As Australian Jews gave evidence of their experiences with anti-Semitism last month, the head of the post-Bondi shootings royal commission, Virginia Bell, concluded by asking many of them a question.
She enquired about their personal connection with Israel.
Most, if not all, said they felt a strong connection or that Israel contributed to their identity in some meaningful way, telling the former High Court judge that connection made them a Zionist.
Answering the question of whether anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism is a stated objective of the ongoing Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion.
On Friday the commission wrapped up a week of closed-door hearings into the intelligence and law enforcement response to the Bondi attack.
But as it prepares to open its doors again for a third block of hearings on institutional anti-Semitism, the inquiry is contending with vastly different definitions and perspectives on Zionism inside and beyond its walls.
Some say conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism would be a mistake, urging the commission to make sure it is hearing a range of Jewish voices.
But many Jews argue criticism of Israel's actions should be directed at the government of the day, instead of towards Jewish Australians.
While some see Zionism as support for the peaceful existence of Jews in Israel, others see a justification for bloodshed and the degradation of human rights.
Australians may be struggling to find common ground due to the lack of a clear shared definition or differing understandings of what Zionism is, Deakin University Middle East expert Andrew Thomas says.
"The reason why people see it as complex, is because it is complex," he tells AAP.
Commissioner Bell summarised the definitions of Zionism given by witnesses to the commission.
"If I could try and encapsulate it, it is the belief in the right of Jewish people to have a homeland in part of the ancestral lands in Palestine," she said.
None of the witnesses said genuine criticism of the Israeli government amounted to anti-Semitism.
Dr Thomas - who is not Jewish - says that while having some basis in biblical texts, modern Zionism is a political movement, adding that like any ideological or political movement, it is not homogenous.
Currently, Zionism in many cases has been conflated with the most extreme version, he says, personified by right-wing Israeli politicians like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He says Netanyahu and others represent "revisionist Zionism" - a view that Jews in Israel should not be meek and should take what they see as theirs through military force and annexation.
There are also many who would fall under the term of "liberal Zionists".
It is absolutely possible and legitimate for a Jewish person to consider themselves Zionist without supporting the actions of the Israeli state, Dr Thomas says.
However, there are many in the Jewish community who view Zionism as much more loaded, and say defence of Zionism is being used to stifle criticism of inherent injustices baked-in to Israel's existence.
Sarah Schwartz, founded the Jewish Council in 2024 to give balance to pro-Israel Jewish organisations.
It is critically important for the commission to hear from a diverse range of Jewish voices, she says.
"Jewish voices who are supportive and part of the movement for Palestinian human rights, and don't see their identities as wrapped up with support for Israel," Ms Schwartz tells AAP.
Ms Schwartz says Zionism must be assessed on what is means in practice.
The reality is that the creation of the state of Israel explicitly prioritises the rights of Jewish people over those of Palestinians, having led to the dispossession of hundreds of thousands of people from their homes, she says.
"A lot of people would say that political Zionism today is about support for the maintenance of a Jewish majority state on a land which is also home to Palestinians," Ms Schwartz says.
For her, the claim that Zionism is simply about the question of whether Israel has a right to exist sidesteps the issue of Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
"This is something that Israel has promoted for a very long time in order to defend its own actions," she says.
"The fact that people have different views on what Zionism means, shows that it is something that should be open for free debate and discussion and critique."
Criticism of Zionism "doesn't come out of thin air", Dr Thomas notes.
Apartheid and ethnic cleansing have been very much observable in the West Bank and there has been genuine debate about the use of the term genocide, he says.
"That's why Zionism draws its criticism," Dr Thomas says.
"It doesn't come out of just pure anti-Semitism and hate for Jewish people."
He shares Ms Schwartz's concerns, saying while a lot of anti-Zionist rhetoric is anti-Semitic, they are not the same thing.
"I fear that the royal commission is sort of going down that path of conflating those two concepts," he says.
Senior Rabbi Daniel Rabin, of Melbourne's Caulfield Shule, gave evidence to the commission.
He says he feels anti-Zionism much more personally - and he is not alone in the Jewish community.
"Zionism is a very much part of the Jewish culture, so somebody saying they're against that, well, that is anti-Semitic," Mr Rabin said.
"Those who killed the people in Bondi, if you look at their mantra or their testimonies that they mentioned, it was 'this is against the Zionists', so I don't think we're being over sensitive to realise how dangerous it is."
Mr Rabin contends that criticism of Israel should be directed towards the government of the day.
He says Jews are only asking to change the language being used.
"If I don't like Anthony Albanese and his policies, I'm not anti-Australia, I'm anti the Labor government," he said.
"If they don't like the current government, then it's not anti-Zionist, it's anti the current government - so say that."
"If Jews are telling you that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic, maybe you should listen."
