Witnesses who have given evidence into a hate inquiry sparked by the Bondi terror attack have since borne the brunt of hundreds of abusive online posts, which are largely still online.
Some of the hateful posts have included calls for the reinstation of Holocaust gas chambers.
CEO of The Dor Foundation Tahli Blicblau revealed on Tuesday at the Royal Commission on anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion that data collected by the not-for-profit organisation suggested a minimum of 26 witnesses in the first hearing block had been attacked online in 275 posts across seven platforms.
Ms Blicblau also revealed preliminary findings suggested there had been 70 further examples of online hatred toward the five witnesses who presented at the commission on Monday.
The CEO said the comments sought to “delegitimise” the witness testimonies by comparing them to “cockroaches, vermin and parasites”, sharing “Holocaust glorification” and asserting that the individuals “were crisis actors”.
“There’s a whole body of examples in the Annexure that relate specifically to the Bondi terrorist attack being … fake, staged or self-inflicted.”
The online hatred involved sexually degrading abuse, accusations of pedophilia and calls for Australia to be “the 110th country to expel their Jewish population”.
A report by the Dor Foundation found many code words or deliberate misspelling techniques to avoid posts or comments being reported.
As of the middle of June, Ms Blicblau said only five out of the 150 posts reported to Facebook had been removed, with two others pending amid investigation.
Ms Blicblau said the horrific abuse witnesses have been subjected to online included calls for violence and direct harm as well as calls for the “extermination and expulsion of Jews”.
“It is dehumanising, it is degrading,” she told reporters outside the commission on Tuesday.
“The response from the platforms has been grossly inadequate and in most cases non-existent.
“The vast majority of documented examples of anti-Semitism online remain there today.
“They include direct calls for violence and harms and despite multiple reports to platforms they have not been removed.”
‘Arenas of hate’
Meanwhile, Victorian MP Joshua Burns has described social media platforms as the “arenas of hate” and says more needs to be done to stamp out horrific instances of anti-Semitism online, an inquiry has been told.
Mr Burns told the commission on Tuesday that he could count “on one hand” the instances of Jewish hate he experienced prior to the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
However, “something dramatic shifted” in October 2023, he conceded.
“But never did I grow up thinking being Jewish would be something I would have to hide or something that would prohibit me from reaching any part of Australian society or reaching any of the goals that I would have for my life or for my family,” he said.
Mr Burns told reporters outside the commission that he wanted people to be able to express themselves online, criticise government policy and have a robust democracy and debate.
“But unfortunately, where that descends and disintegrates into abuse and vilification is when people leave the discussion around policy and start making attributes to particular individuals based on their race, religion, gender and ethnicity,” he said.
“Right now, social media platforms are the arenas of hate … and they are the platforms in which people can spread messages of dehumanisation, racism and vilification.”
Social media platforms needed to “prove” they were not “amplifying” hate, Mr Burns added.
“But they are using the conflict and the vilification that is occurring from one group to another in order to attract people and put people online,” he said.
“Because to me that’s what it seems like they’re doing. That they are designing their algorithms in a way that is sending content that is only being reacted by the most inflammatory and awful responses in order to keep people on their platforms and I think they have a lot of air to breathe.”
Shocking anti-Semitism targets schoolgirls
Mr Burns said on one occasion while in Canberra he had a group of year 9 girls from a Jewish school visiting.
“And I said to them … put up your hand if you’ve experienced anti-Semitism. And they all put up a hand,” he said.
“I said, all right … well, let’s dissect that, put up your hand if you’ve had someone shout at you, and barely a hand went down.
“These are year 9 girls who are distinctly dressed in … school uniforms that have a modest and religious design to them …. being screamed at because they’re Jewish.”
Representing the largest Jewish electorate in Victoria gave Mr Burns a front-row view into the “complete dehumanisation” of his faith.
In 2024, he said it was “surreal” to watch media footage of a group of at least five people destroying his St Kilda electorate office, graffitiing horns on his image and setting telecommunications pits on fire.
The politician said if “smashing up (his) offices was going to bring about peace in the Middle East” he would have done it himself.
“All it did was just cost $100,000 to fix and scared a lot of people.”
The “proud Australian” said the bigger problem is when people draw more subtle links and start “justifying” anti-Semitic attacks.
“It’s like being stabbed twice; once for the anti-Semitism and once being blamed for being stabbed in the first place,” he told the commission.
“The criticism is that somehow Jewish people are loyal and held responsible for the actions of the Israeli government.”
‘Black hole’ for anti-Semitic reports
Having experienced thousands of online attacks involving vilification of his character and violent threats, Mr Burns said he had felt “great frustration” with the reporting process of social media platforms.
“(They) drive traffic to the darkest society, where the people that are the most antagonistic are sent the content that they are likely to be abusive on,” he said.
He described the process of complaints just “disappear(ing) into a black hole” after only three of his 44 Instagram reports resulted in posts being taken down.
Jewish band inappropriate
Musician Ben Adler described the injustice of being told his Jewish band Chutney was no longer an “appropriate” headliner for a Victorian folk festival a month after the October 7 attack.
Shortly after the Hamas terror attack that killed 1200 people, Mr Adler said organisers arranged for the group to instead “perform behind closed doors”.
“The subtext being there was that the path of least resistance for them was to just remove the Jews from the public space to prevent any kind of outrage boiling over on social media or in other spaces that would threaten their festival,” he told the commission.
Ahead of their gig, the band experienced firebombing threats and constant negotiation with organisers to regain their position amid the doxxing of a Jewish WhatsApp group, of which Mr Adler was a member.
With one particular post threatening to “finally do something with … molotov cocktails”, the musician reported the incident to police in September 2025.
However, Mr Adler was left “urgently and desperately want(ing) some clarity” months later without any clear police response.
“I was reflecting on what could have been if a molotov cocktail fit had actually proved real for a thousand Jews lining up on Collins St in Melbourne. Who knows … it could have been another Bondi.”
Threads hate campaign
“Maybe (Hitler) was right” was just one of the many “venomous” comments Randwick City councillor Daniel Rosenfeld received when sharing his identity as the grandson of Holocaust survivors.
In a 2026 Threads post, Mr Rosenfeld said he was “honoured” to attend the Evening of Light and Solidarity which was attended by Israeli president Isaac Herzog.
The politician subsequently suffered through a social media hate campaign likening him and other attendees to the devil.
“It is very insulting, being called evil – it’s probably one of the worst things you can be called,” he told the commission.
“I found it bewildering that a platform like Threads would allow so many of these comments to be made and … to not be taken down.”
The commission resumed this week for its third block of hearings after receiving more than 20,000 submissions.
It was set up in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack in Sydney’s east that killed 15 innocent people who were celebrating Chanukah on December 14.
The commission’s final report is due to be handed down in December, a year on from the Bondi attack.
The inquiry continues.
More to come.