Thousands of attacks and death threats are leveled at one of Australia's most prominent Jewish families each year, a royal commission into antisemitism has heard. Steven Lowy, former Westpac co-chief executive and son of billionaire Frank Lowy, stated that his family's personal security team monitors a significant volume of online threats.
During a four-week period, approximately 40 individuals were referred to police, and 1,500 posts were flagged. "It disturbs me, the volume and prevalence of it, and the serious nature of it," Lowy told the inquiry on Monday. He noted that such communications would lead to convictions in other contexts.
Lowy, whose father is reportedly worth over $10 billion from building the Westfield shopping malls empire, proposed a Singapore-style national service to help mend Australia's social fabric. In an 18-page submission to the commission, he called for enhanced police powers across all states to protect Jewish Australians and their communal life. His wife, Judy, was subjected to the hashtag '#genocidejudy' online after initiating a fundraising campaign for a Sydney Jewish school foundation where she serves on the board. Lowy highlighted that this hashtag, published by an account with over 230,000 followers, received substantial online attention before being removed.
The antisemitism royal commission resumed public hearings on Monday, following a period of private sessions focused on security matters. Over the next two weeks, commissioners are scheduled to examine the role of media, specifically the ABC and SBS, and to investigate the nature, prevalence, and drivers of antisemitism and other hate speech on social media.
Other witnesses shared their experiences, including an anonymous Sydney woman who detailed online threats her young daughter received from fellow students, which had been reported to the police. Arsen Ostrovsky, who was shot in the head during a terror attack on December 14, shared that his daughter felt safer in Israel during wartime than in Australia. Ostrovsky's daughter, who spent most of her childhood in Israel, requires multiple layers of security to attend school in Australia.
Ostrovsky informed the commission that hate speech targeting Jews online has evolved with coded language. He noted the use of terms like 'Zion' or 'Zionist' as substitutes for 'Jew' or 'Jewish,' suggesting that individuals identified as Zionist are perceived as less deserving of rights and protections.
Social media conglomerate Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads, is expected to appear before the commissioners in the coming days. A 2024 study by the Melbourne-based Online Hate Prevention Institute found a five-fold increase in anti-Jewish content on social media in the months following the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel. The study identified Facebook, X, and the platform Gab as exhibiting particularly concerning levels of incitement to violence.
The royal commission's initial three weeks of hearings in May included testimony from school students who reported experiencing antisemitism from their peers.