Australia’s top domestic intelligence official told a Royal Commission on Monday that antisemitism was allowed to spread unchecked across the country after October 7, helping create an atmosphere that fueled violence against Jewish Australians before the deadly Bondi Chanukah massacre.

The testimony came during public hearings into the December 2025 terror attack on a Chanukah celebration in Bondi Beach that killed 15 people. Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), said antisemitic incidents sharply escalated after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War.

“Some of those violent aspects and those behaviors, including antisemitism that, in our view, were left unchecked, were therefore normalized and gave more permission for violence,” Burgess told the inquiry.

The commission also heard that the Jewish Community Security Group warned New South Wales Police before the “Chanukah by the Sea” event that the Jewish community faced a high terrorism risk and requested a permanent police presence. Police instead used a mobile patrol model.

Burgess said the rise in antisemitic incidents contributed to ASIO raising Australia’s national terrorism threat level to “probable” in August 2025. He said antisemitism evolved from threats and intimidation into attacks targeting Jewish schools, synagogues, businesses, and homes. “Jewish Australians were on the receiving end,” he said.

Burgess also testified that ASIO believes the IRGC helped direct attacks on a kosher restaurant in Sydney and the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, allegations that led Australia to expel Iran’s ambassador last year. Tehran denied the accusations at the time.

“They use their network of proxies and agents to do their bidding, and that is to bring harm to Jewish people wherever they are in the world,” Burgess said.