Royal commission has created the best record of antisemitism since World War II

August 26, 2026 — 5:30pm

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Professor Steven Prawer walked into his office at the University of Melbourne and found around 20 people waiting for him, most with their faces covered by keffiyehs. He had spent untroubled years running a physics research collaboration with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Other senior staff were involved in the collaboration, but Prawer, who wears a kippah, was the only one visibly Jewish.

He told the people in his office that they were trespassing and asked them to leave. They refused, and as he tried to reach a secure part of the building, two of them followed him and wedged a foot in the door to stop him closing it, chanting, “Prawer, Prawer, you can’t hide, you’re guilty of genocide.”

When he returned to his office later that day, a photograph of him had been vandalised and symbols associated with Hamas had been stuck to his walls.

Accounts like this are now part of the public record of this country, permanently, because a royal commission compelled them.

I made a submission to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. My submission is principally about the malevolent power of the herd and the damage it wrought to a country’s society and democracy. I wrote my submission because I cannot countenance........

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