Ostrovsky: A tsunami of Jew hatred

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) head of Sydney office Arsen Ostrovsky told the Royal Commission on Monday that the online abuse directed at him and his family since the Bondi Beach attack had been “a relentless tsunami of Jew hatred”.

Much of the abuse was built on deepfake images falsely depicting him as having faked the head injury he sustained at the December 14 Chanukah celebration. The manipulated material suggested the attack was a “false flag”, that the blood was tomato ketchup, and that he was a “crisis actor” or Mossad agent.

The material spread across X, YouTube, TikTok, Telegram, Facebook and Instagram. Much of the material, he said, remained online.

“I try my best to block it out, but it’s impossible, and the cumulative nature of it is overwhelming,” he said.

He recounted how his nine-year-old daughter, who grew up in Israel through repeated trips to bomb shelters, had told him she felt safer there than in Australia. Both his daughters, aged nine and five, were at Bondi on December 14.