In this Australia, Nazi salutes are not funny

Last Saturday night I was at the Comedy Basement Club in Melbourne when Tom Ballard performed a series of Nazi salutes, making fun of the laws recently enacted to ban the fascist gesture.

It was a disturbing experience, particularly at a time when my community is facing physical threats, including a van of explosives prepared for a mass casualty attack on Jews discovered just days before Ballard’s routine.

No doubt Ballard will defend his jokes as artistic expression but to me it feels far more symbolic of the times.

Ballard is a Greens member, steeped in a culture where parliamentarians such as Jenny Leong use throwaway lines for which Goebbels himself is owed royalties and leader Adam Bandt refused to condemn Hamas.  

I’m sure he wouldn't say he hates Jews or unfurl a banner on steps to unfurl a banner that claims, ‘Jews Hate Freedom’.

But sitting in the crowd watching those salutes, I felt under attack.

Jewish people represent 0.4% of the Australian population. We are currently facing the worst surge in antisemitic attacks in Australian history. Why choose us as your target?

 “Artistic Expression” isn’t an excuse to dismiss our legitimate fear or to wipe away the pain of the Melbourne Jewish community, the city with the largest population of Holocaust survivors per capita outside of Israel.