As the Bondi Royal Commission continues, one major campaigner against antisemitism demonstrates its vehement opposition to social cohesion. Wendy Bacon with the story.
Sheina Gutnick, whose father Reuben Morrison was killed in the Bondi Massacre, was the first witness at the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion. She shared her “lived experience” of antisemitism, including fears for her children’s future.
Gutnick is the Public Affairs Officer for the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) in Australia, a role she took on in April.
In her statement in evidence at the Royal Commission, she describes CAM as undertaking “civic education, grassroots activism and policy advocacy to combat antisemitism”. She told the Commission that her job includes monitoring hundreds of antisemitic comments, including on CAM’s websites.
Counsel assisting the Royal Commission, Zelie Heger SC, assured Gutnick that her recommendations and those of CAM would be taken seriously.
At the time she gave evidence, Gutnick and her CAM team had been campaigning with The Daily Telegraph (DT) for weeks to pressure City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore to cancel a Council venue booking by Stop the War on Palestine (SWOP) for a discussion about a proposed ban on the slogan ‘Globalise the Intifada’.
CAM demanded Sydney’s Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, cancel the group’s Council booking. They falsely accused the group of being Hamas supporters who wanted to kill Jews, and linked them to the Bondi massacre.
Despite the pressure, Moore initially held firm in favour of the right to peaceful assembly and protest.
However, on the eve of her appearance at the Royal Commission, Gutnick and other victims of the Bondi terrorist attack published an open letter in the DT,
which increased the pressure on Moore.
They called the SWOP event a ‘hate-fest’ that would encourage violence and “undermine the core Australian values of fairness, community and mateship”.
Early the following evening, Clover Moore caved and instructed Council to cancel the booking. She explained her position in a media release that positioned antisemitism alongside Islamophobia and racism and stressed her support for protest and inclusivity.
She linked her backdown to her concern that holding the event in the early stages of the Royal Commission could contribute to “hostility and fear”. Moore blamed the media for its “discourse of division that has heightened tensions more than any small community event could”.
SWOP moved their meeting to an inner-city park.
CAM grassroots activists were also busy organising a rally with far-right activists in Inner Sydney to be held on May 5.
Combat Antisemitism Movement
CAM is a global movement based in the United States that claims to have 3.5 million supporters. It has close links with the Israeli state. Its CEO, Sascha Roytmann is based in Tel Aviv and was previously head of the New Media Desk at the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit of the IDF.
CAM’s Advisory Board Chair is former Deputy PM of Israel, Natan Sharansky, who considers branding Israel as an apartheid state to be a “modern form of antisemitism rhetoric”.
The International Court of Justice and major international and Israeli human rights organisations have found that
Israel is an apartheid state.
Australia is just one of 60 countries where CAM uses tactics including social media, lobbying politicians and convening conferences to relentlessly pursue its goal of entrenching the IHRA definition of antisemitism into policy at all levels of government, including outlawing BDS campaigns.
CAM’s Outreach Officer is Trump supporter EJ Kemball, who is a far-right Christian and has substantial experience lobbying for Israel. He sees his mission as building CAM’s support among Christian Zionists. A security and intelligence expert, he was previously the Director of US Operations for the Israel Allies Foundation.
CAM Australia reflects this US pattern by forming a pro-Israel right-wing coalition with the Christian group Never Again is Now (NAIN). It aims to
discredit and dismantle the pro-Palestinian movement and promote a culture based on ‘Judeo-Christian’ values.
CAM and NAIN have worked together since 2024. Last year, NAIN partnered with CAM in its first national conference for Australian Mayors in a luxury hotel on the Gold Coast.
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Another conference is planned in Sydney for November. Their latest joint activity was a rally held the day after Gutnick gave her evidence. The context for the rally was Premier Chris Minns’ plan to ban the slogan ‘Globalise the Intifada’.
‘Judeo-Christian’ Sydney rally
Following Clover Moore’s backdown, CAM and Never Again were jubilant about their ‘win’ but still had Moore in their sights. They moved their rally to City of Sydney land at Sydney Park. MWM was present at the gathering, attended by about 50 people and about 20 police. Regular early evening runners were surprised to find illuminated screens and a small crowd draped in Israeli and Australian flags in a shadowy corner of Sydney Park.
The key message was a nationalistic call to defend so-called ‘Judeo-Christian’ values. Pro-Palestinian protesters, including Moore herself, were labelled as terrorism supporters. Speakers included militant pro-Israel activists and One Nation, anti-immigration and Islamophobic crusaders.
The MC was “Colesy”, a Pauline Hanson fan who is vehemently anti-immigration. “Intifada comes for all of our families, our sons, and our daughters. Police, media, politicians, you can stop it tonight. Call it what it is. We’ve seen it in Bondi. We don’t need to see any more. It’s time to cancel it. Remove it. Get rid of the cancer, and let us live in peace,” he demanded.
‘Trombone Tone’, an evangelical Christian and One Nation campaigner who set the tone with ‘Waltzing Matilda’. He blamed the Bondi massacre on importing a “bunch of Islamists … and now we’ve got this,” he said, pointing to a photoshopped image of protesters at the Opera House.
CAM was represented by Ofir Birenbaum, who first came to MWM’s notice as an organiser for astroturfing groups Better Council and Better Australia. He recently settled a case against the Cairo Takeaway cafe in Enmore, Sydney.
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Birenbaum recounted his own youth in Israel, blaming violence and restrictions on Palestinian movements on the Intifada.
According to Birenbaum, the cancellation of the SWOP meeting was a win but only a start: “That’s what happened when we stopped asking for permission and started demanding accountability. And this is what happens when you finally stand up to bullies, because that’s what they are, nothing less.”
He then attacked Clover Moore, absurdly suggesting she had ‘taken the side’ of the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by joining the 2025 March on the Harbour Bridge.
Ali B and Michael Gensher
Never again is Now promoted Ali Beikzadeh (Ali B), an anti-Islam Royalist Iranian who continued the attack on Moore for “standing right next to a bloody portrait of Khamenei on the Harbour Bridge and having the audacity to suggest I’m proud of myself for attending the Harbour Bridge march.”
This was another lie, as Moore did not stand next to a portrait of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In fact, a photo was taken of a single placard of the Iranian Supreme Leader positioned behind Moore and other community leaders.
Ali B also threatened activists: “You know who you are …. if you continue with your ways, we will continue exposing you all one by one, and let me be absolutely clear about this. None of you deserves to be living in Australia, on Australian soil if you continue to entertain this nonsense ….. Let’s cut the shit. Now, anybody who entertains this notion
they are directly to blame for what happened in Bondi.”
Another speaker was Michael Gensher, who is a director of the Australian branch of Stand with Us, which builds connections with Israel and fights antisemitism. Last year, he organised visits to Australian universities by Israel Defense Force (IDF) reservists who served during the war in Gaza, featuring ‘immersive experiences’ to build ‘social cohesion’.
CAM and NAIN and their right-wing collaborators @aus4civilisation attracted thousands of likes across their social media platforms.
CAM CEO Sacha Roytman, who was monitoring the event in Tel Aviv, reported that the billboards were moved overnight to the Park where SWOP held its rally. His post falsely suggested that SWOP was calling for “murdering Jews in Australia.”
CAM has called on the City of Sydney to adopt the IHRA definition and review its hiring policies to prohibit any similar meetings in the future.
Meanwhile, it announced that, after conducting roundtables with politicians and community leaders, it has prepared a comprehensive submission to the Royal Commission supporting tough measures to quash activity perceived as antisemitic.
Its submission commits CAM to continuing to work with “interfaith partners and community leaders across Australia to advance genuine social cohesion”.
If the CAM rally at Sydney Park is anything to go by, social cohesion is not where it’s heading.
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