The Royal Commission is listening. Is the government?

Australia finds itself in a strange and troubling position.

At the very moment a Royal Commission is examining why social cohesion has fractured and why so many Jewish Australians feel less secure in the country they call home, the Federal Government appears unwilling to recognise that its own conduct is part of the environment being examined.

That contradiction was on display again this week when Foreign Minister Penny Wong joined Canada, France, Norway, and the United Kingdom in imposing sanctions on individuals described as extremist settlers in Judea and Samaria.

No serious person supports violence against innocent people. Where criminal conduct occurs, it should be investigated and prosecuted. That is not in dispute. What is in dispute is the judgment behind this announcement, its timing, and the message it sends in the current Australian climate.

Jewish Australians are living through the most serious wave of antisemitism many have experienced in their lifetimes. The Royal Commission exists because governments and institutions finally accepted that what had too often been dismissed as isolated incidents had become something larger and more disturbing.

Yet while Jewish Australians are being asked to explain how this deterioration occurred, many are also watching their own government continue down a path that deepens their sense of isolation. Diplomatic statements do not create antisemitism on their own, but governments do not speak into empty space. Their words are interpreted, absorbed, and repeated in the real world, including by people with no interest in nuance.

That matters in an environment where hostility towards Israel so often becomes hostility towards Jews. Jewish students see it on campus. Parents see it when they explain to their children why schools need guards. Community leaders see it when they try to reassure people that Jewish life in Australia can still be lived openly and confidently.

The slogans appearing on Australian streets are not careful or sophisticated. The people chanting about intifada are not engaging in a serious discussion about settlement policy. Those who intimidate Jewish students, target Jewish businesses, or vandalise Jewish institutions are not drawing careful distinctions between criticism of an Israeli government decision and contempt for Jewish self-determination.

That is the backdrop against which Australian foreign policy is being received. It raises a fair question: has anybody in Canberra stopped to consider how these decisions are experienced by the very community whose concerns are now being examined by a Royal Commission?

The Government speaks of rebuilding trust, yet many Jews feel trust has been steadily eroded. It speaks of social cohesion, yet often seems unable to understand that events overseas and the language surrounding them have consequences here at home. It asks the Jewish community to explain why so many feel alienated, while appearing reluctant to consider whether some of its own instincts have contributed to that alienation.

None of this means Israel should be immune from criticism. No democracy is, and Israelis themselves debate these questions with an intensity few outside Israel understand. But there is a difference between criticism and fixation, between balance and disproportion, between understanding a moment and misreading it completely.

That is why this latest announcement feels unnecessary. Not because it will meaningfully alter events in the Middle East, but because it reinforces a growing perception among many Jewish Australians that whenever there is an opportunity to create distance between Australia and Israel, this Government rarely hesitates.

That perception may not be how ministers see themselves, but perceptions matter. The Royal Commission was not established because of intentions. It was established because of experiences.

If a significant part of the Jewish community increasingly feels unheard, misunderstood and politically isolated, it is not enough for the Government simply to listen. It must also ask why so many people have reached that conclusion in the first place.

The Royal Commission will spend months trying to answer that question. The Government might begin by considering whether it already knows part of the answer.

Michael Gencher is the Executive Director of StandWithUs Australia