{"id":65011,"date":"2026-08-04T14:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T14:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/65011\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T14:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T14:07:14","slug":"bondi-victims-father-slams-pro-palestine-hijack-of-antisemitism-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/65011\/","title":{"rendered":"Bondi victim\u2019s father slams pro-Palestine \u2018hijack\u2019 of antisemitism inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"

The father of the Bondi terror \u00adattack\u2019s youngest victim has \u00adaccused the royal commission<\/a> of giving a platform to organisations that support terrorism, as he joins\u00a0the nation\u2019s top Jewish body in condemning pro-Palestine protest groups for trying to hijack the inquiry\u2019s hearing on anti\u00adsemitic protests with \u201cclickbait theatrics and gratuitous slurs against Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n

On a day when the antisemitism royal commission investigated the pro-Palestine protest at the Sydney Opera House where crowds chanted \u201cf..k the Jews\u201d on October 9, 2023, a Jewish leader was pressed on Israel\u2019s military action and Palestinian death tolls instead of domestic antisemitism.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for Palestine Action Group \u2013 which organised Sydney\u2019s infamous February protest against Israeli President Isaac Herzog\u2019s visit \u2013 and the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network were allowed to cross-examine NSW Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip<\/a> during Tuesday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n

With PAG organiser Josh Lees attending the hearing, Mr Ossip rebuffed the group\u2019s lawyer, Dominic Toomey, after he pressed him on specific Israeli air strikes on Gaza on October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the Royal Commission on Antisemitism. We\u2019re dealing with the protests where protesters shouted out, \u2018F the Jews\u2019, \u2018Where are the Jews\u2019, and \u2018I\u2019m going to kill them all\u2019, and I\u2019m a bit confused as to why we\u2019re getting caught up in the minutiae of the timeline of a foreign military operation,\u201d Mr Ossip said.<\/p>\n

Royal commissioner Virginia Bell had to step in when APAN\u2019s\u00a0counsel, Ragni Mathur SC, followed a similar line of \u00adquestioning.<\/p>\n

The lawyers\u2019 attempts to shift the hearing\u2019s focus away from antisemitism and towards Israel drew strong criticism from the Jewish community, including from Michael Britvan, father of 10-year-old Bondi attack victim, Matilda Bee.<\/p>\n

Mr Britvan told The Australian he couldn\u2019t understand why the commission allowed the protest groups, via their lawyers, to cross-examine witnesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I struggle to understand is why supporters of terrorists were allowed to be there in the first place, let alone use the royal commission to ask questions that shift the focus away from the antisemitism that led to it,\u201d Mr Britvan said.<\/p>\n

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin shared the grieving father\u2019s frustrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is deeply concerning that these groups predictably used the opportunity to hijack an examination of lethal antisemitism for their clickbait theatrics and \u00adgratuitous slurs against Israel,\u201d Mr Ryvchin said.<\/p>\n

He told The Australian the protest groups were in no position to ask questions at the royal commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese groups have tried to use a royal commission called in the wake of the Bondi horror \u2014 where I and so many others lost loved ones \u2014 to prosecute the actions of a country they loathe,\u201d Mr Ryvchin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are attempting to redirect the eye because they are culpable for the demonisation of Australian Jews to the extent that we are now routinely threatened, harassed and abused. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey normalised egregious lies of genocide and child-killing which in turn positions anti-Jewish actions as noble and courageous. They should be answering for their abominable actions, not asking the questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a particular focus on two protests during Tuesday\u2019s hearing: a neo-Nazi rally outside NSW parliament last November, where 60 members of the National Socialist Network brandished a banner reading \u201cAbolish the Jewish lobby\u201d; and the pro-Palestine protest on October 9, 2023, where crowds chanted \u201cf..k the Jews\u201d as they lit flares and burned Israeli flags on the steps of the Sydney Opera House. <\/p>\n

In his testimony on Tuesday, Mr Ossip told the royal commission Hamas\u2019s October 7, 2023, \u00adattack on Israel \u201chad a profound psychological impact on the Jewish community of NSW\u201d so the state government\u2019s decision to light the Opera House in the colours of the Israeli flag two days later was moving.<\/p>\n

Mr Ossip said it was \u201cquite \u00adextraordinary\u201d and deeply upsetting then to be told by police to stay away from the Opera House to avoid a potentially unsafe pro-Palestine rally.<\/p>\n

In his cross-examination, Mr\u00a0Toomey put to Mr Ossip that the October 9 rally was motivated by sympathy for Palestinians, not support for Hamas, but Mr Ossip said PAG\u2019s motivations were \u201cextremely difficult to understand\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour clients effectively called for a protest at Town Hall on the evening of seventh of October, whilst the attacks in southern \u00adIsrael were still ongoing, women were still being raped, children were being kidnapped into Gaza, and terrorists were going house to house and burning people alive,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI still don\u2019t understand why they thought calling a \u00adprotest in such circumstances was in any way necessary or justified. I thought their conduct was \u00adappalling.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Mr Ossip said \u201ca lot of the social media activity pertaining to that protest was quite celebratory of (the attack)\u201d, Mr Toomey said: \u201cI want to suggest to you that you have seen nothing that has emanated from the organisers of the rally \u2026 which would suggest in any way that the rally was being convened to celebrate those despicable attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside the commission\u2019s hearing, ECAJ pointed to a Facebook post advertising the Opera House protest that called the October 7 attack a \u201chumiliation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael has declared war on Palestine for the humiliation it suffered today when Palestinians tore down apartheid walls at a Gaza border, and began to enter \u201848 land that is rightfully theirs,\u201d the post read.<\/p>\n

During her cross-examination, Ms Mathur probed Mr Ossip on the number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military before October 7, 2023, which he said he was not prepared for and could not answer.<\/p>\n

Ms Mathur pressed on, asking him if it was his responsibility to \u201ckeep abreast\u201d of such statistics.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I read a wide variety of materials. I think just relying on the United Nations probably doesn\u2019t give you the full scope \u2026 (but) what\u2019s happened to Gaza \u2026 and what Hamas has done to that territory \u2026 has concerned me greatly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInnocent Israelis and innocent Palestinians have really been the victim of a very violent terrorist organisation.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Ms Mathur tried to continue asking about Israel, Ms Bell interrupted to say: \u201cI don\u2019t think\u00a0you\u2019re going to get very far with this.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis witness has acknowledged that it is a very contested history that there have been innocent Palestinian lives lost, just as innocent Israeli lives lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read related topics:Israel<\/a>\"Bimini<\/a><\/p>\n

Bimini Plesser is a reporter for The Australian\u2019s Sydney bureau. She previously worked as a cadet, writing for The Courier-Mail, The Australian\u2019s Brisbane bureau and the Sunshine Coast Daily. Bimini holds a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Queensland. She can be contacted at bimini.plesser@news.com.au.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The father of the Bondi terror \u00adattack\u2019s youngest victim has \u00adaccused the royal commission of giving a 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