A ban on the public display of swastika symbols and the Nazi salute in Australia went into effect Monday.
The first-of-its-kind law was passed last month as a response to rising antisemitism and hate crimes in the country, especially after the onset of the Israel-Hamas war.
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said the law sends “a clear message: there is no place in Australia for acts and symbols that glorify the horrors of the Holocaust and terrorist acts.”
Specifically, the law bans the display or sale of symbols associated with designated terror groups, which includes Nazis. Violations are punishable by up to 12 months in prison.
More antisemitic incidents have occurred in the three months since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war than the previous year, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
There were 662 such incidents in October and November alone, the organization said, about 50 percent more than the entire 12 months prior.
Notable incidents in Australia include a group of protesters chanting “gas the Jews” in October, and a group of neo-Nazis performing a salute during a transgender rights protest in March.
The bill was proposed in June, with the salute ban being added by amendment in November. Every Australian state has already banned Nazi symbols, Dreyfus’s office said.
“We’ve seen, very sadly, a rise in people displaying these vile symbols, which are symbols that have no place in Australia, they should be repugnant,” he told Australia’s Channel Seven in June.
“There is no place in Australia for symbols that glorify the horrors of the Holocaust,” Dreyfus continued. “And we will no longer allow people to profit from the display and sale of items which celebrate the Nazis and their evil ideology.”