An academic at UNSW was subjected to Nazi salutes by students in his business class, the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion has heard.

The fourth block of hearings, taking place in Melbourne this week, is examining the lived experiences of Jewish students and academics, including the response of universities to combat hate. Witnesses disputed whether criticism of Israel and Zionism was inherently antisemitic.

The royal commissioner, Virginia Bell, noted Jewish witnesses had been subjected to “ugly antisemitic attacks” after giving evidence of their experiences of antisemitism in earlier hearings, which has led to an AFP referral and charges.

Four academics and students gave evidence under a pseudonym on Monday. One of them, referred to as ACJ, said four students performed Nazi salutes towards him during a business class for international students in 2024.

The tutor and PhD candidate at UNSW said “my grandparents had survived the Holocaust, the Nazis … murdered a huge proportion of my family … And so when someone does a Nazi salute at me it feels like they want to kill me.”

He said he wasn’t certain the students knew he was Jewish, but that their behaviour seemed clearly directed. The academic told his supervisors, noting it was a crime and that he intended to go to the police. He said students were initially issued a formal warning and later suspended after NSW police carried out an investigation.

Another witness, appearing as Liat, moved to Canberra in 2022 to study at the Australian National University (ANU) and described herself as proudly Zionist, with both her parents born in Israel.

After the 7 October 2023 terrorist attack, she said she lost the vast majority of her non-Jewish friends, including being told at a university event “we’re not friends any more, you’re a Zionist”.

“The majority of the people who were my friends at the time just stopped talking to me entirely,” she said.

She described an escalation of antisemitism on campus after 2023, including being called a “baby killer” and “genocide supporter” by students who were part of ANU’s pro-Palestine encampment.

Liat said it was possible to criticise Israel without being antisemitic but she hadn’t seen “examples that accuse Israel of doing things without playing on those [antisemitic] tropes”.

The executive director of Israel education organisation, StandWithUs Australia, Michael Gencher, said he had also witnessed Jewish students at a cafe on a university campus in mid-2024 being called “baby killers”.

He said he had noticed a significant increase in university responsiveness towards allegations of antisemitism since the Bondi massacre at a Jewish celebration in December. But he added there were still Jewish students that “have stopped attending campuses” because they felt unsafe. “It is tragic,” he said.

A postgraduate Jewish and Israeli student at a Melbourne university, using the pseudonym ACL, told the royal commission she never felt the need to hide her identity until the aftermath of the 7 October attacks. But it brought a new anxiety, and she decided for the first time in her life not to wear her Magen David – in Hebrew, a “shield” or “protector” – on campus.

“I just felt like I couldn’t be Jewish on campus” she said between tears. “Every time I went to class, I would quite literally strip myself of my Jewish identity.”

In one instance, a lecturer told a small cohort of students, including her, that a scholar was a “good Jew” because they “weren’t a Zionist”.

Counsel assisting at the royal commission, Zelie Heger SC, said a “recurring theme” was Jewish staff and students being assumed to take a particular position on the Middle East, despite “diverse views” among the community.

“No one doubts the importance of being able to debate the conflict in the Middle East,” she said. “But I anticipate the evidence will show that there have been instances where protest on these issues has crossed the line.”

A co-convener for Students for Palestine Yasmine Johnson, who is Jewish, said the state of Israel was a “political project” rather than inherently tied to Jewish people and Zionism was an “ideology which supports the existence of the state of Israel, and that is a racist project”.

Johnson also rejected testimony that the pro-Palestinian movement and its associated student encampments had made people in the Jewish community feel unsafe by using chants like “globalise the intifada”.

“The primary concern in a democracy when we’re talking about free speech cannot be simply whether somebody’s feelings will be hurt by something or not,” she said. “We are the ones calling for an end to violence. We are the ones calling for an anti-racist movement.”

The president of the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), Hugh de Kretser, said there had been a “surge in racism” since 7 October 2023 towards Jewish, Palestinian and Islamic communities.

The AHRC’s Respect at Uni report, released this year, found racism was “systemic” on campuses. He said there was dispute over what constituted antisemitism, but “in terms of most of the forms of racism here documented in our report, it’s very clear cut”.

“If you’re denying people opportunities, if you’re racially harassing them, if you’re abusing them, if you’re threatening them, that is racism,” he said. “Prime minister Netanyahu said anti-Israel criticism is antisemitism. That is patently wrong and unhelpful for the cause to address antisemitism internationally.”

Australian universities will be required to adopt definitions on antisemitism, Islamophobia and racism towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from next year, under a legally enforceable standard designed to stamp out discrimination on campuses.