AFR, 30 June 2026
Antisemitism commission hears of online abuse aimed at witnesses
By Paul Karp
From The AFR
Tahli Blicblau, from the Dor Foundation, has returned to the antisemitism royal commission to discuss a report it wrote capturing some of the online abuse directed at other witnesses after they had appeared.
Blicblau said witnesses from the first block of hearing – lived experience of Jewish Australians – had been “subjected to more [antisemitism] targeted and abused online, at volume”. One witness was targeted by 225 posts.
Posts, mainly drawn from X and Facebook, included: calls for Jews to be deported; sexually degrading abuse, accusations of paedophilia; “Holocaust glorification, extortion and mockery, including expressions of adoration and support for Hitler; antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories; and accusations witnesses were crisis actors or falsifying their evidence”, she said.
Royal commissioner Virginia Bell noted one comment made on Facebook about special envoy to combat antisemitism Jillian Segal “cockroach – needs to be sprayed” could be considered violent.
Another in relation to Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chair Alex Ryvchin referred to “time for the [Austrian] painter to return and finish the job”, a coded reference to Adolf Hitler.
A small number of the posts have been removed, but the vast majority are still available online, Blicblau said, including one calling for creation of “makeshift concentration camps” to kill witnesses.