The royal commission into antisemitism’s interim report should improve safety. But what’s revelatory is what it does not recommend | David Heilpern

Virginia Bell has not recommended urgent restrictions on protests or marches, the banning of phrases or the restriction of immigration Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The interim report of the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion is in, and offers more questions than answers, as expected. An April report date was always going to produce tentative maybes, and this is exactly that. Should there have been more than three general duties police officers and a supervisor (with a drop-in commander from time to time) at the Chanukah by the Sea event? What is the assessment of the actions of the police who were there? Given there were other Hanukah celebrations in Sydney that day – including Dover Heights and the north shore – was the allocation of resources reasonable? We will have to wait and see. For now, the recommendation is that high-risk, particularly “public facing”, events ought to have the same procedures as Jewish High Holidays – presumably meaning more analysis, consideration and, in the end, more blue uniforms with guns. To me, this is a positive and reassuring develop