January 10, 2012
Australian Jewish leaders ‘appalled’ by neo-Nazi festival
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Jewish community leaders in Australia are appalled that a neo-Nazi music festival has been allowed to go ahead in Queensland.
Jason Steinberg, president of the Queensland Jewish Board of Deputies, said the Hammered Music Festival, scheduled for April in Brisbane, was “not acceptable to any decent organization or to any religious groups.”
The annual festival has been linked to white supremacist groups and neo-Nazis.
The police and city council say nothing can be done to stop the festival unless the law is broken. The location has not been publicized.
Dr. Danny Lamm, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said: “What a sad reflection on contemporary Australia that the State government of Queensland and the Queensland police say they are powerless to prevent an open-air festival celebrating racism and bigotry.”
“Those who say Australia’s laws against racial vilification are an unwarranted intrusion into free speech should hang their heads in shame. Those laws are clearly are not tough enough,” Lamm said.
He said he has written to the relevant authorities about this “appalling festival of hate.”
