Australia's Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion opened hearings in Melbourne on Monday, July 13, 2026, to examine how universities handle hate speech and student safety. Commissioner Virginia Bell leads the inquiry, which began taking testimony in Sydney in early May and is now gathering accounts from academics and students about campus antisemitism The Guardian.

The most striking account came from a UNSW tutor and PhD candidate (referred to as ACJ under a pseudonym) who witnessed four students perform Nazi salutes toward him during a 2024 business class. ACJ's grandparents survived the Holocaust, and he lost many relatives to Nazi persecution. He reported the incident to his supervisors, called it a crime, and said he planned to tell police. Yet UNSW first issued only a formal warning. The students were suspended only after NSW Police opened an investigation The Guardian.

A second witness, a student at the Australian National University identified as Liat, testified that she lost most of her non-Jewish friends after October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. Liat said students connected to ANU's pro-Palestine encampment called her a "baby killer" and "genocide supporter." Michael Gencher, executive director of StandWithUs Australia, gave similar testimony, saying he personally heard Jewish students called "baby killers" at a university cafe in mid-2024. A postgraduate Jewish and Israeli student in Melbourne (referred to as ACL) said that for the first time after October 7, 2023, she chose not to wear her Magen David, a Star of David pendant, on campus The Guardian.

Gencher also told the commission that universities have become more responsive to antisemitism complaints since the Bondi massacre in December 2025. However, he noted that some Jewish students have stopped coming to campus altogether because they no longer feel safe there. This mixed picture—better policies at the administration level but fewer students actually showing up—points to a core question the commission must answer: Are policy changes actually making students feel safer?

The Royal Commission itself was established on January 9, 2026, after a terrorist attack on December 14, 2025, that targeted a Jewish celebration in Bondi. The inquiry called for public submissions, which closed in June after receiving more than 20,000 responses. This volume reflects how widespread concern about campus safety and antisemitism has become. In response to incidents like the one ACJ described, federal parliament also amended the Criminal Code to require mandatory jail time for making Nazi salutes—a legal shift that underscores why testimony about pre-2026 conduct carries extra weight 9News Melbourne.

The hearings have not run smoothly. Witnesses who testified in earlier blocks were later subjected to antisemitic attacks, leading to a referral to the Australian Federal Police and criminal charges against a NSW man accused of sending offensive emails to a witness The Guardian. This retaliation against people testifying under a Royal Commission's legal protections raises serious questions about how to keep witnesses safe. It also explains why many people in the Melbourne hearings—ACJ, Liat, ACL—are appearing under assumed names rather than publicly. In response, National Legal Aid established a dedicated legal help service for people engaging with the inquiry, an infrastructure response to both the volume of submissions and the real risks some witnesses face in coming forward National Legal Aid.

So far, the testimony paints not one story but several interlocking ones: actual criminal conduct happening in classrooms, Jewish students feeling socially isolated on campus, and institutions that appear to act only when pushed by outside pressure—from police, media, or the commission itself. The broader significance of these hearings rests on what the commission chooses to recommend. How it weighs this evidence and what it asks universities to do will likely set the direction for campus policy on hate speech and student safety for years to come.

The hearing schedule keeps up a steady pace: Sydney testimony ran through July 6 and 7, paused on July 8, resumed on July 9, and the Melbourne block runs through July 17. A sixth block returns to Sydney from July 28 to 31, suggesting the commission plans to move between cities as it builds its full record before issuing its final report.