Locals repulsed by swastikas
PITTWATER Council has removed a swastika that had adorned a telegraph pole for a year, following a complaint from a resident which The AJN followed up.
PITTWATER Council has removed a swastika that had adorned a telegraph pole for a year, following a complaint from a resident which The AJN followed up.
The offensive symbol was painted at the entrance to the Careel Bay Marina in Avalon, an area that over the past year has seen the construction of a park and boat rack as part of the council-led Careel Bay Foreshore Improvement Project.
“During this period, I was certain someone would remove this image – an image so profoundly associated with racism, genocide, and hatred,” the resident said.
The resident told The AJN that after receiving no response to her request for the graffiti’s removal, she phoned council and was dismissed by a staffer.
However, The AJN was informed after contacting the council this week that the graffiti has now been removed and contact made with the resident.
“Our Commercial Property and Project team have advised that this request was logged late last week. This was the first time it has been brought to our attention,” a council spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, a Nazi flag, alongside a Confederate flag, adorning a house in the northern NSW town of Iluka is causing angst among residents.
James Robertson, who lives next door to the offending house, said many members of the local community had complained, with no success. “Having Jewish heritage and a Hungarian wife, I take full offence at the use of swastika, Luftwaffe and Eagle in a country that fought so hard to protect the individual against such perils,” he told The AJN.
“In Europe it is illegal. How is it possible that it is not here?”
Robertson turned to the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC) in an attempt to resolve the issue.
ADC chairman Dvir Abramovich described the flying of the flag as a “stomach-turning outrage”.
“Nazi symbols … have absolutely no place in Australia and the use of such imagery is shocking and perverse,” he said. “It is chilling to think that there are still those who would brazenly and gleefully exhibit an object that stands for the warped supremacist ideology and unspeakable crimes of the Third Reich.”
He added, “It is concerning to see the Confederate flag, a symbol of slavery and oppression which is very popular among white supremacists today.”
NSW Jewish Board of Deputies CEO Vic Ahadeff said: “It is very troubling that some people are turning to the Nazi swastika to make their point.
“The swastika represents the ultimate in racial hatred, and introducing it into public debate is dangerous and needs to be strongly condemned.”
GARETH NARUNSKY
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