Inside Australia’s long fight against antisemitism

Australia’s antisemitism crisis did not begin with the Bondi terror attack on 14 December 2025, but that night forced the country to confront it. The massacre, which killed 15 people at a Chanukah gathering, turned a growing problem into a national reckoning.

Speaking exclusively to J-Wire, Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal reflects on the surge in antisemitism since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the steps taken since.

The antisemitic attack in December 2025 shocked the country and prompted a reluctant government to establish the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. It also accelerated government action on a national strategy to combat antisemitism that had been presented to the government months earlier.

Segal said the surge in antisemitic incidents since October 2023 exposed deeper trends that had already been developing.

“We saw the uptick after 7 October, a 700 per cent increase,” she said. “But that was because it was tapping into something that had already been boiling.”

Figures collected by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry had already recorded a massive rise in incidents before the Gaza war erupted.

“There had been a 40 per cent rise in incidents through the ECAJ notification process in the year prior to 7 October 2023,” Segal explains. “I don’t think it was an overnight thing, and therefore it’s not going to happen overnight that we’re going to push it to the margins.”

A role created after years of lobbying

The envoy position itself emerged after years of encouragement by Jewish organisations urging the federal government to appoint a dedicated national figure to address antisemitism.

“There had been quite a lot of lobbying of the government to have an envoy,” Segal said. “That had come from the community itself, from the ECAJ and others.”

Segal was appointed in July 2024 and immediately began building an office that did not previously exist.

At the same time, the government intended to appoint an Islamophobia envoy alongside the antisemitism role. While Segal began work immediately, the search for the parallel position took months to fill.

One of Segal’s first international responsibilities after her appointment was representing Australia at a summit of antisemitism envoys in Buenos Aires. Governments at the meeting adopted global guidelines for confronting antisemitism. The July 2024 gathering brought together envoys from multiple countries to coordinate responses to the growing international problem.

The plan that reached government

In the year that followed, Segal conducted consultations across government, universities, cultural organisations and Jewish communities before drafting a national Plan to Combat Antisemitism.

She delivered the plan to the federal government, and it was publicly released on 10 July 2025 alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. It outlined recommendations across education, online regulation, universities, cultural institutions and government agencies.

At the launch, Albanese acknowledged both the seriousness of the problem and its deeper roots.

“Jillian has put a lot of work into this report, which finds that antisemitism has risen to deeply troubling levels in Australia in the wake of the conflict in the Middle East,” he said. “But it also, of course, reaffirms the fact that antisemitism didn’t begin on 7 October.”

Although the report laid out a comprehensive national strategy, the government did not immediately move to formally adopt its recommendations.

Segal said the plan was intended to extend beyond government action.

“It was not just a plan for government,” she said. “It was a plan for the envoy’s office to implement and for leaders right around civil society to step up.”

In the months after the report was released, her office began progressing elements of the strategy even before ministers formally adopted the recommendations. Segal continued consultations across civil society, including with cultural leaders and Jewish creatives facing harassment. She also engaged with international antisemitism envoys as part of coordinated efforts to address the global rise in antisemitism.

She worked to build broader awareness of antisemitism across public institutions while preparing practical guidance to support implementation of the strategy.

The situation shifted dramatically five months later with the Bondi attack.

In the aftermath of the massacre, the government announced it would implement Segal’s recommendations as part of a broader national response to antisemitism. The announcement came alongside the creation of the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.

Working alongside the Royal Commission

Segal now sees the Royal Commission as a parallel process to the work already underway.

“They’re sort of concentric circles,” she said.

Her plan focuses specifically on antisemitism, while the Royal Commission is examining a broader set of issues including terrorism, radicalisation and social cohesion.

“There might be some short-term recommendations in the security space,” Segal said. “But the longer-term recommendations in relation to antisemitism will take time.”

Universities on the front line

Universities have become one of the most contested areas of focus.

Soon after taking office, Segal was asked to make a submission to the Senate inquiry into antisemitism at universities. To prepare it she interviewed 65 Jewish students and staff about their experiences.

Those accounts informed recommendations that universities adopt a clear definition of antisemitism, strengthen complaints systems, introduce training and update policies governing protests and hate incidents.

The proposals led to the creation of a national university report card system assessing institutions on their response to antisemitism.

“The report card would be an assessment of whether universities adopt a definition, whether they have training, whether they have a complaint scheme that works and whether they amend their policies,” Segal said.

The process is being overseen by constitutional lawyer and former vice chancellor Professor Greg Craven.

One of the most contentious questions has been how antisemitism should be defined.

The Australian government has endorsed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition. However, universities have adopted a modified version developed through Universities Australia.

“They did not want to adopt the IHRA definition in its full form,” Segal said.

Instead, universities adopted a shorter definition that removes some IHRA examples relating to Israel while adding wording recognising that the term “Zionist” is sometimes used as a substitute for “Jew”.

Segal notes that the parliamentary committee reviewing the issue described the two definitions as “not too dissimilar”.

The tensions behind that debate have played out publicly at several campuses.

At the University of Sydney, a staff member was suspended, later charged and subsequently dismissed after a finding of serious misconduct. This followed an incident in which Jewish students were allegedly targeted in an antisemitic tirade, including being called “parasites” and “filthy Zionists”. Incidents like this have intensified calls for stronger university responses.

Education and the public sector

Education forms a central part of Segal’s plan. Her office is preparing a handbook explaining the IHRA definition of antisemitism to help government agencies, universities and organisations understand how it should be applied in practice.

“We are going to publish next month a handbook on IHRA,” she said. “People have called for further education and understanding through the public sector and elsewhere.”

The plan also includes training and awareness programs for public servants and government agencies to improve understanding of antisemitism and ensure officials are better equipped to respond to complaints and incidents.

Online harassment and intimidation

Beyond campuses, Segal says the online environment has become one of the most difficult areas to address.

Her office has been working with the Minister for Communications, the Department of Communications and the eSafety Commissioner on possible reforms to Australia’s online safety framework.

“It goes to all the usual issues of bots and AI and anonymity and algorithms and the business model and transparency,” she said.

The problem, she argues, lies partly in the way social media platforms reward extreme content.

“The more people watch, the better they attract advertisers,” she said. “And the more extreme something is, the more engagement it gets and the more it gets promoted.

“It is a very dangerous model for humanity and particularly for democracy.”

Segal said antisemitism envoys from several countries have also engaged collectively with technology companies as part of efforts to address online hate.

“They generally think that commentary relating to Israel is a matter of free speech,” she said. “And there isn’t a line that anybody draws between that and when it morphs into anti-Jew hatred.”

The consequences have been felt across professional and cultural sectors. Jewish writers, artists and filmmakers in Australia have reported losing work, facing threats and having personal details published online since 7 October.

Segal said she has been consulting with Jewish artists and raising the issue with cultural ministers and festival organisers.

“There’s a lot still to be done,” she said.

Security and confidence

Security around Jewish institutions has increased significantly since the Bondi attack.

Segal acknowledges the necessity of those measures but says they cannot become the permanent reality of Jewish life in Australia.

“I put out a press release that said we can’t live behind higher and higher walls,” she said.

While security arrangements are largely handled by police and community organisations, Segal says the deeper challenge is restoring confidence.

“The test is not the level of security,” she said. “The matter I’m concerned about is the sense of security that the community has.”

She said measuring that confidence could involve asking practical questions: whether Jews feel comfortable wearing a kippah in public, whether parents feel safe sending children to school in Jewish uniform, and whether people feel safe walking to synagogue.

“The community must feel safe and able to go about its business and able to identify as Jews,” she said.

A long fight

Even when tensions in the Middle East ease, Segal believes antisemitism will remain a challenge for years.

“I think it’s naive to think it will go away,” she said.

Demonstrations may fade, but the attitudes behind them will take sustained effort to change.

“This didn’t happen overnight,” Segal said.

“And it won’t be solved overnight either.”