Laws prohibiting the Nazi salute and the display or sale of symbols associated with terrorist groups came into force in Australia this Monday (8).
It becomes a crime punishable by up to 12 months in prison to publicly perform the Nazi salute, display the Nazi swastika or the double sign rune associated with the paramilitary group Schutzstaffel (SS).
The sale and trade of these symbols are also prohibited.
“What happens is that when we raise our arms in a Nazi salute, we are drawing a direct parallel between our actions and those of the Nazi regime, of National Socialist Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, responsible for the Holocaust and the deaths of six million of people,” commented political sociologist and associate professor at Deakin University, Josh Roose.
Introduced in June and passed in December, the law took on new meaning amid a rise in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia following the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.
(Produced by Jill Gralow and Cordelia Hsu)
Source: CNN Brasil
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