Leading anti-hate campaigner says they’ve committed moral outrage

A leading National anti-hate campaigner has slammed the anti-vaccination mandate marchers in Darwin for weaponising the Holocaust to promote their own agenda.

UPDATE: THE leader of one of Australia’s leading anti-hate groups has slammed protestors who marched to the Cenotaph in Darwin on Saturday wearing yellow stars and carrying yellow star banners, despite not being Jewish.

Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission and Australia’s leading anti-hate campaigner, Dr Dvir Abramovich, said anti-vaccination mandate marchers who carried a yellow Star of David sign and wore a yellow star of David on their t-shirts had committed a moral outrage.

“This deserves our full-throated denunciation,” Dr Abramovich said.

“To those parading placards in the streets or with yellow Stars of David affixed to their clothes, you are not the persecuted Jews or victims of the Third Reich, so stop weaponising the Holocaust to promote your own agenda!

“That pain does not belong to you, and we do not feel sorry for you,” he said.

Crowds at an Anti Mandate March in Darwin Picture: Glenn Campbell

Dr Abramovich said nothing in Australia comes close to the indescribable atrocities carried out on an industrial scale by Hitler.

“Imagine how a survivor would feel seeing the horror they were subjected to cheapened in such a way.

“This hateful behaviour is also a spit on the memory and on the graves of those brave diggers who fought to defeat the Nazis.

“The only response to this repugnant abuse of the Holocaust is contempt.”

Dr Abramovich said if the anti-vaccinaiton mandate marchers believe the Nazis are coming after them, they are wrong (though they are well aware that the state government is not engaged in genocide and is not herding people onto trains on the way to a death camp to be gassed).

He said asking people to be vaccinated is not the equivalent of dehumanisation and mass murder.

While people are entitled to voice their views about specific government policies in response to Covid-19, to equate this to the monstrous laws enacted by Hitler’s regime or to claim that the vaccination policies are in any way similar to the ‘Final Solution that led to the systematic slaughter of millions of men, women and children is abhorrent.

For anyone to exploit the infamous yellow star that Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis Holocaust first to identify and ultimately exterminate them, simply to score a point about mandatory vaccination is abhorrent.

“It’s time for these activists to apologise and to stop poisoning the debate.”

EARLIER: Federal Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Andrew Gee has spoken out after yesterday’s FREE in the NT display on the Darwin Cenotaph.

“Our memorials and cenotaphs are sacred places of remembrance and quiet reflection. They should never, ever, be used as protest sites,” Mr Gee said.

“No matter how respectful people believe they are being, any protest or demonstration at a memorial is in fact disrespectful and violates its sanctity.

“Playing the Last Post doesn’t make it right. It’s pretty simple — take the protests somewhere else.”

Marchers congregate at the cenotaph at an Anti Mandate March in Darwin Picture: Glenn Campbell

It comes after NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner also condemned their actions.

“The anti-vaxxers have the freedom to protest but they do not have the right to desecrate a monument to the fallen,” he said.

“There is a stark difference between a selfish decision to say no to a life saving vaccine and the selfless decision by our defence forces to sacrifice their lives for the rest of us. Unfortunately, I am not surprised at the ignorance of the anti-vaxxers.”

EARLIER: FREE in the NT protesters gathered on the Cenotaph for a minute’s silence during Saturday’s anti-mandate march.

The Last Post played and was followed by a round of applause.

NT News readers also took to Facebook to share their views.

“It seems pretty disrespectful to play a call used to commemorate those who paid the ultimate sacrifice by people unwilling to make any sacrifice,” Hankey Hankleston wrote.

A large group took to the path on the Esplanade, despite rain earlier in the morning, stopping at the Cenotaph before ending at Civil Square.

Chants of “Gunner’s gotta go” and “terminate the mandate” rang throughout the crowd.

A horse, owned by someone involved in the protest, also joined the procession.

Anti-vaccination protesters have been marching on the streets of the CBD once a week, calling on the Chief Minister to back down on the mandate.

Previous rallies saw an unknown liquid thrown onto police officers and Michael Gunner’s home address given out.

The Darwin RSL declined to comment.

Originally published as Leading anti-hate campaigner says they’ve committed moral outrage