Not The Bee: Witness at Australian Antisemitism Royal Commission Questions Israel’s Right to Exist

Rita Jabri Markwell/ Image: Video screenshot via Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion

In 2025, one of the worst shootings in Australia’s history unfolded in Sydney as two terrorists slaughtered at least 15 Jewish beachgoers who were celebrating Hanukkah. Now, the commission established to address antisemitism is facing controversy after a witness speaking before the group has questioned Israel’s right to even exist.

The Gateway Pundit reported that two men stepped out of a vehicle on Campbell Parade, near Bondi Pavilion, and opened fire at Bondi Beach at roughly 6.40 pm on December 14, 2025.  Witnesses report that more than 30 shots were fired and multiple people were injured in the attack, including two police officers and a child.

Police discovered several suspicious items in the vicinity of the incident. This included an improvised explosive device.

Following the deadly antisemitic terrorist attack, the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion was established.

The Commission’s terms of reference focus on four main areas:

Investigating the nature, prevalence, and drivers of antisemitism in Australian institutions and society (including ideologically and religiously motivated extremism and radicalization). Making recommendations to help law enforcement, border control, immigration, and security agencies better tackle antisemitism (including improved guidance and training). Examining the specific circumstances of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack itself. Making broader recommendations to strengthen social cohesion in Australia and counter the spread of ideologically and religiously motivated extremism.

Rita Jabri Markwell, a Sydney-based solicitor, researcher, and policy adviser to the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network, spoke before the commission to discuss the framework she helped develop to identify and address all forms of hate speech. Markwell, however, would not affirm Israel’s right to exist.

Per Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

Following a lengthy and at times emotive cross-examination about the framework, Commissioner Virginia Bell AC SC asked Ms Markwell if she would “accept that there is a legitimacy to the existence of the state of Israel” at the time of the United Nations General Assembly’s recognition of the state of Israel in 1948.

“I don’t think I have a view particularly on the time of that declaration, but I know that if you were to ask me now whether I think that the state has legitimacy I, as a human rights lawyer, I don’t think that any state that relies unlawful occupation and apartheid and genocide could be said to be a legitimate state,” Ms Markwell said in response.

“I think that there really needs to be, and this is just a political opinion, but I think there needs to be serious thought as to how we fulfil every human’s human rights in that region.”

Nicholas Bender, who is counsel representing various Jewish communal organizations, cross-examined Markwell. He questioned her extensively about her views on Zionism, including a Substack post in which she characterized it as a form of violent extremism involving dehumanization and related aspects of her dehumanization/hate-speech framework.

Watch the tense cross-examination of Markwell below:

This cross-examination of Rita Jabri Markwell of the Australian Muslim Advocacy Network, at the Royal Commission on Antisemitism & Social Cohesion was indeed starkly revealing.

For some, it seems, nothing will ever be enough. A Jewish person can completely oppose the actions of… pic.twitter.com/pbDfwzOary

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) August 20, 2026

 

 

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