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Australia moves toward banning Nazi symbols in wake of neo-Nazi incidents
(JTA) — In the wake of a series of neo-Nazi incidents, Australia’s government is moving toward passing legislation to ban the use of Nazi symbols on clothing, flags and websites and in other domains.
Trading in Nazi memorabilia will also be banned, but religious, academic and other exemptions will be allowed. Before the Third Reich, the swastika was known first and foremost as a religious symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
“There is no place in Australia for symbols that glorify the horrors of the Holocaust,” Australia’s Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said on Thursday. “And we will no longer allow people to profit from the display and sale of items which celebrate the Nazis and their evil ideology.”
The Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee recommended a ban last month in a move that was applauded by Jewish leaders. Dreyfus, who is Jewish, said that the law will penalize offenders with up to a year in prison.
Peter Wertheim, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that “there has been a proliferation of the public display of Nazi symbols in different parts of Australia” since the end of 2016.
The Victoria state’s strict COVID-19 restrictions led to a far-right anti-lockdown movement which, according to Andre Oboler, CEO of the Online Hate Prevention Institute, “allowed a normalization with some people being ambivalent about open Nazism.” Community outrage brewed after a couple flew a swastika flag above their Melbourne home in 2020. Victoria eventually banned the public display of Nazi symbols in 2021.
In March, The Age published an investigation of active soldiers’ neo-Nazi links, following a 2021 SBS report on men’s fitness centers used by white supremacist networks that employ Nazi symbols.
Then on March 18, a group of 30 people from a neo-Nazi group called the National Socialist Network showed up to a rally headed by British anti-transgender activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull in Melbourne. The neo-Nazi rally-goers, all dressed in black with their faces covered, marched onto the steps of the city’s parliament house, where police allowed them to stand in a line facing the crowd and repeatedly perform a Nazi salute.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews tweeted: “Nazis aren’t welcome. Not on Parliament’s steps. Not anywhere.”
“Transgender people, the targets of the neo-Nazis at the recent anti-trans rally in Melbourne, Jews, or other oft-demonized communities should not have to face situations where this evil is allowed to happen with police having no legal avenue to stop it,” said Michael Barnett, the co-convenor of Aleph, a Melbourne-based advocacy group for LGBTQ+ Jews, after the March rally.
In May, a Victorian council canceled a family-friendly drag queen-led story reading hosted at a library and other LGBTQ+ events following a series of threats from far-right groups. Later in the month, neo-Nazis performed a Heil Hitler salute while attending an anti-immigration rally at Melbourne’s parliament building to oppose “ethnic replacement.”
“This was not an isolated incident,” Oboler said in reference to the March rally. “There is a rise of the use of Nazi salutes, other Nazi symbols, and open neo-Nazism not just in Australia but internationally.”
Barnett said bans will send a message of consequences for “expressions of Nazi ideology designed to instill fear.”
Australia is home to the largest per-capita Holocaust survivor population outside Israel.
Wertheim said that bans “would only scratch the surface” in Australia, and new legislation “would not obviate the need for a more systematic, whole-of-government approach to address the problem of extremism.”
“We have argued the need to move beyond banning specific symbolism and to instead directly tackle Nazism and neo-Nazism,” Barnett said. “We have been warning about this, monitoring the threat, and taking action, but there is far more to be done.”
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Iran to Boycott World Cup Draw Over Visa Restrictions
Soccer Football – World Cup Playoff Tournament and European Playoff draws – FIFA Headquarters, Zurich, Switzerland- November 20, 2025 The original FIFA World Cup trophy is kept on display during the draws. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
Iran intends to boycott next week’s World Cup draw due to the limited number of visas allocated to the country’s football federation.
According to the Tehran Times, the United States issued visas to only four members of Iran‘s delegation, with requests for three additional visas denied, including one for Iranian Football Federation (FFIRI) President Mehdi Taj.
“We have informed FIFA that the decisions taken are unrelated to sport and that the members of the Iranian delegation will not participate in the World Cup draw,” FFIRI spokesman Mehdi Alavi said on Friday, per the report.
Alavi said the federation has been in contact with FIFA in an effort to resolve the situation.
The World Cup draw will take place on Dec. 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
The expanded 48-team World Cup is being hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico from June 11 to July 19, 2026. Matches will be played at 16 venues, including three in Mexico and two in Canada.
The draw will sort the teams into 12 groups of four. The top two teams from each group and the eight best third-place teams will advance to the knockout stage.
Iran has secured a spot in its fourth consecutive World Cup and seventh appearance overall.
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Dublin to Rename Chaim Herzog Park in a Move Slammed as Attempt to Erase Jewish History
Anti-Israel demonstrators stand outside the Israeli embassy after Ireland has announced it will recognize a Palestinian state, in Dublin, Ireland, May 22, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Molly Darlington
i24 News – Citing the Gaza war, Dublin city council voted to rename a park honoring Israel’s sixth president, the Irish-born Chaim Herzog, in further manifestation of anti-Israel sentiment in the country.
While a new name is yet to be chosen, reports cite efforts by pro-Palestinian activists to change it to the “Free Palestine Park.”
Former Irish justice minister Alan Shatter harshly criticized the vote, charging that “Dublin City Council has now gone full on Nazi & a committee of the Council has determined it should erase Jewish/Irish history. Herzog Park in Rathgar is named after Chaim Herzog, Israel’s 6th President, brought up in Dublin by his father, Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, a friend of Eamon De Valera, who was Chief Rabbi of Ireland & Israel’s first Chief Rabbi… Some councillors want the Park renamed ‘Free Palestine Park.”
The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland issued a statement regarding the renaming of Herzog Park.
“It sends a hurtful and isolating message to a small minority community that has contributed to Ireland for centuries. We call on Dublin City Councillors to reject this motion. The removal of the Herzog name from this park would be widely understood as an attempt to erase our Irish Jewish history.”
A virtuoso diplomat and an intellectual giant, Herzog had served in a variety of roles throughout his storied career, including a memorable stint as the ambassador to the United Nations, where in 1975 he delivered a speech condemning the Soviet-engineered resolution to brand Zionism as a form of racism. The address is now regarded as a classic, along with the oration from the same session by the US Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar slammed the decision, saying that Ireland’s “antisemitic and anti-Israel obsession is sickening.”
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Qatar’s Al Thani to Visit Beirut Wednesday to Meet with Lebanon’s Leaders
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani makes statements to the media with then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Doha, Qatar, Oct. 13, 2023. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS
i24 News – Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed Al Thani will visit Beirut on Wednesday to meet with Lebanon’s leaders, Al-Jadeed reported Saturday.
The visit comes “as part of an effort inseparable from the efforts by Egypt in coordination with Arab countries, foremost among them Saudi Arabia.”
The trip coincides with a sensitive period for the country, ravaged by war and deep economic crisis.
Lebanon is under growing pressure from both Israel and the United States to more swiftly disarm Hezbollah and other Islamist groups across the country, with Israel increasingly inclined to stop the Shiite militia from rearming and rebuilding its infrastructure.
Hezbollah was left devastated in the aftermath of a nine-day war last year, that saw Israel take out its command structure and lay waste to a significant proportion of its missile arsenal.