On December 14, 2025, 15 people were killed and dozens wounded in a terror attack during a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. In the wake of the deadliest terror attack on Australian soil, the Albanese government established the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion in January 2026.

This violence against the Jewish community was not an isolated incident. Evidence indicates that 2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks outside Israel in 30 years.

In Australia, the Bondi terror attack followed two years of rapidly escalating antisemitism, including arson at the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne – designated as a terror attack – and another arson attack at a kosher restaurant in Sydney. Both events have since been attributed by ASIO to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

There have also been threats towards and the targeting of Jewish schools and community leaders. Online abuse has frequently resulted in criticism of Israel being extended to hostility to Jews, irrespective of their political views.

This hostility and hatred has been extended to royal commission witnesses. People who have described their experience of antisemitism to the commission have been subjected to significant online antisemitic abuse in the hours and days after.

I study extremism in all its forms. Since the commission’s hearings began on May 4, I’ve worked with the Dor Foundation – a charity researching antisemitism in Australia – to document and verify more than 1,300 such posts directed at witnesses. We then submitted them to the commission as evidence.

What the monitoring shows

Dor used social media monitoring tools alongside daily manual searching to identify antisemitic posts. A second analyst then viewed the post for confirmation. We applied a conservative threshold to separate legitimate political criticism and debate from abuse and antisemitic........

© The Conversation