One is six Jews in Australian state of Queensland has experienced anti-Semitic attack. Abuse, harassment and bullying were the most frequent forms supremacists' activity, the group stated.


The representatives of Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies, the official umbrella-body of all Queensland Jewry, has called upon the state government to step up efforts to combat antisemitism, urging a ban on the display of the swastika and a review of existing hate crimes laws.

We are calling on the state government to ban the public display and sale of items that include Nazi symbols, such as the swastika, which are used by racists with impunity, informed Board of Deputies vice-president Mr Jason Steinberg.

According to the survey conducted by the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies revealed that a full sixty percent of community members had experienced antisemitism.

Australia’s Jewish population is estimated at 113,000, of whom over 4,000 reside in Queensland.

Half were either abused, harassed, intimidated or bullied simply because they are Jewish and, distressingly, many of these incidents occur in the workplace, stated Mr  Steinberg.

He explained also that 15 percent of Queensland Jews reported hate-fueled incidents that related to Israel and or Zionism.


"Number of anti-Semitic abuses in Queensland this year has matched in August the total number of incidents from 2020"

Among the extremely worrying incidents were scrawled in chalk uncensored messages of hate outside an Israeli restaurant in Brisbane, spray painted Nazi slogan 'blood and soil' on the train carriage and a torrent of posts calling for another Holocaust on social media channels.

One Jewish man who spoke with the Brisbane Times reporters said his home office was targeted with Nazi symbols and “Heil Hitler” graffiti. A Townsville mother, also cited by the newspaper, said her high school daughters’ peers joked about the Holocaust, drew swastikas and praised Adolf Hitler.

The current law is 30 years old and is outdated, Mr Steinberg explained.   He added the Board wants the police to be empowered to remove and confiscate these items and be a useful tool in countering the proliferation of extremist ideologies.

Data gathered by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry showed that the number of anti-Semitic abuses reported in Queensland this year has already matched the total number of incidents from 2020.