The B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission (ADC), Australia’s leading civil and human rights organisation fighting hatred in all its forms, has denounced the use of Nazi imagery by the Whistleblowers, Activists and Citizens Alliance during their Wilson Security Boycott and Blockade and National Day of Action on Sunday. The demonstration showed one photo with a cut out of a Nazi SS officer featured behind a man holding a sign “Danger! Human Rights Abusers Ahead.” The cut out displayed Wilson Security guard wearing an SS uniform, with an SS insignia on their jacket and a swastika on the sleeve. Another large cut out showed a Wilson Security guard with SS on his lapel and a swastika next to “Wilson Security” on his chest. There is blood on his face. The Whistleblowers, Activists and Citizens Alliance is a vocal supporter of the BDS against Israel.
Dr. Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, issued the following statement:
“We condemn in the strongest terms this disgraceful use of Nazi imagery which shows very poor judgment. Using such universal symbols of hate and extreme bigotry has a devastating effect on the survivors and their families and needlessly injures them. Exploiting the unspeakable atrocities of the Holocaust to attack Wilson Security and the government’s offshore detention policy totally diminishes and cheapens the unprecedented dimensions and impact of the European genocide. To draw any comparison between the horrific conditions, suffering and extermination of millions in the Nazi concentration camps and detention centres betrays shocking insensitivity and a gross lack of historical comprehension about the crimes that Hitler and his evil henchman committed. The measures taken by the Australian government must never be compared to the Third Reich’s systematic and industrial deracination of Jewish communities and the obliteration of six million Jews and millions of others. I hope that there will come a point where groups such as The Whistleblowers, Activists and Citizens Alliance understand that deploying unacceptable and offensive symbology in order to generate shock and publicity is misguided and odious.”
The Anti-Defamation Commission, founded in 1979, is Australia’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through educational programs that combat bigotry, prejudice and all forms of hatred.
For further information please contact Dr Dvir Abramovich on (03) 9272 5677.