Jewish women devastated by ‘so-called feminists’ ridiculing atrocities of October 7, royal commission told

Warning: Distressing content. Jewish women were left devastated after “so-called feminists” allegedly denied and ridiculed the rape of women during Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, a hate inquiry has been told. National Council of Jewish Women of Australia (NCJWA) vice president Shirley Leader told Royal Commission on Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion that denial of the sexual assaults that took place during October 7 — particularly by feminists – had caused Jewish women “great harm”. “The denial of the 7th of October sexual assault of Jewish women, cut very deep for Jewish women, and particularly because of its denial and ridicule by so-called feminists and so-called feminists in so-called progressive spaces,” Ms Leader told the royal commission. “This has been of great harm to Jewish women who have seen that their solidarity with Israeli women is absolutely being trashed by the women’s movement.” A United Nations report on conflict-related sexual violence found there was reasonable grounds to believe that sexual violence had unfolded during the October 7 attacks. Ms Leader told the commission one woman reported their “manager made fun of the rapes of Jewish woman” in a survey conducted by NCJWA, which also found that 81 per cent of Jewish women had experienced anti-Semitism in the wake of October 7. “My boss for my part time job asked me, ‘What did the Jews do to make people want to do October the 7th?’ At work, my manager made fun of the rapes of Jewish women,” some of the survey responses read out by Ms Leader stated. “Younger children being called dirty Jews. All Jews are monsters, no words an eight year old should hear in the schoolyard. “My children have experienced Jew hate and jokes about Jews as genocidal, stupid baby killers, crazy dirty, money hungry apes, frogs, evil, ugly, deformed liars, and that Hitler is good and should have finished the job.” She said the organisation had heard Jewish women were increasingly experiencing “attacks on their identity in their every day lives” before they launched the survey last July. “We are exhausted. We are exhausted by the attacks, and we are exhausted by the hyper vigilance that is required for us to make our way through our daily lives,” she said. ‘Trust has diminished’ Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive officer Michele Goldman said her organisation is often the first point of call for people experiencing anti-Semitism, who now feel they have nowhere else to turn. She spoke of a woman who contacted the board last year after her GP made “unsolicited comments” about the conflict in Gaza, with things escalating when the patient responded that the situation is “terrible for all children”. The doctor accused her and her family of being terrorists, allegedly telling her that she was personally responsible for the deaths of others. “The fact that this occurred in a health setting, which made the woman especially vulnerable because the GP had access to personal, sensitive information … she left feeling very fearful and very vulnerable. “There’s growing distrust in a whole range of institutions that should be there to protect our standards and our civil liberties, but which have failed people. And so trust has diminished,” she said. She earlier described how “frightening” it was when she was targeted with a flurry of online hate after a video of her giving evidence to a parliamentary inquiry on anti-Semitism was circulated on the internet. “You have to hate those who want to deny whites the right to freely express their disdain for these vermin and their ilk”, “What in the name of f**k is this f**king creature”, and “If they look like a demon it’s most likely they wear a tiny hat” were among some of the comments made about Ms Goldman online. “It was frightening, and it was intimidating … it was a serious awareness just to how much is at stake at being a community leader and doing this work,” Ms Goldman said. “It’s a weighty responsibility, as this commission has experienced yourselves in listening to the testimonies of so many people to hear these stories day in and day out. It just takes it to another level when you have to worry about your personal safety as well.” Worrying online trend exposed in hate inquiry The Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI) tracks data on anti-Semitism across 10 social media platforms, with the organisation’s chief executive Andre Oboler explaining the four major types cropping up online are Holocaust denial, incitement of violence, traditional forms of anti-Semitism, and Israel/Zionist anti-Semitism. Dr Oboler said he was particularly concerned by a recent spike in the second category, telling the inquiry it has now risen beyond levels recorded in the immediate aftermath of Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. “We saw a high level of glorification and justification of violence after October 7th, people justifying Hamas’ actions,” Dr Oboler said. “The last few months we’re starting to see a rise again … it dipped, but now that violence category is going up again. That obviously poses the largest safety risk.” Social media site acting like ‘far right platforms’ Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, showed the smallest increase in anti-Semitic content after October 7 because it already had the highest amount of Jewish hate content before the attacks, Dr Oboler said. “Twitter or X was really behaving very much like the far-right platforms,” he said. “That’s partly again, you know, the platform was taking an attitude of ‘we want to be a bastion of free speech, and we’re going to tone down our protections for safety’.” ‘No limits’: Major problem with advocacy Dr Oboler earlier told the hearing how an Australian Facebook page had on Tuesday morning made a post to the effect that “it’s the Jews’ fault” that anti-Semitism had risen, and the hate would not exist if Israel disbanded itself and went “away”. “The issue is the people that are saying it’s OK to attack Jews as a way of expressing our disagreement with Israel or our disapproval or whatever – those people are out of line,” he said. “You can’t attack a synagogue because that’s your demonstration of our position. And that’s sort of being lost at the moment.” He said the OHPI’s data had shown people were failing to make that distinction due to advocacy that tries to pin anti-Zionism as separate from anti-Semitism. “Anti-Zionism that says I’m, you know, let’s all be anti-Zionist and go and kill the Jews is anti-Semitic, right? It’s not just anti-Zionist. “So this is the problem, that narrative people have been taking … to say that if we’re doing it because we’re against Zionism, then we can do what we like. And there’s no limits.” Hate comments on pollies’ social media Another project analysing 13 social media posts by Australian politician or mainstream media related to the Jewish community found 3461 anti-Semitic comments, with most commenters Australian. This included reaction to a post from Anthony Albanese about Passover. “Those numbers are high. This is not a discussion initiated by someone anti-Semitic to attract other anti-Semites. This is literally the public square where, you know, everyday Australians are engaging in discussion,” Dr Oboler said. Dr Oboler said the posts analysed were more likely to be seen and shared by the Jewish community, and therefore the anti-Semitic comments were more likely to have a “disproportionate impact” on the community. “We wanted to know what was the experience of Jewish Australians in social media … what we did was we said, OK, what are the posts that create spaces where the Australian public discuss and engage and that sort of political discussion,” Dr Oboler said. Aussies ‘not sure’ if October 7 death toll is true Nearly fifty per cent of respondents to an Australian survey on attitudes towards Jewish people were unable to answer whether they believed reports about the death toll of the October 7 attacks, the inquiry was told. Professor of Monash University’s Australian Cultural Centre for Jewish Civilisation Andrew Markus said about 44 per cent of respondents to the Crossroads25 survey had responded “not sure” when asked if they thought reports that Hamas killed about 1,00 Israelis on October 7, 2023, were true. “That is a fundamental watershed in the Jewish community’s life in this country … and here, when we’re asking the general population, what we’re finding is that 44 per cent of people are not sure,” Mr Markus said. More than five per cent “outright say it’s probably not true”, he added. He told commissioner Virginia Bell that the survey highlighted that people were “disproportionately unsure about a range of things”. He said his surveys combined with the testimonies of lived experience could help build a clearer picture of Australia’s attitudes towards Jewish people. The royal commission was called following the alleged terror attack at the Chanukah by the Sea event at Bondi Beach on December 14 during which 15 innocent people were killed. The first hearing block is due to close this week after hearing from Jewish Australians about their lived experiences of anti-Semitism. news.com.au mental health helplines