Media release: City of Melbourne cancels Jewish Israeli woman’s seminar over “potential protest activity”
On Friday 24 July 2026, outside the final Naarm/Melbourne sitting of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, eight submissions were read aloud in the street. One had been formally refused permission to appear. Others were lodged with the Commission months ago and have never been answered. This is the full transcript of what was said.
Thank you everyone for gathering here today outside the Royal Commission. We are here for the Royal Omission.
My name is Keren Rubinstein and I’m what the Commission might call an Israeli Jewish Australian, and I’m here on behalf of Anti-Zionism Australia, which is a non-denominational organisation that opposes Zionism as racist settler-colonialism.
We’re standing on sovereign First Nations land today, and we honour First Nations peoples’ inalienable connection with Country, and thank them for their stewardship under which all life flourished. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present, and stand in solidarity with all anticolonial struggle around the world.
We are also living during a live-streamed mass killing of Palestinians, perpetrated by the Zionist colonial project. This is a killing that’s enabled, endorsed and materially supported by Australia. And in response, Australia has convened this Royal Commission — not into the genocide, or Zionist lobbying, media complicity in genocide, or many violations of international law. No, the Commission is into the hurt feelings of a group of people who are said to be suffering the most.
Let me tell you what I hate about it.
I hate that this Commission’s terms of reference were written on Zionist premises — namely the IHRA, the definition of antisemitism. This is a dodgy definition, treating criticism of a state as a threat to a people on the other side of the planet. These terms quietly conscript this country into defending Israel’s conduct.
I hate that those same terms of reference say nothing about the violence this colony itself was founded on. And I hate that the whole process has been run — mismanaged — by people with a direct interest in manufacturing consent for the crimes Israel is perpetrating in Gaza, Lebanon, and elsewhere.
I hate that while this Commission burns millions of dollars examining hurt feelings, the most persistent, measurable racism in this country — against Indigenous people, against Arabs, against Muslims, against people of colour — these go unexamined. Nobody has convened a Royal Commission into that — and when they did, they neglected to act on any of its urgent recommendations.
I hate the phrase “social cohesion”. It isn’t a neutral term. It’s what powerful institutions say when they want dissent to look like disorder — “Look at this disorder!” — when they want diversity of thought to look like a threat to the nation itself. But the pro-Palestine movement — the beautiful movement that we’re part of — has swelled with solidarity, compassion and unprecedented growth.
I hate that when Australians are angry — rightly angry about preferential treatment for Zionists, and unprecedented normalised violence against Palestinians — and that this Commission exists anyway, treating our anger as the problem to be managed rather than a response to criminal injustice on a mass scale.
So let me ask some questions.
How many Jewish deaths in custody has this country recorded?
How many Jewish families have been evicted from their homes because of their faith?
Has there been a documented rise in public calls for the ethnic cleansing of Jewish Australians?
No.
And that gap matters — because it is not a technicality, it’s the whole point. There is no equivalence between coloniser and colonised. None. And a Commission that treats the discomfort of the powerful as equivalent to the annihilation of the powerless has already failed before its first hearing.
I hate that this Commission functions as hasbara. Hasbara is Hebrew for “explaining” — or colonialist propaganda — dressed up as an inquiry into hate. Imagine if it was illegal here to criticise the White Australia policy. Imagine if advocating for Indigenous suffrage had been treated as an existential threat to us non-Indigenous Australians. We would not accept that logic applied to our own history, and we should not accept it applied to someone else’s present.
Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. Anti-Zionism is anti-racism — and that’s everybody’s business!
Next, I will let each speaker who’s come today to deliver their own submissions to the Royal Commission introduce themselves. And we hope to get through about eight or so people who were brave enough to come today. So let’s give them a big applause.
My name is Rebecca. I live in Melbourne’s Inner South.
I submitted my statement to this Royal Commission in April, with full documentation and evidence — including video footage of violent attacks on myself and others by pro-Israel groups.
I have not heard a word back.
I’m here today because this Royal Commission is ignoring our evidence, and distracting our Government and our media from the genocide being committed by Israel.
I am a Jewish Australian. My grandparents and father were Holocaust survivors. In 1938 my grandfather was imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp. On his release, the family made their way to Australia. They thrived in the democratic society they joined — started a business, built a good life free from discrimination.
Our family were refugees. We were raised to be compassionate, especially toward people less fortunate than ourselves. That is what Tikkun Olam means: repair the world.
Since October 2023 I’ve been verbally and physically attacked by pro-Israel activists on multiple occasions. First while handing out Greens election flyers, then during peaceful banner drops. I was pushed and shoved, alongside other Jewish women older than myself. My property was damaged and stolen.
We’ve been called self-hating Jews. Kapos. Senile old women. Terrorists and baby killers. We’ve been told we are not really Jewish — by pro-Israel Jews. Hateful and violent comments about us were posted in Jewish Facebook groups for anyone to read.
We feel we have no choice but to speak out.
One of the groups that harasses us is the Lions of Zion. Its founding organiser previously organised with Nazi groups in Melbourne’s anti-lockdown movement.
These are the people who are harassing us in the name of fighting antisemitism.
Police responses have been inadequate and demoralising. In my experience, senior police have acted only on behalf of pro-Israel Jews crying antisemitism.
Antisemitism is being weaponised for political gain. Falsely accusing political opponents of antisemitism, to suppress criticism of Israel and to silence diverse Jewish voices.
That in itself is a form of antisemitism.
This Government appointed Jillian Segal as Antisemitism Envoy. Her appointment is counterproductive and dangerous.
She has conflated legitimate political protest with antisemitism. She has relied on statistics from pro-Israel organisations that intimidate Jewish Australians who hold different views. Her job description says she represents diverse Jewish voices. She has never once spoken to us.
When neo-Nazis attacked Camp Sovereignty, she refused to comment. My son happened to be at Camp Sovereignty at the time and it was terrifying to him.
The day after Bondi, with fifteen people murdered, she named the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge protest and Bondi Beach — “each a progression”. A massacre, blamed on a peaceful movement — denying Australians the space to mourn and process the tragedy together.
She was appointed to combat antisemitism. I believe she is using it.
Exceptionalism around antisemitism — elevating it above every other form of racism — makes Jewish people less safe, not more. It isolates us. It tells every other community in this country that their safety comes second to ours. It turns us into the reason that free speech is being curtailed.
Allowing any group to be vilified makes us all less safe. All racism must be addressed equally.
The four things I recommended to the Royal Commission are:
Embrace the full diversity of Jewish voices. Let us be heard in government and in the media. Fund the events that bring Jewish and Palestinian communities together — the Jewish Council of Australia has been doing that for years without Segal or anyone else’s help.
Publicly clarify the meaning of anti-Zionism, and contested phrases such as “from the river to the sea” and “globalise the intifada”, which are routinely misrepresented by pro-Israel groups.
Reject the IHRA definition. It conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism, and it is being used against Jews.
Fund and implement the Australian Human Rights Commission’s National Anti-Racism Framework. It was rolled out — it was presented in 2024, and it is sitting on the government’s desks. It addresses all forms of racism equally and protects all Australians.
My grandfather survived Dachau.
80 years later I’m shoved in the street, by fellow Jews, for opposing a documented genocide.
My government’s response is to ask what the people marching for peace beside me are chanting.
I was raised to repair the world. I’m not going to stop.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Anny Mokotow. I bring this shortened submission as a member of the Loud Jew Collective. We submitted this for the first RC hearings on Lived Experience, and were told that we did not have direct and substantial interest in the scope of the hearing, and refused permission to appear.
My parents were Holocaust survivors from Poland who arrived in Australia in 1951. My mother’s family were all murdered; my father had two surviving siblings. I grew up in a non-Zionist, non-religious household, in a community of working-class Jewish migrants who were members of the socialist organisation the Bund, established at the end of the 19th century in Russia and Poland. Bund was always opposed to Zionism and had a large following of Yiddish-speaking Jews in Melbourne. Equality for all was the ethical motivation for the youth group SKIF. Never again for anyone was the lesson of the Holocaust. We were all aware that the blood of Palestinians was the reason that Israel was built. The Bund is now a smaller community, and a silent one. The Zionist community has a loud voice and a large influence.
The Loud Jew Collective formed in 2021 [spoken as “1921”; her script reads 2021] on the lands of the Kulin Nation. Its purpose is to foster a space of safety and belonging for anti-Zionist Jewish politics, culture and ideas. We work in solidarity with Palestinians in their struggle for liberation. As anti-Zionist Jews, we experience a distinct form of antisemitism, which is typically a mix of anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism. The antisemitism comes primarily from within the Jewish community, from Zionist Jews. While the tension has risen since the events on October 7th, the antisemitism we experienced from Zionists did not start then.
Here are some personal excerpts that the members of LJC have experienced, and presented to the Royal Commission. I’ll mention only a few.
In May 2024, two women and I were hanging banners — “Jews Say Stop the Genocide of Palestinians” — over the side of a bridge, when we were violently attacked by the vigilante pro-Israel group the Lions of Zion. Despite videos of the whole incident, the police declined to investigate. There have been further attacks by the Lions of Zion, and whilst the escalation of violence has been terrifying, the police have still not intervened. Video of the attack were made available to the Royal Commission.
Sivan, Jewish and Israeli, has been vilified and ostracised by family and friends for her stance on Palestine. In her activism with Women in Black, in 2014, Sivan describes the shouting, swearing and abuse by Jews, and the aggressivity and arguments that ensued. In 2018 she was to speak on J-Air, a Jewish community radio station. Before broadcast, two men from the J-Air board walked in, switched off the systems, and threatened those recording. Under shouting and abuse, they were forced to leave the building. The show, Tikkun Olam, was banned.
From a broken home, Es W. felt othered at her Jewish primary school — unclean and unaccepted. After a time in Israel, she began to understand the depth of racism within the community of Zionist-raised children and adults. Not only was it directed at Palestinians, but those from Africa, the Middle East and Russia. She became aware of this as a manufactured threat to create fear and subdue a population. “The intersectionality of being Jewish and anti-Zionist puts us forever in a grey space,” she said.
Esther L. moderated the LJC social media accounts, where trolling and doxxing were often part of the m.o. She says: “After October 7th, messages from Zionists were even more hateful. We were Kapos and not ‘real Jews’. We were told to ‘go to Gaza’, with visceral descriptions of the violence that would be perpetrated on us there, especially as we were queers who would and should be killed by Hamas.”
Jordy was targeted by neo-Nazis in their chats. They used sexualised violent language to talk about her. She has images and documents. Frightened, she reported this to local police, who did nothing. The CSG also did nothing. As a member of the board of APAN, she had told MP Josh Burns in an email what had been happening. He never responded. As a Jewish woman and anti-Zionist, she felt she was not worth fighting for.
After the Bondi massacre, violence toward non-Zionists elevated. Hate speech, claiming that those in the Palestinian liberation movement are the cause of antisemitism, circulated in mastheads like The Australian, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Financial Times etc, in TV stations, by politicians, and by the Antisemitism Envoy Jillian Segal. Consequently, we have been more abused, our voices blocked, and we are accused of being the face of hate. We see this as deeply racist, antisemitic and anti-Palestinian. Our experience of working with Palestinians has been to be welcomed, and to find a generosity of spirit sorely missed in our own communities.
A Jew carries the stigma of historical othering, and the Holocaust has become a means of keeping the notion of otherness and victimhood alive. Israel has seeded the worst contemporary historical othering of Jews after the Holocaust — showing stereotypes of wealth, power and manipulation in its attempt to dominate world politics, as indemnity, while it eradicates and brutalises the indigenous inhabitants of a land that it lays false claim to.
As LJC, we have always resisted our identity being subsumed by the idolatry of Israel. The philosemitic myth of the “Jew” as “special” has become a political reality, even if it is based on victimhood. We anti-Zionists are now othered by our own “people”. The Zionists, as colonialist-nationalists, have become the antisemites, as shown in their attacks and hatred towards us. Even while the world looks away, the political power Israel wields over governments, and the influence on our government by the Zionist groups falsely claiming to represent the entire Jewish community, is also being exposed. But the RC still won’t hear our voices. Shame.
Hello. My name is Adam. I gave a submission to the Royal Commission and, again like the others who’ve spoken, I haven’t heard back from them. My Royal Commission submission was a bit too long to read out in full today, so please forgive me for reading from a sheet of bullet points.
Like a few of the other speakers today, I was born in occupied Palestine to Israeli parents. My citizenship certificate and whatnot all say Israeli, but I’ve been living in occupied Gadigal and occupied Wurundjeri countries since I was a child.
Since moving here, I was given a very traditional and typical Zionist Jewish education that is common for most members of the Australian Zionist community. Going through the school system, through the youth group system, through university societies, I saw at each step of the way how the Jewish diaspora of Australia — who mostly have roots in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, South Africa, Lithuania — are made to feel not only a religious connection with the land of Palestine, but also a political affiliation with the State of Israel. This is not some inexplicable two-or-three-thousand-year-old religious link, but rather a very recent and very cynical political fabrication that’s even more recent than World War II — 1948. My grandfather was alive in Palestine before any of this kicked off.
A couple of years later, I started to ask the questions: why is it that all these people who were given refuge in Australia, whose parents came to Australia after the Holocaust — why is it that a political affiliation for a foreign state so far away should take over the traditions of the Jewish religion and the Jewish culture, and why is nationalism replacing all these religious cultures that have existed for so long?
So what does this actually do? A large part of what this does is it engenders a mistrust — not only of Australia, but of liberal democracy, multi-racial, multi-ethnic liberal democracy — in Zionists as a whole. You cannot be a Zionist and also somehow believe that you can throw in your lot inside a multi-racial, multi-ethnic liberal democracy such as what is trying to be fostered in Australia. If you’re a Zionist, you automatically think that Jews are better off surrounded with other Jews. And this is not so different from the ideology that Germans are better off with other Germans, that the French are better off with other French people, etc. And this is not a coincidence. Zionism arose at the exact same historical moment when Germans were defining themselves like this, when the French were defining themselves like this. And we see how out of date this ideology is in Australia, where it just comes into stark contrast with the broader anti-racism movement that is being built especially around the Palestine solidarity movement — in which people don’t care if you’re Jewish or you’re Palestinian or you’re French or you’re Chinese, if you’re queer or not, as long as you’re there fighting for the equality and self-determination of all peoples as an equal principle.
When I was at these schools, we were told that a good thing to do as a Jewish person would be to volunteer for the Zionist occupational forces. They were given subsidised trips to Palestine to observe not only the Green Line, but the other side of the Green Line as well, into occupied territories — of course, the whole thing’s occupied. And I just think — what would the furore be like, and the double standards — what would the furore be like if Muslim schools in Australia, in the western suburbs of Sydney, were encouraging their students not to be loyal to Australia but to finish school and go on a gap-year program where they fight for some militia overseas which is recognised by the Australian government as a terrorist organisation — just like the IOF should be.
This commission is straight out of the Zionist playbook. It is not interested in the broader racism experiences of the broader Australian community. There is no way of doing a commission about antisemitism without silencing all other minority ethnic groups inside Australia — and that is exactly what Zionists have always tried to engender. Zionists frankly don’t care about fighting antisemitism, because that is where the ideology started. It started off as a way of giving up fighting antisemitism in Europe and saying: we don’t belong here. And Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, went to the imperialists — went to the Kaiser of Germany, tried to get an audience with the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, lobbied the British Empire — so that they would support the Zionist project. And these antisemites — antisemites like Lord Balfour, who wrote legislation to prevent Jews from migrating into the British Empire — wanted those Jews who were trying to flee Romania, flee Russia, to colonise Palestine instead and create a British province there. So the links are so clear. And we, as a British province today — a British colony — should see that the links are right there. We are here to colonise this land just as the Jews were sent to Palestine to colonise that land.
And we have a choice to make now, in all the colonial states around the world. What do we do? Do we continue the perpetuation of these colonial states, or do we say no, that’s enough — and say instead that what should be done is a broad national anti-racism framework. There are frameworks in place, as previous speakers have said, that don’t place one ethnic group above another, that don’t try to pit one group against another, that don’t try to say that the only way of fixing one group’s problems is by isolating them from the rest of society. This is what Zionists want. This is why Herzl said “the antisemites will become our allies”. This is why Herzl made antisemitic, stereotypical comments about Jews who were not Zionists — he called them profiteering, he called them schnorrers, he said that they would never be at home in the country that they lived in. This itself is antisemitic. The Zionists believe an antisemitic belief: that Jews are not at home inside any liberal democratic state in the world, that Jewish identity is incompatible with living inside a democratic state, and that the only way that we can be safe is an ethnostate with Jewish guns, Jewish passports, Jewish coins and so on.
So this brings me to the last point, which is that Judaism has been replaced, for a very large percentage of the population, by Zionism. And when you replace religion and culture with nationalism, then a bigotry that used to be directed against a religion and a culture is perceived as the same as bigotry against that form of nationalism. Now, bigotry against immutable characteristics of a person — their racial characteristics or their religious beliefs — of course should not be tolerated. But political beliefs are something that people choose, even if they are indoctrinated into them. People are adults. People can make decisions whether or not they look at what’s going on in Palestine and say: yes, that’s being done in my name, that’s done so that I have a place to go. I mean, that is just not on. And it is totally unacceptable that the language of anti-bigotry is being used to silence and stifle the criticism of the genocide that’s been taking place in Palestine since 1948 — the slow genocide that’s been taking place in Palestine since 1948, that’s ramped up in the last couple of years.
So what is it incumbent on us to do? First of all, it’s incumbent on the anti-Zionist Jewish community to put our foot down and say that there is no Judaism that is Zionist, and there is no Zionism that is Judaism. One can be perfectly against the other without having any hard feelings against the other. The people in this Commission do not know the difference. They fundamentally do not know the difference. They have been educated and indoctrinated to think that the only thing that makes them Jewish is their affiliation and love for a foreign state. And Judaism had no state for 2,000 years — and they sort of got on fine. So obviously this is not an inherent part of Judaism. And if it’s not an inherent part of Judaism, that means it’s inherently fine to criticise, and to say: we don’t want any part of this in Australia. It undermines the multicultural Australia that I think all of us want to foster and protect, and does not place the safety of one group above the safety of another group. Thank you.
And I should say one more thing. When the massacre occurred in Bondi, I was attending another public Hanukkah celebration with my partner and some other people that I know, and the police came down upon it and said: you all have to go home. We weren’t told what was going on — at the very same time there was a shooting happening. I was in Sydney, so it was only a couple of kilometres away. So people are scared. People are legitimately scared. And I think that we should understand that people feel scared, but we should direct that fear towards legitimate neo-Nazis and people who are violent — not towards the people who are trying to prevent any sort of violence, either here or in Palestine. Thank you.
My name is Nachshon Amir. I’m a Jew who was born in Israel, on the stolen land of the Palestinian people. I was raised and indoctrinated on Zionism, and proudly joined the IOF and served as a combat officer. I took part in the oppression of the Palestinians, mainly during the First Intifada. As a young person raised under the Zionist brainwash, I was not exposed to any other information and was certain that I was doing the right thing.
Only years later I dared to question, and over a long journey I discovered that everything I knew was a collection of myths and lies intended to ease our conscience. I learned the real history of Zionism and Palestine, and gradually became a supporter of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice. It is clear to me that Zionism is a racist ideology whose implementation has brought destruction, death and suffering to millions between the river and the sea.
In recent years I have attended countless protests, events and gatherings with Palestinians. I have never felt unsafe because of my being Jewish. On the contrary — I receive a warm embrace and great love from this community. Furthermore, I have never witnessed any negative treatment from anyone in the pro-Palestine community towards Jews who were present around me. The only people from whom I have experienced hatred and hostility are Zionist Jews, who are unable to accept the fact that there are Jews who have compassion for Palestinians and support the struggle for freedom and justice.
The purpose of my submission. I recognise that the IHRA definition of antisemitism is within the terms of reference of this Royal Commission. The purpose of my submission is a clear request that the Royal Commission will not use the IHRA definition in the course of its work, and not recommend it to any institution.
I am Jewish, my family is Jewish, and I have many Jewish friends, including in Palestine. I love human beings; I choose my friends according to their character and values, not according to their religion. Therefore, it is clear that I don’t hate Jews and that I’m not antisemitic.
I strongly oppose the Royal Commission’s adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism. There is no need to redefine antisemitism. Racism against Jews, simply because they are Jews, is a well-known phenomenon, and it is not essentially different from any other form of racism directed at any other ethnic or religious group.
Yet according to the IHRA definition, I’m antisemitic.
For example, I argue that the State of Israel maintains a racist apartheid regime in Palestine. I myself was part of it, and with my own hands carried out policies that treated Palestinians and Jews differently. For instance, as a young officer, I walked through villages in the West Bank in the middle of the night and, at my own discretion and without any court order, entered homes of random people for fake reasons in order to make their life miserable, while humiliating fathers and mothers in front of their children. No one could execute a similar act against Jewish families, because that would be illegal. This is just one small example among many. I’d be happy to elaborate before the Royal Commission. I recommend reading the reports of human rights organisations like Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and even B’Tselem, the Israeli one, in order to learn about the Israeli apartheid. Therefore, I argue that the existence of Israel as a Jewish state is a racist endeavour. According to example number seven in the IHRA definition of antisemitism, I’m antisemitic when I make such a claim. Yet I’m not.
For example, I argue that there are parallels between the Nazi ideology and the Zionist ideology, or between these two regimes. For instance, in both cases we see an ideology of official supremacy of one religious/ethnic group over the rest of the population. For instance, in both cases there has been brutal ethnic cleansing of one group in the implementation of the regime’s ideology. The cases are not identical, but there are parallels. According to example number 10 in the IHRA definition, I’m antisemitic when I claim this. Yet I’m not.
Since the whole idea of a new definition for antisemitism is ridiculous, it is clear that the IHRA definition was created only to protect Zionism and Israel from those who oppose the atrocities they commit. The artificial conflation of Zionism and Judaism is deliberate, and its purpose is clear to any reasonable person.
Opposition to the policies of the Zionist regime is not antisemitism, just as opposition to the policies of the Iranian or Saudi regime is not Islamophobia, just as opposition to the apartheid regime in South Africa was not “anti-Christian”.
As an Australian, I feel the adoption of the IHRA definition is an attempt to silence me, and a threat to freedom of speech. As a Jew, I feel anger and grief.
I request the Royal Commission to reject the IHRA definition as a tool for your investigation or recommendations, and to use the real definition of antisemitism — racism and hatred against Jews simply because they are Jews. Please remove from the discussion everything that is external to this, and in particular the movement for justice in Palestine, from the river to the sea.
My name is Hagai Erman, born on unceded Palestinian land in the State of Israel.
This is part of my submission, explaining the root of my anti-Zionism — with or without a hyphen.
My identity is: an anti-Zionist Jew. This identity is fundamental, and exists independently of the State of Israel’s conduct toward Palestinians — the Occupation, ethnic cleansing, or genocide. Even if, by a miracle, the State of Israel were to withdraw from the occupied territories tomorrow and enable the establishment of a Palestinian state, I would be in joy — I will be joyful for my Palestinian and Jewish sisters and brothers — but I will remain an anti-Zionist.
Jewish anti-Zionism is a position with two primary pillars: the Theological Pillar and the Political Pillar.
The Theological Pillar is very simple. Its main argument views the establishment of a Jewish state as a rebellion against God. Just as exile was an act of God, the return must be one as well. To this day, a significant portion of the Ultra-Orthodox world remains non-Zionist or actively anti-Zionist.
The Political is the Jewish Political Programme. For 2,000 years, Jews lived in exile, reaching every corner of the globe. Because the religion prohibited establishing a Jewish state, the Jewish Political Programme — a term I coined — evolved.
The Jewish Political Programme is straightforward: we, as Jews, seek to be an integral part of civic life in the countries where we reside, be they democracies, monarchies, or otherwise, while maintaining our unique Jewish culture and way of life. In Australian terms, Jews demanded a multicultural state, much like modern Australia. The Jewish Political Programme rejects the ethno-nationalist state model, as only a multicultural framework allows communal life within a shared citizenry — understanding that ethnic supremacy will always be antisemitic.
In the atmosphere existing today in Australia, I am being denied my “Memberight” — another term I coined. “Memberight” is the speech right of members of a group to talk about their own group.
The Special Envoy’s plan to combat antisemitism, the Jillian Segal report, does not exempt Jewish voices from its definitions. As an anti-Zionist Jew, I am effectively disqualified from rejecting the concept of a Jewish ethnostate. Stripping a Jew of their Memberight — their right to speak as a Jew about Jewish identity — is antisemitism. It denies me the right to define my own Jewishness, and denies me having allies, as they deny the right to reject the Jewish ethnostate.
The Royal Commission listens mostly to the Zionist Sector rather than the broader Jewish Movement. By privileging the Zionist Sector, the Royal Commission effectively nationalises my Jewish identity.
The Jillian Segal report relies on the IHRA, which defines claiming that the State of Israel is racist as antisemitic — which is actually antisemitic by itself. By the Jewish Political Programme, any ethno-nationalist state is racist. Many Jews, including Zionists in Israel, point out that the State of Israel maintains racist policies and apartheid. Here, too, my right to self-definition and truth is severely harmed by the lie that it is to protect me.
Jillian Segal and the IHRA definition — which is rejected by most Jewish academics — deny me the right to define my own Jewishness, as done by the Soviet Union to my Zionist grandparents. This is clear antisemitism.
Jillian Segal: you are a self-hating Jew.
Zionism is antisemitism!
I acknowledge that we are meeting on unceded Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung land.
My name is Guy Ischak Gillor. I am an Australian from a Jewish-Israeli background, with dual Australian-Israeli citizenship. I grew up in a mainstream Zionist family and went through the Israeli-Zionist education system. My mother’s parents both escaped Europe before the Second World War, and most of their families perished. My anti-Zionist position, as well as those of many others who have written to the Commission, is part of a universal anti-racist world view. All forms of racism are connected.
The main threat that I am feeling as a person of Jewish cultural background in Australia today is from the increasing normalisation of the automatic association of Jewish people with the violent political ideology of Zionism.
Freedom of speech for anti-Zionist voices must be protected — but also, listened to.
Relatedly, antisemitism cannot and should not be treated in a way that is separate or elevated from other forms of racism and hatred.
Before migrating to Australia, I worked at an organisation called Physicians for Human Rights, and witnessed the mechanisms in which the systemic inequality built by the logic of Zionism itself means that some of the poorest and most vulnerable people living in Palestine are denied access to basic health services and basic human rights.
I have seen with my own eyes brutal violence with which the Israeli army represses any opposition to the race-based rights system which they maintain, or the land theft which they enact. I have felt on my own body the effect of the gas, the “skunks”, and other chemical agents regularly used to suppress protests at the time. I’ve seen rubber bullets of Israeli soldiers pierce people’s bodies — pierce a child’s head, who then needed to be evacuated on the back of a donkey, because the Israeli army destroyed the village’s main roads. This is what Zionism means, in practice, for those who were born with the wrong blood.
I first came to Australia as an international student in 2007. I learned about the context of colonisation, genocide, discrimination, and also resistance, here in Australia, and have been learning about it ever since.
My opposition to Zionism, my support for the Palestinian movement, and my support for justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, are all connected. They all stem from the simple idea that all humans are born equal — an idea which is embedded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. That declaration was written and signed following World War 2 and the horrors of that Holocaust.
My safety in Australia is threatened when Zionism is increasingly becoming accepted as somehow a “default” political ideology for Jewish people everywhere. This idea is in itself deeply antisemitic, as it conflates a person’s background with political ideology and practice of oppression and genocide.
I have been in increasing distress seeing the discourse over the past year in Australia that seeks to limit the legitimacy of anti-Zionist voices. Unfortunately, this Commission, and some of its choices with regards to representations, has made me increasingly distressed with the idea that my very world view — the one which is based on basic human equality — is under direct threat. This, to me, is a form of antisemitism which itself has to be considered.
I call on the Commission to understand that antisemitism is racism, and needs to be treated as part of a wider social problem of racism and discrimination. Anti-Zionism, by its definition, is anti-racism. Any outcome of the Commission must be in line with the universality in its anti-racist approach, and to follow the international covenants and agreements, including those born out of the suffering of past and present genocides. Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is David. I’ve been here almost every day for the last two weeks to put out posters — to remind the public and the Royal Commission of the context in which this Royal Commission is being held. I would like to acknowledge and thank the Commissioner, Victoria Police and the Australian Federal Police for protecting this peaceful protest. But it calls into light the fact that, with this IHRA definition under debate, the conflation of the state — Israel — the nationalist ideology — Zionism — and the religion — Judaism — will mean that protests such as this could potentially be cancelled. This is the greatest threat to Australian democracy we’ve seen in our lifetimes.
I will now read a statement from my friend David Glanz.
Preface as read: The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion has heard from Australian Jews who have experienced horrific and frightening attacks. But it seems that these examples of antisemitism are being mobilised in support of a different agenda: the vilification and repression of the pro-Palestinian movement. Yet to be heard are the voices of anti-Zionist Australian Jews who reject racism against both Jews and Palestinians. I am one such Jew. My submission to the Royal Commission is below.
My name is Dr David Glanz. I am a member of Anti-Zionism Australia, of Free Palestine Melbourne and of Jews for a Free Palestine in Naarm/Melbourne, and a supporter of the Jewish Council of Australia. I oppose all forms of racism and oppression, including the national oppression of the Palestinians.
I come from a long line of Polish Jews. The family tree on my father’s side has been traced back to the early 1700s.
My great-grandfather was a rabbi in Lodz. One of his sons, my great-uncle Aaron (Leyeles) Glanz, was a founder of the Zionist Socialist Workers Party, who went on to become a renowned Yiddish journalist and poet. He is listed as a contributor to the Encyclopedia Judaica.
Another son died in the Warsaw Ghetto. One of his grand-daughters fought the Nazis in the French Resistance and acted as an interpreter at the Nuremburg Trials.
I do not know how many relatives I lost in the Holocaust. My maternal great-grandparents and my paternal grandfather (another son of that rabbi) escaped the pogroms of the 1880s and 1890s to make new lives in Britain.
In Britain in the 1970s I took part in the Anti Nazi League, a hugely successful campaign that broke the back of the then dominant Nazi group, the National Front.
In Melbourne, I was central to the campaign to drive the Nazi group National Action out of the city. My house and car were attacked and scrawled with swastikas. I received threatening letters from NA members and supporters.
In more recent years, I have helped defend rallies of refugees and anti-racists from the National Socialist Network.
I have been fighting antisemitism and, indeed, all forms of racism all my adult life. And at every step along the way, those organisations which defend Israel and its action were nowhere to be seen.
Indeed, I have been the victim of doxxing and abuse from Zionists.
In the 1970s, amid debates over Palestine at student general meetings, I would regularly be met with death threats from Jewish supporters of Israel.
In 1982, I wrote a feature article for the newspaper on which I worked on the topic of the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Beirut. The Board of Deputies of British Jews wrote to my editor, “outing” me as a socialist in what I could only take as an attempt to have me sacked.
More recently, I was one of 20 Jews who registered a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) over a tweet posted in February 2025 by Mark Leibler, a leading member of the Australian Zionist community.
In the tweet, which Mr Leibler paid to boost, anti-Zionist Jews such as myself were labelled as “repulsive and revolting human beings … [and] vicious antisemites”.
Mr Leibler tendered an apology to bring the AHRC matter to a close but it remains a powerful insight into the contempt with which anti-Zionist Jews are regarded by the Australian Zionist establishment.
By contrast, I have always found a warm and unconditional welcome among Palestinians and their supporters. In 1977, I visited Lebanon as a guest of the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
I have never experienced antisemitism at a Palestine event or rally — on the contrary, when people learn I am Jewish I am given an especial welcome.
On 14 January 2024, I spoke to 15,000 people at a weekly rally in Melbourne against the genocide in Gaza and was warmly received.
I am an elected member of the Governance Group of Free Palestine Melbourne (one of two Jews among the committee of seven).
In conclusion, my experience over the past half century can be summed up as this:
I have experienced antisemitism fomented by the far right, never by supporters of Palestine.
I have learned that opposing antisemitism is inseparable from opposing all forms of racism.
I have experienced hostility and worse from Jewish supporters of Israel, who are more interested in defending the Zionist project than in taking on the antisemitism of the far right.
I therefore request the Royal Commission to reject recommendations that serve to limit or criminalise the pro-Palestine movement.
As delivered, the reading closed with:
Free Palestine.
Preceding remarks: I’ve got one last submission to read, on behalf of Veronica Sherman, who couldn’t make it today. And this is it.
I’m an Israeli citizen that moved to Australia as a 20 year old in 1995.
I have always identified as a Jew. I have an Israeli ID card that states I’m Jewish. I immigrated to Israel age 10 from Sweden, and lived in Jerusalem till I was 20. I served two years in the Israeli Air Force.
In 2014 I realised that I had been lied to about Palestinians. Until then I believed that Jews were the “David” and that Arabs (Palestinians were erased and replaced by the broader word “Arabs”) were the Goliath. I finally understood the power dynamic of us Israelis being the oppressors in the context of the Palestinian people and that we have been systematically attempting to destroy their culture, story and identity since 1948.
It was an incredibly humbling experience and I have done everything in my power since then to educate the Australian public about the brainwashing I was exposed to my whole childhood.
Thankfully I met other Jews and Israelis here in Melbourne who I could connect with. They helped me feel as if I belonged to a community. It was much smaller than the mainstream Jewish community, but it was so helpful to not feel completely alienated.
Leading up to October 7th, 2023 I would occasionally be bullied online for my views on Israel being an apartheid state. And when I went to a rally in Melbourne opposing Israel’s attack on Gaza in 2014, my family overseas received death threats. So much so that they begged me not to use my real name when I wrote an article that was published by Fairfax media.
The editor of The Age contacted me to say that they had hundreds of letters of complaints from Australian Jews to my article, that was simply saying that as a Jewish mother I wished that the killings in Gaza would stop. Apparently my article was antisemitic.
It’s impossible to put into words how toxic the Jewish community in Melbourne has become since October 7, 2023.
I was grieving the kidnapping of my close friend’s son while also bracing myself for how Israel would respond. I knew it would be terrible, but I could never have imagined the genocide that unfolded.
And just as I had been doing since 2014, I used my social media platform to share my thoughts and attempt to educate everyday Australians about Jewish supremacy.
I’ve been called a Kapo. I’ve had death threats. I get told I’m a self-hating Jew. That I should go to Gaza and be raped & killed. That my ancestors would be ashamed to see me now.
Meanwhile I have been welcomed and embraced by the Palestinian and Muslim communities. I have never hidden that I’m Jewish. I make sure that everyone knows. And the response is overwhelmingly warm and loving.
In fact, one of the most beautiful experiences of my life was joining the Sydney Harbour Bridge march for humanity. I flew up specifically for it. My banner said: AUSTRALIAN JEWS SAY SANCTION ISRAEL. And I stood for hours on the bridge as thousands of people waved and blew kisses, and hundreds of people stopped for handshakes, hugs and photos with me. They were so incredibly grateful. A Jewish woman who had asked if she could stand with me had tears streaming down her face. She told me later that she wished all her Jewish friends who told her that she would be in danger going to the march could see the kindness we were on the receiving end of.
On my last visit to Sydney to protest Herzog being invited to Australia, a Muslim man came up to me during the Town Hall rally and told me that I was the first Jew he had ever shaken hands with. And he wished that his children were there so he could show them a Jew who loved Muslims. I suggested that we meet next time I return to Sydney. He told me his family would prepare a feast and it would be an honour. We have stayed in touch and I plan to visit next month.
I have countless stories like this. It’s the ones where parents introduce me to their children that touch me the deepest. They so desperately want them to meet a Jewish person who sees their humanity. I’ve lost track of how many times I have heard a mother or a father say: I tell my children we love Jewish people. It’s Zionism we have a problem with.
I recently helped organise a Passover meal (Seder) with Jewish Council Australia. (Last year I organised it with a couple of friends and it was so exciting to see how much it had grown in just one year.) What made it so special was seeing how many Palestinian and Muslim friends joined us for the night. Many of them asked if they could bring family members next year. It has inspired me to organise the gathering for our next Jewish holiday called Shavuot. It feels too long to wait a full year. We really need these opportunities to come together and celebrate Jewish traditions that have true Jewish values at their core. That each life is sacred. And that our role is to repair the world — tikkun olam. And that never again means never again for everyone.
I deeply believe that if we want to see social cohesion, we must create more spaces where Australians from all cultures, religions and tax brackets can come together and see how much we have in common. It’s only when we foster real connections and friendships that change will come and we will create a safer community and society.
And that’s a wrap for our Royal Omission. Thank you, all of you who have come to share your submissions. There were many other people who did not feel safe in speaking as non-Jews about what they feel about the Commission, and we were encouraged to come here and speak as an organisation that is initiated by Jewish people and Israelis. So thank you everyone for making it. We appreciate you so much. Thank you.
Just one final comment, in the spirit of the greater omission: the voices of the Palestinians are missing. If you think of an analogy of the civil rights movement in America — this Royal Commission would be similar to having people who are against integration, inviting members from the KKK to talk about a perspective, having human rights lawyers talking about the impact and the need for African-Americans to have free speech and free rights, but not inviting any of the African-Americans to speak about their lived experience. The greatest omission of this Royal Omission is the voice of Australian Palestinians and their right to be heard — and that should be corrected immediately.
