{"id":652882,"date":"2026-05-06T08:09:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T08:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/652882\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T08:09:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T08:09:19","slug":"man-arrested-by-police-after-wearing-swastika-shirt-outside-antisemitism-royal-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/652882\/","title":{"rendered":"Man arrested by police after wearing swastika shirt outside antisemitism royal commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It also had the slogan: “Antisemitism. Proud to be accused. Speak up!”<\/p>\n

Warning: This story contains an image of a Nazi symbol.<\/p>\n

If you or anyone you know needs help:Lifeline<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0131 114Kids Helpline<\/a> on 1800 551 800Witness to War hotline<\/a> on 1800 845 198Beyond Blue<\/a> on 1300 224 636Headspace<\/a> on 1800 650 890SANE <\/a>on 1800 187 263Call Triple-0 if you need immediate care<\/p>\n

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”.<\/p>\n

About 2:45pm, the man attended Manly Police Station where he was arrested by officers.<\/p>\n

The man remains in custody while inquiries continue.<\/p>\n

Outside the royal commission, the man had said he wore the shirt throughout the CBD often and was proud to do so.<\/p>\n

\"Man<\/p>\n

NSW Police said officers saw the man wearing “clothing which allegedly displayed an offensive slogan on the front”. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the royal commission said they were aware of the incident and that the matter was being dealt with by NSW Police.<\/p>\n

“The royal commission is appalled that such an item of clothing was worn in the vicinity of our hearing venue,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“The royal commission is determined to investigate antisemitism in Australia without fear or intimidation.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Teen details trauma of Bondi attack\"Group<\/p>\n

The man was moved on by police outside the royal commission on Wednesday. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said the celebration was thrust into lockdown.<\/p>\n

She said she did not hear any shooting, but watched “hundreds of people running away and screaming”.<\/p>\n

“It was terrifying,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Bondi<\/p>\n

The 13-year-old girl spoke of her feelings when she now goes to Bondi. (ABC News: Jack Fisher)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“I still don’t like to see the bridge when go to Bondi,” she said<\/p>\n

“It makes me feel worried to be a Jewish kid in Australia.”<\/p>\n

Security at Jewish aged care facilities<\/p>\n

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 the October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

Zionist Federation of Australia president and lawyer Jeremy Leibler said he grew up in a Modern Orthodox Zionist family in Melbourne, and rarely experienced antisemitism during his childhood.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jeremy Leibler says he has seen an increase in antisemitic incidents in recent years. (ABC News: Rosa Ritchie)<\/p>\n

He said since October 7, 2023, his law firm had taken on more than 100 pro bono cases related to antisemitic complaints.<\/p>\n

Mr Leibler said the Jewish community had felt let down by all levels of government.<\/p>\n

“Too often our leaders failed to stand up and make it very clear that they had the Jewish communities’ back,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I think it took until [the terror attack in] Bondi for there to be some reality check.”What is anti-Zionism?<\/a><\/p>\n

When does anti-Zionism amount to anti-Semitism? Some say the emphasis on broadening definitions detracts from the “real threat” facing Australian Jews.<\/p>\n

‘Devastating’ antisemitism at school<\/p>\n

Two siblings told the inquiry of their experience with antisemitism at high school and university.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“They’ve thrown coins at me and asked if I was going to pick it up,” she said.<\/p>\n

She said some children would try to “rile” her by pretending to sneeze and saying “ah Jew” instead of “achoo”.<\/p>\n

\"Sign<\/p>\n

The royal commission is on its third day of public hearings. (ABC News: Liam Patrick)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The teenager said she reported the incidents to her teachers but was told to ignore it.<\/p>\n

Firefighter threatened to ‘skin’ Jewish paramedic<\/a><\/p>\n

Paramedic Joshua Gomperts tells the royal commission into antisemitism how a firefighter pulled a hunting knife on him during a music festival in regional Victoria.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

But she said the material made little mention of antisemitism.<\/p>\n

The sisters’ mother, referred to as AAE, also gave evidence, and became emotional after hearing her daughters speak of their experience with antisemitism.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t know the full extent of [the incidents] and I didn’t realise how systemic and prolific it was,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I can’t believe how quickly society has unravelled in three years.”<\/p>\n

She said she wondered if her children were safer in Israel than Australia.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“It’s just devastating.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Some Jewish Australians have considered moving to Israel, the commission heard. (ABC News: Jak Rowland)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

He said he knew people in the Jewish community who had moved to Israel because they no longer felt safe in Australia.<\/p>\n

Mr Cherny said he learnt martial arts and volunteered with Jewish security group CSG NSW to protect his family and his community.<\/p>\n

“Bondi showed us that this isn’t a game, this isn’t fun,” he said.<\/p>\n

Lengthy wait times in addressing antisemitic bullying\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“[The school leadership] implicated my son, saying [the bullying] was part of play-fighting.<\/p>\n

“[The school] completely ignored anything to do with racism.”<\/p>\n

\"School<\/p>\n

The father said his child experienced bullying related to his Jewish identity at school. (ABC News: Adam Shirley)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

AAT said he learned on Tuesday the bullying had started again at his son’s new school.<\/p>\n

He said the incidents included one student walking around the classroom with a black tape “moustache”.<\/p>\n

“He’s been given the message in multiple different sneaky ways that he doesn’t belong because he is a Jew,” he said.<\/p>\n

“He just couldn’t bring himself to bring it up [to his parents]. He was hoping it would go away.”<\/p>\n

Jewish woman recounts historic ‘close call’<\/p>\n

A Perth academic told the royal commission how she narrowly avoided being killed in a bus bombing during the first intifada in Israel.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“It was a very close call.”<\/p>\n

The woman told the inquiry she decided to move to Perth permanently in the early 2000s, and secured work at a local university.<\/p>\n

She worked and guest lectured at the institution for more than a decade, and visited the campus again with her godson in recent years.<\/p>\n

She said she became concerned when she noticed a cafe at the campus was posting antisemitic content on its social media.<\/p>\n

She said the posts suggested Jews would not be welcome at the cafe.<\/p>\n

AAS reported the content to the university and the social media platform, but said no further action was taken.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

More on the royal commission<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man has been arrested after wearing a T-shirt with a swastika on it while standing outside the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,192017,203692,202826,213035,309751,9904,26763,159450,315775,44,214098,167018,289159,309750,213034],"class_list":["post-652882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bondi-beach-shooting","tag-bondi-beach-terror-attack","tag-bondi-beach-terrorist-attack","tag-bondi-royal-commission","tag-hearings","tag-jewish","tag-jewish-community","tag-jews","tag-man-removed","tag-news","tag-royal-commission-on-antisemitism-and-social-cohesion","tag-swastika","tag-swastika-shirt","tag-the-royal-commission-on-antisemitism-and-social-cohesion","tag-virginia-bell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}