Half surveyed reported antisemitism

Almost half of respondents to a national survey by Maccabi Australia reported witnessing or experiencing antisemitism in a sporting setting, with most incidents going unreported, the Royal Commission heard on Tuesday.

Maccabi Australia general manager David Goldman said the organisation surveyed its national database of about 17,000 members earlier this year and received 669 valid responses.

“47.7 per cent, just under one in two people, had either witnessed or experienced antisemitism,” Goldman said. “Of those … only 30 per cent had reported it, so we believe there’s a massive underrepresentation and underreporting.”

He said qualitative responses revealed a sharp rise in incidents after October 7, and described slurs directed at players as young as 10.

“We do hear slurs around ‘Hitler should have finished the job’,” Goldman said.

He said many codes lacked fit-for-purpose discrimination policies, leaving match officials – some as young as 14 – without guidance on how to identify or respond to incidents, meaning evidence was often lost before tribunals could act.

“I don’t believe that our referees and umpires actually can identify what an antisemitic incident is,” he said.

He called for antisemitism education to be mandated across all sporting codes, accredited training for match officials, standardised disciplinary frameworks, an app-based reporting mechanism, and sustained government funding for security at Jewish sporting events.

Sydney Swans board member Peter Ivany told the commission he had not witnessed antisemitism at senior level, but “at junior level … there’s significant antisemitism”.

“You’ve got to get the junior leagues right because that’s where the behaviour forms,” he said.

The commission also heard about two sporting programs bringing Jews and Muslims together.

Kevin Nafte, who played in and later coached the Israeli-Palestinian Australian rules football “Peace Team”, said the model could be adapted for Australia.

“When you’re on the field and someone comes and gives you a bump or shepherds you … you automatically start to develop that trust,” he said. “Sports is like a universal language.”

Witness AEB described the Harry Triguboff-funded Connection Camp involving 50 Muslim, 50 Jewish and 20 Christian primary school children.

AEB said children did not mix at first, but that by the end of the first day “that barrier had been broken”.