Social cohesion cannot be built by exceptionalising antisemitism | Pearls and Irritations

Social cohesion cannot be built by exceptionalising antisemitism | Pearls and Irritations

Jepke Goudsmit
Social cohesion cannot be built by exceptionalising antisemitism

June 3, 2026

A submission to the Royal Commission argues that privileging antisemitism above other forms of racism, while suppressing criticism of Israel and Zionism, undermines freedom of expression and weakens social cohesion.

I have long hesitated writing a submission to the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion because of its singular focus on antisemitism. I would have liked an investigation into the root causes and persistence of every type of racism in this country. Exceptionalising antisemitism is a form of racism in itself.

I am also unhappy with the Commission’s adoption of the contested IRHA definition of antisemitism. Special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, made the preposterous claim that the March for Humanity paved the way for the Bondi Massacre.

I suspect that the objectives of prominent Zionists, like Segal, who pushed for this Commission, could well be to suppress criticism of Israel, ban Palestine protests and introduce censorship.

I identify as an anti-Zionist secular Jew. My Dutch childhood was deeply affected by my parents’ experiences surviving World War II. After Holland’s liberation they sought healing and reconciliation, not revenge. When I was in my teens, my father went to Tel Aviv to visit our family who had suggested we consider migrating to Israel. He returned shocked. He could never become a citizen of an apartheid state.

Whether such a state deserves unconditional support from Jews anywhere in the world became highly questionable. As for me, working in a kibbutz lost its attraction when it sunk in that Israel was stolen land, and that the notion of “a land without a people for a people without a land” turned out to be a manufactured fantasy.

Fast-Forward to October 2023, when Israel unleashed its genocidal war on the people of illegally occupied Gaza. My anti-colonialism translated into intense activism. I became a member of Jews Against the Occupation ’48 (JAO48), regarding it my moral duty to show through direct action that “Never Again” means to anyone.

As an artist, my work is sustained by inquiry and freedom of expression. When a government censors the arts, a society is at risk of losing its heart. I mention this, because since October 2023 a number of Australian artists have been falsely accused of antisemitism. As a consequence, their contracted engagements were cancelled.

To name just a few: Lebanese-born Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi (the 61st Venice Biennale scandal), Palestinian Australian writer and academic Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah (Adelaide Writers Festival debacle) and Australian concert pianist Jayson Gillham (Melbourne Symphony Orchestra court challenge).

Australia’s artistic – and wider – community recognises the accusations as intimidatory, as an attack on freedom of artistic expression and speech. Solidarity with those under attack is widespread due to the insight that censorship should have no place in a democracy and severely undermines social cohesion.

It is especially detrimental if one group is favoured above all others, and another is demonised more than the rest. This breeds negative qualities every society should avoid: fear, jealousy, suspicion, hatred, divisiveness and alienation.

I expected that the horrors committed by Israel in Gaza would take the blinkers off.

It did so for many people around the world. A global community grew, advocating for the end of Israel’s genocide, occupation and apartheid, suggesting peaceful means to achieve this, such as boycotts, divestments and sanctions, like those implemented against South Africa to free it from apartheid. These are calls for action against a system, an ideology, not a people.

Not so our government, nor the Zionists. They were apologists from the start, and remain so now, even after more than two years of carpet bombing and murder. The most abhorrent atrocities and crimes against humanity have come to light, thanks to reporters who risked and in more than 250 cases lost their lives to show the world the reality of collective punishment, starvation, displacement, incarceration, rape, torture, destruction of civilian infrastructure, ethnic cleansing and a genocide openly declared and incited by Israel’s leaders.

To counter the shift in public opinion about Israel, the apologists of genocide use the conflation of Zionism and Judaism as their most effective weapon. They accuse anyone criticising Israel and standing up for Palestinian rights of antisemitism.

The Australian government has not had the moral backbone or political will to refuse complicity in Israel’s genocide. Australia obeys Washington and buckles under pressure from the Israel lobby. So do media, art institutions and universities. Even after experts, including Jewish Holocaust scholars, have concluded Israel’s war on Gaza constitutes genocide. When political support, reputation and funding are at stake, few have the strength to stick with ethical principles.

I attended most of the pro-Palestine rallies in Gadi/Sydney since October 2023, including the March for Humanity across the Harbour Bridge. If ever there were a model of social cohesion that march would be it.

Never have I experienced antisemitism at the rallies. Not from organisers, not from protesters. But I have experienced it from Jewish Zionists and their far right supporters. This came in the form of threats, insults and intimidation, especially at events organised by JAO48, and online on JAO48’s social media accounts.

A stand-out of their antisemitism against anti-Zionist Jews – and of their anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia – happened at the Origami Flotilla event JAO48 organised in 2025 at Bondi Beach in support of the Global Humanitarian Flotilla to Gaza. The police were unprepared for the violent threat Jewish Zionists and their far-right buddies posed to our peaceful gathering.

Bondi Beach is a public beach belonging to everyone, but the Zionists, clad in Israeli and Australian flags, claimed it as theirs. They hurled verbal abuse at us like “Fake Jew”, “Kapo”, “Traitor”, “Terrorist”, “I hope you all get raped”, “Go back to Lakemba”. The atmosphere was reminiscent of the racial clashes at the Cronulla riots. Things could have easily spiralled out of control.

JAO48 organised silent vigils on International Holocaust Day in 2025 and 2026, for the victims of the Nazi Holocaust as well as the victims of other holocausts: the Aboriginal people of Australia when colonised by Britain, and the indigenous people of Palestine when colonised by Israel. Online comments from Jewish Zionists were vile. The AJA called us “degenerates”.

When well-respected Australians, such as heart surgeon Professor Peter MacDonald, renowned journalist Mary Kostakidis, and Sydney University academics Professor John Keane and Dr Nick Riemer, are the target of Zionist wrath, and politicians give in under Zionist pressure, it sends sinister messages to our citizens: that no one will be spared, and that our government is not serving the interest of Australia, but that of warmongering foreign states: Israel and its enabler the USA.

The men who carried out the massacre on the first day of Chanukah at Bondi Beach had ISIS connections. Within hours after the attack, Israel’s PM accused our PM of pouring “fuel on the antisemitism fire” by having recognised a Palestinian state. Within 24 hours, Chairman of the Zionist AIJAC, Mark Leibler, demanded a Royal Commission. Following with reckless speed, NSW Premier Minns rushed anti-protest laws through, which since have been found unconstitutional, thanks to Blak Caucus, the Palestine Action Group and Jews Against the Occupation ’48 deciding to challenge those laws in court in the interest of civil and democratic rights of the people of NSW (Jarrett vs State of NSW). And to top it off, the Zionist Chabad community pushed for a visit from Israeli President Herzog, a man standing accused of inciting genocide.

Against sound advice from experts like former Human Rights Commissioner Chris Sidoti, Prime Minister Albanese caved in and invited President Herzog to “comfort the Jewish community”. This despite the outpour of empathy and shared grief from people all around Australia.

Australian society responded with a national protest against the visit, unequivocally declaring that war criminals are not welcome here. JAO48 and other anti-Zionist Jewish groups attended in all capital cities. In Sydney, while Herzog was comforting mourners at the Entertainment Centre, police brutality against the protestors at Town Hall was unprecedented. I witnessed it first hand. Fleeing from the chaos, beatings and pepper spray, I heard a police officer say that restrictions were in place so that “the Jews could see their President in peace”.

Since when is a foreign head of state the President of Australian Jews? And what does it say about Minns having the police force turn savagely on the people of NSW to protect an unwelcome war criminal? Clearly, social cohesion has not been served by Minns’ and Albanese’s misguided decisions.

Antisemitism will rise while genocidal Israel claims to represent all Jews and a majority of Jews identify with Israel. After all, Synagogues host speaking tours for Israelis who come to recruit young Australian Jews for the IDF, raise money for illegal settlements in the West Bank, and recommend real estate deals of land and property taken from Palestinians. Antisemitism will increase as long as Zionist peak bodies of Australian Jewry hold power over our politicians and public institutions, and millions of taxpayers’ dollars are spent on protecting the so-called Jewish community, but grants and support for other communities are withdrawn. And it is obvious that when censorship creeps in and democratic rights are tossed out, social cohesion suffers.

(This article is an edited version of a submission to the Royal Commission)

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.

Jepke Goudsmit


Jepke Goudsmit is a theatre maker. Since 1985 she has been co-director of Kinetic Energy Theatre Company. Since 2004 the company has focused on social justice and human rights issues through theatre-in-education.