criticism of Israel and equal protection for all communities.

The Royal Commission into Anti-semitism and Social Cohesion has heard convincing evidence that Jewish Australians have encountered increasing levels of public hostility over recent years, making many feel deeply insecure, unwelcome and fearful that public violence will be visited upon them. Synagogues have been set on fire, students at Jewish schools have felt more vulnerable and Jewish businesses have been damaged. Right-wing neo-Nazis have increased their public presence and abuse of Jews. The terror, of course, culminated in the massacre at Bondi Beach in December but even before that many had feared such a massacre and feel additionally aggrieved because they think that politicians, security agencies and police were complacent about the clear and present danger of such an incident, failed to take sufficient precautions to prevent it or to reduce the carnage when it started.

These are all good explanations for the public anger within the Australian Jewish community, the wider Jewish world and the leaders of the state of Israel against politicians and agencies seen as exposing Australian Jews to danger.

For many other Australians, most of whom do not harbour anti-semitic ideas, the massacre at Bondi beach was a dreadful shock, among the worst acts of terrorism other than against Aboriginal Australians, ever seen on our soil. Small wonder that it is seen as a political turning point, as well as the beginning of a concerted effort to bolster security protection against any further such incident.

Commissioner Virginia Bell, a former High Court judge, will be justified in sympathising with Jewish Australians for their sense that the state has let them down. Because she is reviewing police and security precautions against acts of violence or hatred directed at Australians, she is also in a good position to make recommendations on what should be done to protect Australians from violence of the sort visited on Jewish Australians during the Hanukkah festival. As ordinary citizens, Jewish Australians are entitled to such protections, in just the same way as other groups of Australians are from being targeted for terror, violence or expressions of extreme hatred.

Where she will be on less sure ground will be in describing the escalating sense of siege felt by many Jewish Australians to an upsurge of anti-semitism. Jewish Australians have felt that they were under attack because many Australians were becoming highly critical of the way in which the Israeli state was making war on the Palestinians citizens of Gaza. Many Jewish Australians are strongly attached to the state of Israel and see criticism of its actions as an attack on their sense of self.

The support of some of them is almost entirely uncritical and is formally attached to their belief in Zionism – the idea that Jews deserve to have a Jewish state. Some Australian Jews are active citizens of Israel, serve in the Israeli armed........

© Pearls and Irritations