Queensland leaders have condemned the appearance of a Nazi flag over the Brisbane Synagogue just days before the Jewish community commemorates one of its darkest events.
Police were called after the flag, flown from a window of the neighbouring UniLodge student accommodation building on Margaret Street in the CBD, was noticed on Saturday morning.
The flag has since been seized and a 45-year-old Brisbane man ordered to appear in court on a public nuisance charge. The accommodation provider has been contacted for comment.
The incident marks the latest in a string of recent displays of Nazi-related symbols across the state, amid warnings from law enforcement agencies about rising far-right extremism.
It also comes amid pushes to ban such symbols nationwide, and as a Queensland parliamentary inquiry looks into incidence of hate crimes and vilification and whether anti-discrimination laws need strengthening.
Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies vice-president Jason Steinberg described the display as “shocking” just days out from the November 8 marking of Kristallnacht, when the Nazis staged a wave of attacks on Jews in Germany and Austria in 1938.
“To see a Nazi flag hanging over a synagogue when we’re about to commemorate that event is disturbing,” Mr Steinberg said. “That flag is a symbol of pure hate.”
Mr Steinberg, whose organisation has made a submission to the Queensland inquiry, said the use of swastikas should be banned and enforced by tougher penalties.
Read the article by Matt Dennien in the Brisbane Times.