NSW Police are investigating offensive signs depicting deceased Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and current Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu allegedly posted around Sydney during the weekend.
Key points:
- Photos of the posters were shared on social media by the Australian Jewish Association
- The local MP said neither side is helped by “race hate”
- NSW Police is urging anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers
The signs, shared on social media by the Australian Jewish Association (AJA), depict Hitler holding a mask of the Israeli leader’s face.
Photos show one large poster attached to a walkway above a main road in the eastern suburbs, home to a large proportion of Sydney’s Jewish community.
“Officers attached to the Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command are investigating several offensive posters that appeared in public places across the Sydney’s eastern and southern suburbs,” a police spokeswoman said.
“Anyone with information in relation to the incident is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.”
The posters were the latest in a string of apparent anti-Jewish incidents in Sydney in recent weeks, following the outbreak of the war in the Middle East.
This week, two men were fined $500 each after allegedly tearing down part of a display at Bondi Beach, which was commemorating Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on October 7.
Three men have also pleaded not guilty after being charged with allegedly performing the Nazi salute outside the Jewish Museum in Sydney’s east last month.
Local Liberal MP Kellie Sloane, who attended an event at a synagogue in her electorate of Vaucluse on Sunday afternoon, said the community was shocked by the posters.
“Pretty disturbing, I have to say. The imagery was targeted, the location was targeted,” she said.
“There’s no doubt it was meant to upset the Jewish community and it has.”
Ms Sloane said a war being waged overseas should not incite hatred in Australia.
“Mums on both sides have lost babies. Expressing this kind of race hate doesn’t support either side.”
AJA chief executive Robert Gregory described the police response to the incident as “weak”.
“We’ve seen really weak policing, weak responses from the government,” he said.
“We think they’re not responding as strongly as they should be.”
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said the appearance of Hitler posters was “inevitable” in the wake of “weekly anti-Israel protests.”
“[The posters are] intended to intimidate and harass Jewish Australians, many of whom are Holocaust survivors or their descendants,” he said.
A pro-Palestinian rally on October 9, where some protesters threw flares and chanted anti-Semitic slurs as the Opera House was lit in the colours of the Israeli flag, marked the beginning of actions in recent weeks.
On Sunday, thousands of protesters gathered in Hyde Park and marched through the CBD in support of Palestinians — one of a number of events that NSW Police said have been peaceful and without incident.
There is no suggestion the Palestinian community is responsible for the Hitler posters.