Calls to outlaw Hamas symbol after Jewish-owned business targeted

The marking of a Jewish-owned small business with a symbol used by Hamas militants to identify targets to kill has prompted calls for police to use counter-terrorism laws to stamp out its use within Australia’s pro-Palestinian movement.

Twice in two months, wine seller Tim Cohen found an inverted red triangle on the wall of his Brunswick East shop in Melbourne’s inner north. The first time, the symbol was accompanied by a threatening message warning people not to buy from his store. The second time, last Sunday, it reappeared without any words.

Tim Cohen has twice had his Brunswick East wine store marked by a symbol used by Hamas. Credit: Chris Hopkins

Cohen, a 53-year-old retailer with a readily identifiable Jewish surname, informed Victoria Police, the local council and his state MP about the initial episode. He said his Jewish heritage was the only reason he could think of to explain why his store would be targeted by anti-Israel activists.

“It really stunned me,” he said. “I haven’t been outspoken, and I am no Netanyahu cheerleader.

“The October 7 attack and conflict that has come out of that has clearly woken up people’s dislike for Jews.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton urged police to investigate the use of the Hamas symbol, which recently has been co-opted by the broader pro-Palestine movement into protest signs, social media content and messaging.

Protesters in Coburg outside the office of Labor MP Peter Khalil, with a banner featuring the red inverted triangle associated with Hamas.Credit: Instagram

Inverted red triangles have been painted on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s electorate office, the US Consulate in Sydney and feature in protest placards left at the offices of federal Labor MPs Peter Khalil and Ged Kearney, whose electorates are in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

“This revelation of the targeting of a Jewish business with Hamas terrorist propaganda symbols is as brazen as it is sickening,” Dutton told this masthead.

“Such conduct is designed to ostracise Jewish businesses and intimidate the Jewish communities. These actions are designed to inflict fear and instil division. This matter should be referred to police and investigated as a priority.”

Palestine supporters used a kite flying festival at Bondi Beach to protest the war in Gaza.Credit: Instagram

Allegra Spender, a federal independent MP who was concerned last weekend to see the symbol on display in her Sydney electorate at a kite flying event on Bondi Beach, said its appropriation needed examination.

“I went and looked at the history of the symbol and my concern is about what it is trying to do,” she said. “It really has no place on a family day which should be about bringing people together and celebrating.”

The symbol is known as the Abu Obeida triangle, named after the spokesman for the Hamas military wing, and was first used by the terrorist group’s Al-Qassam brigades to identify targets such as Israeli tanks and soldiers for lethal strikes. Since October 7, the symbol has morphed into an online meme and emoji shared by Hamas sympathisers and more recently, pro-Palestinian activists, including some unaware of its origins.

The symbol is outlawed in Germany because of its direct association with Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation that has controlled Gaza since 2007 and planned and led the October 7 attack on Israel, when 1200 people were murdered and more than 200 kidnapped. The attack provoked Israel’s ongoing, deadly reprisals in Gaza.

The symbol has become ubiquitous within the pro-Palestine protest movement.Credit: Instagram

Josh Roose, a Deakin University political sociologist and expert in political and religious violent extremism, said Hamas had carefully chosen the red triangle or red arrow – a symbol that features in the Palestinian flag – to maximise its appeal.

“It is actually a very sophisticated tactic,” Roose said. “It has clearly been used by Hamas in their military videos. It has been picked up by their activists and now used by the anti-Israeli, global protest movement.

“If you call that out, you are accused of trying to outlaw the Palestinian flag, which then creates more outrage and victimisation.”

Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the symbol had become a de facto Hamas flag.

“Just as neo-Nazi groups have long evaded scrutiny and accountability by shifting from the swastika to various derivative symbols or code words, the pro-Hamas movement has done likewise,” he said.

The inverted red triangle was first used by Hamas’ Al-Qassam brigades to identify Israeli targets.Credit: The Palestine Chronicle

“But the aim is clear. It is to show support for Palestinian violence and revel in the killing of more Israelis.”

Greens MP Tim Read, the Brunswick parliamentarian contacted by Cohen after his Lygon Street business was first marked with the symbol in July, said he was very concerned by the episode and had raised it with Merri-bek Council and police.

“Vandalising Jewish-owned businesses is unacceptable and antisemitic behaviour, which I completely condemn,” he said. “I encourage people to be critical of Israel’s continued bombing of civilians without attacking Jewish people, many of whom are protesting Israel’s actions.”

Palestinian community leader Nasser Mashni deplored the targeting of a Jewish-owned business but declined to comment on the use of the symbol more broadly. “The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network opposes all violence against civilians, in Australia or anywhere else,” he said.

The war in Gaza, which is approaching its first anniversary, is estimated by Palestinian authorities to have killed nearly 43,000 people.

In December, the federal parliament bolstered Australia’s counter-terrorism laws by inserting a new provision into the criminal code prohibiting the public display of hate symbols. Although the law change explicitly outlaws Nazi and Islamic State symbols, it also created a new offence, punishable by up to a year’s jail, for anyone who knowingly displays a symbol used to identify a terrorist organisation.

A memorandum circulated by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to explain the purpose of the law change said violent extremists used symbols to spread their ideology to a wider audience and recruit followers. “Ideologically and religiously motivated violent extremists within the community are seeking to publicly display and trade symbols of hate with the intent of promoting hatred, instilling fear and harassing others,” the memorandum noted.

Dreyfus last week introduced legislation to criminalise the practice of doxxing – the publishing of private, identifying information with malicious intent – after the details of 600 members of a Jewish chat group were distributed online by pro-Palestinian activists.

Dutton said the targeting of a Jewish-owned business with a Hamas symbol was “precisely the type of conduct” that should be captured by change to the criminal code. “We have the laws to deal with these acts of intimidation and hate. The government and our law enforcement agencies need to swiftly use them,” he said.

Cohen contacted the Brunswick police station about the threatening symbol, but police did not respond. Merri-bek Council promised to conduct an investigation but closed the case a week later without taking action.

“The police were horrified, the council were horrified, and they did nothing about it,” Cohen said. “Jewish hatred has become a weed.”

Brunswick East and other suburbs in Melbourne’s inner north, which are currently subject to a fierce political contest between Labor and the Greens ahead of next year’s federal election, are at the epicentre of the pro-Palestine protest movement in Australia.

Cohen, a self-described cultural Jew who has lived in the area for 20 years and has run the Brunswick East Wine Store for a decade, said he was disturbed by the parallels between the marking of his business by anti-Israel activists and the way Jewish businesses were identified and targeted during the rise of the Nazis nearly 100 years ago.

He is now reconsidering the future of his business.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.