A 68-year-old man has been arrested after allegedly wearing a shirt displaying an offensive symbol near the venue of the royal commission into antisemitism in Sydney. New South Wales Police said the man was initially issued a move-on direction outside a building on Clarence Street around 11am on Tuesday, which he complied with.
Later that afternoon, at about 2.45pm, the man attended Manly police station where he was arrested by officers from Operation Shelter. He remains in custody as inquiries continue. The royal commission, which is investigating the rise of antisemitism in Australia, issued a statement saying it was 'appalled that such an item of clothing was worn in the vicinity of our hearing venue'.
The arrest came on the same day the commission heard testimony from Jeremy Leibler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, who spoke about the trauma experienced by the Jewish community since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. He described a 'normalisation of antisemitism within mainstream society' and said the community faced 'fellow Australians chanting calls for our demise'.
