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<\/p>\nThe leader of one of the world’s most high-profile Jewish organisations says Australia faces a crucial test on how it tackles the rise of antisemitism as the royal commission resumes in Sydney.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, in its seventh hearing block, the commission will analyse the democratic function of protests, hateful conduct that sometimes occurs at protests and how police manage demonstrations.<\/p>\n
Anti-Defamation League chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt is on the frontline of fighting antisemitism in the United States and has turned his attention to Australia during a visit this week.<\/p>\n
A former White House adviser to Barack Obama, he is among the most senior of Jewish leaders in the US, which is home to about 7.5 million Jewish people.<\/p>\n
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Jonathan Greenblatt (in the blue blazer) says hateful words can lead to more extreme acts. (ABC News: Gavin Coote)<\/p>\n
Lingering consequences of Bondi<\/p>\n
On Monday, Mr Greenblatt, accompanied by Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief Alex Ryvchin, paid his respects at the memorial at the site of the Hanukkah massacre.<\/p>\n
“It is gut-wrenching. I think the massacre in Bondi is an indelible stain on Australia,” Mr Greenblatt told the ABC.<\/p>\n
“This is an injury that Australia always will bear. The question is how Australia moves forward from here.”<\/p>\n
The royal commission is the only high-level judicial inquiry being held into the rise of antisemitism and Mr Greenblatt says Australia needs to reckon with a concerning record.<\/p>\n
A global report published last week by the J7 Large Communities Taskforce Against Antisemitism<\/a> found the number of antisemitic incidents in Australia has surged by 270 per cent since 2021.<\/p>\n That is the highest increase recorded of any country examined in the study, including the US, UK and Canada.<\/p>\n As the head of the oldest anti-hate organisation in the world, Mr Greenblatt said Australia’s long-standing image as a safe place for Jewish people had been “shattered”.<\/p>\n “Antisemitism in Australia did not start with the massacre at Bondi,” he said.<\/p>\n “In fact, a week before was the one-year anniversary of the firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne.<\/p>\n “There had been vandalism of people’s homes, businesses had been defaced \u2026 so you had seen a rash of incidents.<\/p>\n “And indeed, we wondered from afar, where was the Australian government?”<\/p>\n ‘This is what globalise the intifada looks like’<\/p>\n When the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion resumes hearings on Tuesday, a pro-Palestinian protest outside the Sydney Opera House<\/a> in October 2023 and a neo-Nazi rally outside NSW Parliament in November last year will be in the frame.<\/p>\n
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