‘No one in this whole sorry story has been held accountable’

By AJN Staff
Read the article online at Australian Jewish News

Dor Foundation CEO: Antisemitism didn’t begin on October 7

Antisemitism did not begin on October 7, 2023, but that was when it exploded in speed and scale, the Royal Commission has heard.

Tahli Blicblau, CEO of the Dor Foundation – a not-for-profit established in 2024 to combat rising antisemitism – told the Commission on Monday that while antisemitism had been rising in Australia for at least a decade, “what changed on October 7was the speed and scale at which it took hold and its prevalence within Australia that had otherwise been largely protected”.

She said that while the October 9 protest at the Sydney Opera House was widely seen as a key turning point, “it was actually 24 hours earlier, the evening of October 8 that was pivotal in setting the trajectory”.

“On that evening, there was a protest, a gathering in Western Sydney where the events of the October 7 were described as a ‘day of pride and courage, one of elation’. And cars were driving through Western Sydney, setting off fireworks,” Blicblau said.

“That glorification of violence that night, at a time where Israel was still counting its dead, really set the tone for a permissive environment in which glorifying violence was accepted and permissible.”

Blicblau identified antisemitism as coming from four converging extreme ideologies: radical Islam, the extreme far right, racial movements and conspiratorial ideologies, and activist elements of the contemporary far left “who direct collective grievances of Israel’s actions towards Jewish Australians”.

“What we saw was a convergence of those four ideologies, all centring on Jew hatred and really growing within our society,” she said.

She said those four ideological extremes always existed and always had antisemitism as part of their fundamental ideology, “but what changed, first of all was the convergence and conflation of those and, second of all, their movement away from shameful radical fringes and into mainstream discourse”.

“A lot of this took place online in a way that was then amplified and normalised. The concentration of that rhetoric really made its way into mainstream discourse,” Blicblau said.

She said the Dor Foundation’s research shows that many Australians are not able to recognise antisemitic tropes when they are presented.

“So the lack of awareness, together with the concentration of this really allowed it to take hold, and then the other thing we saw was the presentation of antisemitic actions and words in places that were previously considered safe, in hospitals and schools and workplaces and in cultural institutions.”

She said antisemitic incident data – like other forms of victim-based crime – relies largely on victim reporting, and incidents are often under-reported.

“A study on antisemitism in sport in Australia indicates that up to 75 per cent of incidents on the sporting field are never reported,” Blicblau said.

Asked about trends in antisemitic incidents since October 2023, Blicblau said simply: “It skyrocketed.”

She said the spike started to escalate sharply on October 7, 2023, with “the pinnacle, the most severe incident that we saw” being “the massacre at Bondi on the 14th of December 2025”.

“But we saw an escalation in severity of incidents prior to that with arson attacks at synagogues and childcare centres, a caravan laden with explosives. There are endless examples that have been given in this room,” she said.

The Dor Foundation commissioned a national social acceptance study in early 2024 that found most Australians are not antisemitic, but identified risk factors particularly in younger Australians and those with less familiarity with the Jewish community.

A follow-up study in April 2026 “paints a much bleaker picture”, Blicblau said.

“It demonstrates a decline in tolerance overall. It demonstrates a declining belief in a multicultural Australia. It shows that attitudes towards the Jewish community have fallen, both in the judeophobia subscale and the antizionism subscale. And one of the most significant falls was in the willingness of Australians to have Jewish friends.”

Asked about the relevance of attitudes relating to Zionism, Blicblau said many people don’t self-identify as antisemitic, but “the research shows that when you replace the word Jew with the word Zionism, the same hatred, the same prejudice exists. It’s just that the language changes”.

The Dor Foundation has developed a national framework to combat antisemitism across four domains: media, education, civil society, and government and its institutions.

Blicblau said the framework recognises that combating antisemitism through legislation and enforcement alone is insufficient.

“It may solve for incidents at the pointy end, but in order to be effective, we need to start earlier. We need to build connection between different faith groups to improve tolerance and cohesion, we need to educate at an early age,” she said.

“The Dor Foundation is the guardian or the custodian of this framework, but we don’t, and we can’t deliver all of it. This is about working in partnership across community, civil society and government.”

Concluding her testimony, Blicblau said: “The problems that I have described demonstrate a deep fracturing of our multicultural society. I’ve told you that attitudes are declining, not only towards Jews, but belief in a fair, tolerant and multicultural Australia are also declining.”

“That’s not something that the Jewish community can or should solve for alone, and this commission, by nature of its very existence, recognises that if we don’t intervene decisively to tackle hateful actions, words and inoculate against hateful attitudes, the trajectory is going to continue to spiral downwards.”

“That’s something that needs to be done in partnership by government and community together, and as Australians, we all share that obligation.”

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