Commissioner Virginia Bell has been asked to inquire into the antisemitism which resulted in the murder of 15 Jews on Bondi Beach in December 2025. From what is public knowledge, one can only wonder if she is digging deep enough to get to the bottom of anti-Jewish terrorism in Australia, and how to fix it.
Is she putting the Bondi murders into a global and historical context, something that is essential if we are to understand why they occurred and what we can do to prevent future terrorism on our shores?
The impression I get – and I hope I am wrong – is that she believes she can write a report and make her findings by limiting investigation to what happened in December 2025 on Bondi Beach (plus a few other anti-Jewish events) without going to the basic causes of antisemitism.
I have formed this view because we have not observed formal examination of those in our community who are anti-Jewish. We need to know what drives their anti-Jewishness. Only through the processes available to the Royal Commission will we get to hear their stories and be able to evaluate them.
We know that there are numerous stories. We know that there is not one Islamic story. The Australian community needs the reinforcement it will get if the Royal Commission exonerates the vast majority of Australian Muslims for the anti-Jewishness we have experienced. These people deserve this recognition. Social cohesion depends on the community’s understanding of our Muslim community.
On the other hand, the very few extremist Islamic fundamentalists need to explain their position. They need to express their position on the proposed two-state solution – the only feasible solution to end the tit-for-tat murders in the Levant.
It is probably far too optimistic to think they will change their minds if they have to explain to the Australian public their position under cross-examination. But at least if they are required to present to the Royal Commission and be examined we will know where they stand.
The other anti-Jewish groups in Australia, neo-Nazis and fringe right-wing groups such as the sovereign citizens, need to have their values and attitudes put under the microscope by Commissioner Bell. To close the circle, the anti-Islamists need to have their views examined by the Royal Commission.
I understand the negative side to public scrutiny of extremist positions in that it has the possibility of stirring animosities. However, I argue that it is better to have a cathartic clearing of the air, if that is possible, than the present situation where uninformed (and in some cases conspiratorial) opinion dominates barbecue, coffee shop and pub talk.
Without concerning herself with the history (the ebbs and flows) of antisemitism and the equally importantly incentives and psychological dispositions which encourage some to become terrorists, Commissioner Bell will fall far short of what she has been asked to do. The Commissioner cannot change the past but to ignore it is to fall short.
If she took the wide view, there are a number of feasible conclusions she could reach and make in her key findings. I outline these in my book Bondi Beach Reclaimed: Restoring Social Cohesion (Connor Court Publishing).
My recommendations to Commissioner Bell include the obvious one. It is that the Royal Commissioner makes clear its view that the Australian government continues to advocate the creation of two states, Palestine and Israel. In doing so, it should make it known that this needs to remain a bipartisan position.
Another crucial finding that I recommend Commissioner Bell makes pertains to the public position of the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Islamism and Christianity). Their leaders are eager to tell as that they follow the Golden Rule – “Do unto others as you have them do to you.” It is within the powers of the Royal Commission to call on the Australia leaders of these faiths to publicly commit to the Golden Rule and, in doing so, promise to publicly expel/disown members of their faiths who do not sign up to this ethical principle.
In my book, I make a number of other suggestions for Commissioner Bell. For example, she should recommend that Australia, through its international aid program, should commit a fair share of resources to rebuilding Gaza. Furthermore, through its overseas aid program, Australia must pull its weight in helping the economically disadvantaged epicentres of Muslin terrorism grow out of poverty. In poverty and being unemployed, frustrated youths are targets for terrorism recruiters.
Yet another recommendation I make to the Royal Commission is the need to increase the resourcing of the study of the mental state of terrorists. This is particularly important in obtaining whatever insights are possible in the psychological dispositions of lone-wolf terrorists, as the Australian killers were.
The bottom line is that antisemitism is not purely an Australian thing to be addressed by more money allocated to domestic counter-terrorism and to de-radicalisation.
The killing of Jews in Australia is an example of the globalisation of Hitler’s war on Jews resurfacing near to 100 years after its origins. To look farther back in history, it is the inevitable tit-for-tat violence which has its genesis in the Old Testament.
Let the Royal Commission make recommendations that entitle the Australian people to feel pride in their efforts to bring an end to a very long-running social disease.
Published 30 September 2026.
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Photo by Robert Montgomery (Flickr, CC).