Australia’s Jewish community was horrified to learn that on Friday a man wearing a baseball hat with a swastika patch on it was seen outside a Melbourne train station. The incident is just the latest in a worrying rise in neo-Nazi activity in Australia, especially in the state of Victoria.
According to Australia’s 7News, the photo was taken by a 23-year old Jewish man, the descendent of Holocaust survivors, at approximately 10:30 p.m. as a soccer match was letting out. The photographed man appeared to be heading home from the game along with the rest of the crowd.
There has been a three-year campaign in Australia spearheaded by the Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), Australia's main Jewish advocacy organization, to ban the swastika as a symbol of hate.
Earlier this month a parliamentary commission issued a report recommending a ban be put in place. "The committee believes it is important to send a clear message to the community that Nazi symbolism is not acceptable in any form and has wide-ranging, negative societal impacts," the report stated.
The government in Victoria is leaning towards implementing the recommendations, making it a criminal offence to display Nazi symbols, including the swastika. "This would allow Victoria Police to immediately remove Nazi symbols that are on deliberate display to vilify targeted communities,” the report concluded.
This latest incident follows multiple recent similar cases, especially in Victoria. A man at a Melbourne farmer’s market was spotted wearing a Nazi arm band. People were seen in full Nazi costume. There were cases of Nazi flags flying in front of houses. In Perth, a man was observed with a swastika painted on his forehead.
Dvir Abramovich, the chairman of the ADC, said in a statement that what is going on is a “sickening and escalating crisis.”
If nothing is done, “Victoria may become known as the swastika state instead of the Garden State. No one can feel safe when such terrifying episodes are allowed to happen,” he said.
He added, “I repeat my call for the state government to draft a bill that bans the public displays of Nazism and to pass the law immediately. Enough is enough.”