A Jewish paramedic in Australia testified that a firefighter pulled a hunting knife on him and threatened to “skin" him during a music festival in Victoria. The paramedic spoke at hearings of the royal commission investigating antisemitism and social cohesion in the country, which began Monday. The commission was established following the massacre at a Hanukkah party at Bondi Beach in Sydney, in which 15 people were murdered, and amid the surge in antisemitic incidents in the country.
The paramedic, Joshua Gomperts, 33, said the incident occurred while he was volunteering at a New Year’s Eve festival. He said that while he was with other emergency personnel, one firefighter made a remark about his Judaism, pulled out a large knife and told him: "I would skin you the way my family skinned yours in the camps."
According to ABC Australia, police officers at the scene heard the remarks and responded immediately. The firefighter’s supervisors later arrived and replaced the firefighting team at the festival.
Gomperts testified that it was not the first time he had experienced antisemitism. He said that as a teenager, he was attacked and injured while wearing a kippah after being hit with a glass bottle. He also said that, while working as a paramedic, he encountered antisemitic behavior when a patient in his 90s gave a Nazi salute during a hospital transfer. When Gomperts asked why he had done it, the elderly man said he was “an old Nazi” and did not want a Jew touching him. Gomperts and his colleague left, and another team continued the treatment.
Israel's President Isaac Herzog visits the site of the Bondi Beach massacre
(Video: Yair Kraus)
He said he also faced discrimination during his academic studies. ABC Australia reported that when the Jewish paramedic asked to postpone an exam scheduled for a Jewish holiday, he was summoned to a university hearing and told the date could not be changed for religious reasons. Only after seeking legal advice and saying he was considering action was his request approved. Gomperts noted that other students who were granted postponements for personal reasons, such as family events, were not required to undergo a similar process.
‘Because of security, the Jewish school in Sydney looks more like a prison’
Sheina Gutnick, daughter of the late Reuven Morrison, who was murdered in the Sydney attack, testified: “I saw cars passing on main roads, with passengers shouting ‘Free Palestine’ and immediately afterward ‘fuck the Jews.’ This is not political expression but explicit and targeted hatred.”
She described another incident. “In December 2024, I was walking down the street with my baby. A man pointed at my Star of David necklace and called me a ‘terrorist.’ I felt shocked, exposed and unsafe. No one intervened. I constantly consider whether to even pick up an online order in person, depending on the neighborhood where it is located, because of attacks that have occurred in certain places in Australia.”
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Sheina Gutnick, daughter of a Bondi Beach victim testified before the commission: 'explicit and targeted hatred'
(Photo: Izhar Khan/Reuters)
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Sheina Gutnick, daughter of Reuben Morrison, who was murdered in the Hanukkah attack, speaks to reporters after her testimony
(Photo: George Chan/ AFP)
The royal commission was established following the terrorist attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney during Hanukkah, in which 15 people were murdered, to examine the background to the event and the rise in antisemitism that preceded it. Its first hearings are expected to continue until mid-May, and the final report will be submitted within a year of the attack.
“The sharp rise in antisemitism we are witnessing in Australia is reflected in other Western countries and appears clearly linked to events in the Middle East,” commission chair Virginia Bell said in her opening remarks. “It is important that people understand how quickly these events can trigger ugly expressions of hostility toward Jewish Australians simply because they are Jewish.”
Gomperts was not the only witness before the commission. On Monday, a man said his grandson’s teacher gave a Nazi salute in class and made Nazi gestures. He said the school administration knew about it but did nothing.
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Pro-Palestinian demonstration against visit by Israel's president in the wake of the Bondi Beach massacre
(Photo: AAP/Joel Carrett via Reuters )
A woman who works with a Jewish security organization described how she had to escort people to safety from a synagogue in Melbourne in November 2023, on the anniversary of the Nazi Kristallnacht pogrom, when a mob of about 30 people dressed in black with covered faces appeared.
Stephanie Schwartz, president of the board of Sydney’s Mount Sinai College, told the commission that her 5-year-old daughter was at Bondi Beach on the day of the deadly attack and still suffers severe trauma.
Another woman said that after the Sydney attack, her Jewish school looked more like a prison because of the high level of security needed to keep parents and students safe. “Since the Bondi attack, the level of guarding and police presence is much more extreme,” she said. “You walk past our school and it looks much more like a prison than an elementary school.”
First published: 09:11, 05.05.26