Royal commission lays bare the fear and anger of Jewish Australians. But has it got to the heart of antisemitism?

Hearings began amid the grief of the Bondi attack. The community hopes the inquiry will ‘help us to go back to the Australia that we love’ Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast As the university student Liat was excused from the witness stand of the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion, she felt a weight lifted off her chest. “It was certainly very cathartic for me … having gone through the majority of my university life in a state of fear,” she says. Liat, who spoke publicly under her first name only due to safety concerns, had just told the commission about the “pervasive fear” that emerged on campus after Hamas’s October 7 attack and Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza. The 22-year-old student, whose parents were both born in Israel, said she was labelled a “baby killer” and genocide supporter. Liat was among more than 300 witnesses who testified in the royal commission, which concluded public hearings after four months this week. It was, from the very beginning, a mammoth task with a tight deadline of less than 12 months. The work began in a moment of raw grief and anger felt by Jewish Australians in the aftermath of the Bondi terror attack,