Australian rabbis joined the mounting calls for the Australian federal government to initiate a royal commission on Thursday, further urging Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to ban violent slogans and radical protest marches.
The Rabbinical Association of Australasia sent a letter to Albanese explaining that the December 14 Bondi Beach Massacre did not emerge in a vacuum, and the government’s responses to the country’s atmosphere of antisemitism had not been sufficient to rebuild trust or assuage the Jewish community’s fear.
The antisemitic terrorist attack that left 15 dead and 40 wounded was a “manifestation of a climate in which visceral hatred toward Jews” had been allowed “to grow louder, more normalized, and more tolerated.”
“A federal royal commission offers a process that is independent, transparent, and capable of confronting difficult truths authoritatively,” read the letter.
A federal royal commission, rather than the internal government review favored by Albanese, would allow proper review of how antisemitism had been normalized, what role institutions such as universities played in the phenomenon, and how it impacted the Jewish community’s ability to live openly.
The rabbinical organization also wanted an inquiry into any gaps in counter extremism and intelligence coordination and the practical steps required to stop radicalization and violence, amid a Saturday ABC report that the Community Security Group NSW had warned law enforcement about the threat of Islamist terrorism just a week before the Bondi attack.
Rabbinical organization: Antisemitism escalated in Australia over last two years
Antisemitism had escalated in Australia over the last two years, said the rabbinical organization, fuelled by “hate” marches and demonstrations that sought to replace Israel “from the river to the sea” with a Palestinian state and ostensibly to globalize the intifada against World Jewry.
The rabbis, led by association president Rabbi Nochum Schapiro, demanded the banning of the protests and the criminalization of the slogans “Death to the IDF,” “Globalize the Intifada,” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
"This is about restoring and safeguarding Australia's moral compass, founded on the universal moral laws that the Bible gave the world," said the Rabbinical association. "It is also about ensuring that no segment of Australian society is forced to endure what we are enduring now."
“This is about restoring and safeguarding Australia’s moral compass, founded on the universal moral laws that the Bible gave the world,” said the Rabbinical association.
“It is also about ensuring that no segment of Australian society is forced to endure what we are enduring now.”
MP ANDREW WALLACE on Friday welcomed the association’s letter, asserting that the call for a royal commission post Bondi Massacre was a non-partisan demand.
“As Jewish Australians continue to pay the price for inaction, Australians across the political divide are demanding leadership. Prime Minister Albanese must act now and call a Commonwealth Royal Commission into Antisemitism,” Wallace said in a statement.
Last Sunday, Albanese called for a review of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies through the Department of the Prime Minister, led by former department of defense secretary Dennis Richardson.
The rabbinical association said in its letter that the announcement had value, but the community felt that such a process did not have enough transparency and independence to engender public confidence.
Yet the New South Wales government and opposition officials have expressed support for a broader royal commission, with NSW Premier Chris Minns declaring that the state would hold its own royal commission.
At last Sunday’s vigil for the victims of the Hanukkah party massacre, Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion and New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies president David Ossip urged a royal commission. Aghion and the Australian Jewish Association reiterated the Jewish community’s demands following a Thursday Melbourne arson of a Hanukkah-decorated vehicle.
Albanese’s commitment to cracking down on radicalism was brought into question in a Thursday 2GB Sydney radio interview in which he was challenged about past involvement with anti-Israel movements.
Footage from decades ago, published by Sky News, showed Albanese protesting against Israel. At least one Hezbollah flag was present at the protest.