A man has been arrested after wearing a T-shirt with a swastika on it while standing outside the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion in Sydney.
Police approached the man about 11am after he was seen loitering near the venue wearing the white shirt emblazoned with a blue swastika with a Star of David inside.
It also had the slogan: “Antisemitism. Proud to be accused. Speak up!”
Warning: This story contains an image of a Nazi symbol.
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Police initially issued the 68-year-old man with a move-on order after patrolling officers saw him in “clothing which allegedly displayed an offensive slogan on the front”.
About 2:45pm, the man attended Manly Police Station where he was arrested by officers.
The man remains in custody while inquiries continue.
Outside the royal commission, the man had said he wore the shirt throughout the CBD often and was proud to do so.
NSW Police said officers saw the man wearing “clothing which allegedly displayed an offensive slogan on the front”. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)
A spokesperson for the royal commission said they were aware of the incident and that the matter was being dealt with by NSW Police.
“Safety of witnesses is paramount to the royal commission. We want to reassure witnesses and those wishing to engage with the royal commission that safety protocols are in place.
“The royal commission is determined to investigate antisemitism in Australia without fear or intimidation.”
It is the third day of public hearings in the royal commission and at the time it was hearing first-hand testimony from Jewish Australians about their experiences of antisemitism.
Teen details trauma of Bondi attack
The man was moved on by police outside the royal commission on Wednesday. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)
A 13-year-old girl told the commission on Wednesday morning she experienced nightmares for months and slept with her parents for a week following the Bondi terror attack that killed 15 people.
In a recording played to the commission the teenager, who cannot be named for privacy and safety reasons, said she was at a bat mitzvah at Bondi Pavilion on December 14 when two gunmen opened fire at a nearby Hanukkah event.
She said the celebration was thrust into lockdown.
She said she did not hear any shooting, but watched “hundreds of people running away and screaming”.
“It was terrifying,” she said.
The 13-year-old girl spoke of her feelings when she now goes to Bondi. (ABC News: Jack Fisher)
The teenager said she returned home “shaking and sweating and crying”, and had to sleep in her parents’ bed for a week after the attack, with her nightmares lingering for months.
“I still don’t like to see the bridge when go to Bondi,” she said
“It makes me feel worried to be a Jewish kid in Australia.”
Security at Jewish aged care facilities
JewishCare Victoria’s Gayle Smith said she believed the organisation was the only aged care service provider in Australia that required guards at its residential facilities due to a number of antisemitic threats and incidents in the wake of October 7, 2023.
She said the costs associated with security measures totalled $1.8 million each year, with the not-for-profit unable to charge levies to help cover the bill.
Ms Smith, who is not Jewish, said it was disappointing the organisation’s clients, which include hundreds of Holocaust survivors, were subject to a visible security presence.
“Our obligation for safety and security is such that if we did not take that action and something happened, I personally would never be able to forgive myself,” she told the commission.
‘Devastating’ antisemitism at school
The royal commission is on its third day of public hearings. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)
Two siblings told the inquiry of their experience with antisemitism at high school and university.
The Year 10 student known as AAG said she did not hide her Jewish identity at school, and was often the target of offensive slurs and gestures.
“They’ve thrown coins at me and asked if I was going to pick it up,” she said.
She said some children would try to “rile” her by pretending to sneeze and saying “ah Jew” instead of “achoo”.
During a screening of the film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, one student turned and performed the Nazi salute behind their teacher’s back.
The teenager said she reported the incidents to her teachers but was told to ignore it.
Her older sister, known as AAF, said she was more reluctant to reveal her Jewish identity, and did not wear her Jewish jewellery in public.
She said when she was in high school, people would scratch swastikas into trees and some students formed a Snapchat called the Hitler Support Group.
The now-university student said the only teacher she heard address the incidents was a temporary principal, who called a meeting which prompted the development of anti-racism courses for students.
But she said the material made little mention of antisemitism.
Firefighter threatened to ‘skin’ Jewish paramedic
The sisters’ mother, referred to as AAE, also gave evidence, and became emotional after hearing her daughters speak of their experience with antisemitism.
“I didn’t know the full extent of [the incidents] and I didn’t realise how systemic and prolific it was,” she said.
She said she wondered if her children were safer in Israel than Australia.
“I’ve spoken to the girls’ father. Maybe they need to move back to Israel because I don’t know what our future is here anymore,” the girls’ mother said.
“It’s just devastating.”
Some Jewish Australians have considered moving to Israel, the commission heard. (ABC News: Jak Rowland)
Melbourne father and Jewish man Dean Cherny had a similar conversation with his then-10-year-old daughter in late October 2023, following the Hamas attacks in Israel.
“She said ‘Dad, if Israel is not safe and we are not safe in Australia, where are we going to go?’ And I didn’t have an answer,” he told the commission.
He said he knew people in the Jewish community who had moved to Israel because they no longer felt safe in Australia.
Mr Cherny said he learnt martial arts and volunteered with Jewish security group CSG NSW to protect his family and his community.
“Bondi showed us that this isn’t a game, this isn’t fun,” he said.
Lengthy wait times in addressing antisemitic bullying
A father known as AAT told the commission his 13-year-old son was subject to bullying and racism at a school in Darwin, with students calling him Jewish slurs and dragging him along the floor on another occasion.
He said it took the school 10 days to respond to his complaint in September last year, saying the school addressed the incidents of physical bullying only.
“[The school leadership] implicated my son, saying [the bullying] was part of play-fighting.
“[The school] completely ignored anything to do with racism.”
The father said his child experienced bullying related to his Jewish identity at school. (ABC News: Adam Shirley)
The man said his son eventually refused to go to school due to anxiety related to the bullying, and the family later moved to regional NSW.
AAT said he learned on Tuesday the bullying had started again at his son’s new school.
He said the incidents included one student walking around the classroom with a black tape “moustache”.
“He’s been given the message in multiple different sneaky ways that he doesn’t belong because he is a Jew,” he said.
“He just couldn’t bring himself to bring it up [to his parents]. He was hoping it would go away.”
Jewish woman recounts historic ‘close call’
A Perth academic told the royal commission how she narrowly avoided being killed in a bus bombing during the first intifada in Israel.
The Jewish woman known as AAS told the commission she grew up in London before moving to Israel for work in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
She said public place bombings were a daily occurrence during that time in Israel and she recalled stepping off a bus only to see it burst into flames further down the street.
The woman told the inquiry she decided to move to Perth permanently in the early 2000s, and secured work at a local university.
She worked and guest lectured at the institution for more than a decade, and visited the campus again with her godson in recent years.
She said she became concerned when she noticed a cafe at the campus was posting antisemitic content on its social media.
She said the posts suggested Jews would not be welcome at the cafe.
AAS reported the content to the university and the social media platform, but said no further action was taken.
She said the university had experienced a number of student protests and encampments in the wake of the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023.