Neo-nazis blamed for graffiti on graves
FAR- RIGHT ORGANISATION National Front is being held responsible for the desecration of a Jewish graveyard.
The anti-Semitic graffiti emblazoned on about 20 headstones at the Karangahape Cemetery in central Auckland is the work of neo-Nazis, members of Socialists Aotearoa said.
The organisation issued a challenge to National Front, which marched on Parliament yesterday.
‘‘The ‘master race’ is scared to show face today. They have to skulk around in the night like cowards,’’ Socialists spokesman Joe Carolan said.
‘‘Just try to march in this city and see what happens to you. Try and do this again, that’s a challenge.’’
Bold black swastikas and ‘‘88’’ were spray-painted on rows of the headstones, along with the words ‘‘don’t f--- with us’’ some time late last week.
The digits are said to represent the eighth letter in the alphabet and refer to the Nazi salute Heil Hitler.
Police are reviewing CCTV footage from a nearby building to try to pinpoint the culprits.
Around 30 protesters gathered at the site yesterday, calling the crude vandalism an ‘‘attack on everyone’’.
Palestinians and Arab Muslims also joined protesters, putting aside their differences to stand against the attacks.
Iraqi national Faisal Al- Asad was among them, saying it was not politically motivated, but a stand against discrimination.
‘‘We have to stamp it we’re here.
‘‘In New Zealand there’s a xenophobia against people who are not white and not Maori or Pacific Islander.’’
Placards emblazoned with ‘‘Nazi-free zone Auckland’’ were held high as protesters chanted on the street in central Auckland.
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The poem warns about complacency over race-based attacks, and speaks of the inactivity of German intellectuals over the Nazi rise to power.
The mood intensified as the moved out onto the street to against the vandalism.
Carolan said the vandalism attack against many.
‘‘It hits Jews, Muslims, gays, people of colour, trade unions, the Labour Party, socialists and anarchists,’’ he said.
‘‘Six million Jews, one million socialists, one million trade unionists and half a million disabled were killed in the Holocaust. ‘‘This nonsense has to stop.’’ New Zealand Jewish Council president Stephen Goodman said attacks like this usually came after international unrest but he couldn’t think of anything specific.
He believed the last such attack was on a Wellington cemetery in 2005.
As the socialists gathered in Auckland, in Wellington 30 members of the National Front and likeminded group the Right Wing Resistance held their ‘‘annual
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They condemned the Jewish gravestone desecration, labelling those who committed the vandalism ‘‘low lives’’.
Jamie Broadbridge, National Front council member, said the gravestone attacks had been cowardly. ‘‘We condemn that type of action. ‘‘We don’t stand for any of that, believe it’s rubbish.
‘‘We don’t even believe it was done by any like-minded individuals. If any of our members do stuff like that, then they’re out.’’
Right Wing Resistance national coordinator Kyle Chapman said the gravestone desecration served no purpose.
‘‘Why do we need to do something cowardly like that?
‘‘What I find the most offensive people try and link us to that.
‘‘Somebody putting that [the swastika] on a Jewish grave ... all they’ve done that for is to try and get some attention and say: ‘Look at me, I’m a dick.’’’
Their march was largely ignored by the lunchtime Wellington crowd and ended without incident. at ParliaLambton
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