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Why the antisemitism Royal Commission is boiling over · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian, here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: It's Friday, August 7, 2026. A United States military base
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: in Western Australia. The Australians revealing today plans are well
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: advanced to stand up a Navy presence of 2,300 American
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: personnel to support the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal. Ben Packham
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: has the exclusive right now at theaustralian.com.au. More than 54,000
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: people who are not citizens of Australia have used the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: federal government's 5% housing deposit scheme. Permanent residents are eligible
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: for the scheme, designed to support first home buyers into property,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: even if they own houses overseas. Emotions are running high
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: at the Bondi Beach Massacre Royal Commission, with accusations of
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: grandstanding and the pursuit of clickbait, and even the commissioners
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: getting fired up. Today, how one Jewish leader found himself
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  Speaker 1: being cross-examined about the actions of Israel at a forum
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  Speaker 1: many thought would be about easing tensions rather than inflaming them.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Our reporter Bimini Plesser is here in just a moment.
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  Speaker 1: It's nearly three years since the October 9, 2023 protest
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  Speaker 1: on the steps of the Opera House.
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  Speaker 2: But the anger is still reverberating.
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  Speaker 3: Because you had protesters proudly screaming, F the Jews, wear
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  Speaker 3: the Jews. One individual screamed out, I'm going to kill
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  Speaker 3: them all. There were flares being thrown at the police.
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  Speaker 3: There were flags being burnt. It was a scene of
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  Speaker 3: international disgrace and infamy. It's amongst the clearest examples of
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: anti-Semitism we've seen over the past few years.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: David Ossip is a 34-year-old lawyer and former local politician
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  Speaker 1: who works at an energy company. He's recently got married
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  Speaker 1: and welcomed a first baby. And for the past four years,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: he's been president of the Jewish Board of Deputies, an
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: umbrella body with representatives elected by Jewish hospitals, schools, synagogues
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  Speaker 1: and community organisations. That's made Ossip one of the Australian
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Jewish community's most visible public faces. And this week, he
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: found himself being cross-examined about the actions of the State
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: of Israel.
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: You understood, didn't you, and you appreciated that Palestinian Australians
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: were likewise filled with deep fear with respect to what
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: the future held for those in the occupied territory.
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  Speaker 3: Look at... I'm not the best place to opine on
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: what Palestinian Australians were feeling.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: This exchange is from the Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Social Cohesion. And covering the story is our reporter, Bimini Plesser.
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  Speaker 5: When protesters decided to rally on that October 9, when
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: the Opera House was to be lit up in the
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: colours of the Israeli flag, the Jewish community was rattled.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: They were upset.
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  Speaker 5: And then when language like, fuck the Jews... was heard
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  Speaker 5: at that protest and Israeli flags were burned, he said
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  Speaker 5: that was almost salt in the wound or that it
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  Speaker 5: stole the chance for the local community to go to
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: the Opera House and see those colours and mourn those
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: lost in the attack.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: Ossip was in the witness box to give evidence about
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: public protests and police responses.
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: Tuesday was a little bit different because David Ossip wasn't
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: necessarily talking about his personal experience or the general concept
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: of antisemitism. And because it was about these protests and
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: specific groups, namely Palestine Action Group and the Australia Palestine
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: Advocacy Network, they were in the limelight per se. And
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  Speaker 5: so their lawyers were given leave to cross-examine David Ossip.
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  Speaker 5: And so they were able to ask him about all
• 4:11
  Speaker 5: the evidence he'd submitted and the qualms he had with
• 4:15
  Speaker 5: those protests.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there was Dominic Toomey SC, the lawyer for the
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Palestine Action Group. That's the group that's been organising the
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: big city protests that have been going on really since
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: October 7. And then Ragini Mathur SC, she's the lawyer
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: for the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, an associated but different group.
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  Speaker 1: And they've been given leave by the Royal Commissioner to
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: cross-examine David Osip on two parts of his statement.
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  Speaker 3: Why?
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  Speaker 2: What about those parts were controversial?
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  Speaker 5: Parts of it that were specifically discussed in that cross-examination
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  Speaker 5: were David Ossip asserted that the protest at the Opera
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: House on October 9 was planned to go ahead before
• 4:58
  Speaker 5: Israel ever launched a response to the October 7 attack.
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: And so that was definitely put to him first. In
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: that hearing, in that cross-examination, he definitely doubled down on
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  Speaker 5: that assertion. But as those questions were being put to him,
• 5:12
  Speaker 5: he was asked about certain airstrikes that the IDF supposedly
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: launched against Gaza. And he sort of stopped the questioning
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  Speaker 5: and said, I don't really understand why on a day
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  Speaker 5: when we're focusing on anti-Semitism in Australia and protests that
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: impacted Sydney's Jewish community, why are we getting caught up in,
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: his words, the minutiae of a foreign military's actions?
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  Speaker 1: This goes right to the heart of this very hot
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  Speaker 1: debate that's been going on between advocates for the Palestinian
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  Speaker 1: community and for the Jewish community in Sydney, doesn't it?
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  Speaker 2: This is the issue.
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  Speaker 1: Why was a protest held at the Opera House where
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: there were chants allegedly of where's the Jews or fuck
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  Speaker 1: the Jews or maybe even gas the Jews when Israel
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: hadn't done anything?
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  Speaker 2: That's David Ossip's point. Israel had not yet responded.
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  Speaker 6: I want to suggest to you that you have seen
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  Speaker 6: nothing that has emanated from the organisers of the rally,
• 6:11
  Speaker 6: namely the Palestine Action Group, which would suggest in any
• 6:16
  Speaker 6: way that the rally was being convened to celebrate those
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  Speaker 6: despicable attacks.
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  Speaker 3: Unfortunately for the organisers, when you hold an event, you're
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: responsible for what takes place at that event, and there
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: was certainly access.
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  Speaker 1: Rani Matur took him to statements that had been made
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  Speaker 1: by the IDF, by the government of Israel, by Benjamin Netanyahu,
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  Speaker 1: in which it was clear that they were going to
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  Speaker 1: launch offensive action against Gaza, even that, you know, power
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  Speaker 1: and water supplies had been cut off to the Gaza Strip.
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  Speaker 4: The following day, he declared war. And it's that statement,
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  Speaker 4: Mr Ossip, do you agree that it does not align
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  Speaker 4: with your assertion in paragraph 51?
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  Speaker 3: No, I stand by my assertion.
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  Speaker 5: Completely, as I've told you before.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, this is a legitimate field for debate. What
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: was Israel going to do? Was it legitimate for Palestinian
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: people or their supporters to be angry or upset about that?
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  Speaker 1: The issue is, was it OK for this to be
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: happening at the Royal Commission, right?
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  Speaker 5: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: So David Ossip's real qualm and what other Jewish leaders
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: have since chimed in on is this whole hearing block.
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  Speaker 5: It was one day. There was one day dedicated to
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: protests and their impact on the local Jewish community. And
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: so David Ossip and others were pretty frustrated that on
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: that hearing, on that day, the focus was trying to
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: be shifted towards Israeli military conduct.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: This exchange between Osip and Matur quickly made its way
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: to social media. And Alex Rivchen, the co-chief executive of
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: the Executive Council of Australian Jury, spoke to you about it.
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  Speaker 2: What did he say?
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  Speaker 5: He basically said that he was appalled at the lawyers'
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  Speaker 5: line of questioning. He felt like the Jewish community was
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: given a chance to discuss why they were upset to
• 8:04
  Speaker 5: see those protests happen here. and how it affected them here.
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  Speaker 5: And so he took it far enough to say that
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  Speaker 5: the lawyers shouldn't have been questioning David Ossip. But the
• 8:15
  Speaker 5: protesters should have been the one being probed on why
• 8:18
  Speaker 5: they did hold those protests then.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: And then Virginia Bell fired back the next day.
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so Wednesday morning's hearing after opening statements went pretty quickly.
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  Speaker 5: Virginia Bell stopped the hearing and said that she disagreed
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  Speaker 5: because Alex's words were that the hearing was hijacked and
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: the focus was steered away. Virginia Bell said it was
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  Speaker 5: not hijacked and the line of questioning was fair enough
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: because it was pointing to factual parts of Mr.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: Ossoff's statement.
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  Speaker 1: Here's David Ossip being cross-examined by Dominic Toomey SC, counsel
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  Speaker 1: for the Palestine Action Group.
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  Speaker 6: I'm addressing assertions that you have made and asking you
• 9:01
  Speaker 6: whether you are aware of contrary facts. That is, that
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  Speaker 6: indeed on the 7th of October, airstrikes had been commenced
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  Speaker 6: by the Israel Defence Force on the Gaza Strip.
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  Speaker 3: I think, and I'm happy to address that again, but
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  Speaker 3: I think this line of questioning is very instructive. Mr.
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  Speaker 4: Ossip, if the line of questioning falls outside matters that are.
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  Speaker 2: Properly before me, I will rule.
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  Speaker 6: The question inadmissible.
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  Speaker 2: I have not made that ruling.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, Commissioner. I fully respect that.
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  Speaker 2: David Ossip is a tough guy.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, he's out there in the public domain all
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: the time putting his point of view very forcefully. He's
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  Speaker 1: clearly someone who can hold his own in a debate.
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  Speaker 1: He held his own in the cross-examination, right, although there
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: were objections from some.
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  Speaker 2: Of the other lawyers.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think he needed to be defended by Alex
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  Speaker 1: and needed to have it turn into a dispute with
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the commissioners?
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  Speaker 2: That's a fair question.
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  Speaker 5: I think it was clear in the hearing that he
• 10:03
  Speaker 5: was pretty solid. He didn't seem rattled by the questions
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  Speaker 5: that were being put to him. He did have things
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  Speaker 5: to say about them and questioned their relevance. But he
• 10:14
  Speaker 5: seemed pretty sure of himself and his answers. I think
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  Speaker 5: the reason that someone like Alex and also the father
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  Speaker 5: of Matilda B, the 10-year-old girl who was killed at Bondi,
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  Speaker 5: he also chimed in with very similar frustrations about that
• 10:25
  Speaker 5: focus being redirected. I think those came in from a
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  Speaker 5: place of being representatives of a Jewish community who lost
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  Speaker 5: people and seeing a hearing that they felt was a
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  Speaker 5: chance to probe the social fracturing that led to that
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  Speaker 5: sort of conflict or that incident in December. they felt
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  Speaker 5: frustrated and aggrieved almost that the limelight was taken away
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  Speaker 5: there or attempted to be. And so I don't necessarily
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  Speaker 5: think someone like Alex was chiming in to defend David Ossip,
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  Speaker 5: but more so as a representative of a community that
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  Speaker 5: felt like the focus was shifted away on a day
• 11:02
  Speaker 5: when it should have been here.
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  Speaker 1: It's called the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion
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  Speaker 1: in that order. I think there are some people in
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: the community who would prefer it to be focusing also
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: on Islamophobia and discrimination against Muslim people, or maybe on
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the conflict more generally. The Jewish community, by and large,
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  Speaker 1: I think, regards this as a bit of a truth-telling process, though,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: don't they?
• 11:26
  Speaker 5: On that Islamophobia point... When Virginia Bell stopped the hearing
• 11:32
  Speaker 5: on Wednesday to discuss this, she pointed out that the
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: counsel for APAN, Rani Matur, had been hit with a
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: barrage of emails in the less than 24 hours since
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: that hearing started. until Wednesday, that were, in her words,
• 11:48
  Speaker 5: like vile, abusive, Islamophobic language. And she really did make
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: a point to say, in the same way that people
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: like David Ossip, who get up and discuss how anti-Semitism
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: has impacted the Jewish community, no one who is Muslim
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: or even representing a group that might be affiliated with
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: Muslim people should be targeted by Islamophobia. So that has
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: been touched on in the commission.
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: It doesn't reflect well... on those who make either anti-Semitic
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: or Islamophobic attacks on the interests that they seek to promote.
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: I'll say no more about that.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: The hearings have been now going for three months and
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: the point of a Royal Commission is to deliver a
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: report and some recommendations to the government. But really, I
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: think the point of a Royal Commission is the public hearings.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, this is where Virginia Bell can make her impact.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: I know they're being very closely watched around Australia, getting
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: great numbers, I think, for the Royal Commission on their website.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: But it's an important debate to be having. Where is
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: it going now?
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: In the past few months, we've heard a lot about
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: the impact of anti-Semitism, but recently we've turned our focus
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: towards what's driving those attitudes and extremism generally. So Sarah
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: Mega from the University of Melbourne spoke on Thursday about
• 13:09
  Speaker 5: how deeply ingrained misogyny is in a lot of variations
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: of hate, including antisemitism.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: That's interesting, isn't it?
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  Speaker 1: We hear a lot about Andrew Tate and kind of
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: the manosphere, but I've never heard it linked directly to antisemitism.
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it was interesting because she did in her testimony
• 13:26
  Speaker 5: touch on the fact that students in schools have been
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: known to be influenced by figures like Andrew Tate. She
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: even mentioned instances of teen boys making rape jokes on campus.
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  Speaker 5: But what was interesting was the way she said misogyny
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: is identifiable in almost every kind of hate that researchers
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: see coming up in Australia. She also said negative attitudes
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  Speaker 5: or violent attitudes towards women were kind of key indicators
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  Speaker 5: that a young individual might have violent tendencies or might
• 13:57
  Speaker 5: be prone to to finding an interest in extremist ideologies
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: in Australia.
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  Speaker 1: One very masculine movement is the neo-Nazis in Australia. They
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: did a very memorable protest out the front of New
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: South Wales Parliament late in 2025. That was when a
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: whole bank of them stood in black clothing, holding up
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: a sign saying, abolish the Jewish lobby. The government was
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: clearly shocked and kind of scrambled to change the law
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: after that.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: What have we heard about that protest?
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  Speaker 5: So that protest did form part of Tuesday's hearing when
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: we were looking into protests generally. A representative from New
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: South Wales police said that the higher ups simply did
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: not know the protest was coming. So even though there
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: was a Form 1 submission from the White Australia group,
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: which is quite notorious, that literally said that these 60
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: men were going to hold a banner saying abolish the
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: Jewish lobby. that wasn't mentioned to senior police or the
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: state government. So it wasn't until the few hours, less
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: than 24 hours before that protest, that key figures in
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: the state government and the police actually knew it was coming.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: That protest left a lot of Jewish people feeling afraid
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: and shocked, especially as, you know, you mentioned the Form
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: 1 in New South Wales, like in most liberal democracies,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: the police's job is to approve and then manage protests.
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so even though the police... these people do have
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: a right to protest. So the police just have to
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: manage that safely. But what the commission heard on Tuesday
• 15:24
  Speaker 5: is that there was an intention to inform the Jewish
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: community that this protest was coming, that these things might
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: be said, that they may want to steer clear or
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: at least just have a heads up. But due to
• 15:35
  Speaker 5: a breakdown in communication, that notification never happened. So community
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: representatives were not told and Jewish people were really caught
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: off guard by such an extreme protest directed pretty clearly
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: at them.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Bimini, thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Bimini Plesa is a reporter with The Australian. You can
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: check out our coverage of the Royal Commission live at theaustralian.com.au.