Police investigating alleged use of Hezbollah flags at weekend rallies

Jewish Community Council of Victoria President Phillip Zajac says there should be consequences for those that wave Hezbollah flags.

Transcript

00:00I think it was a rude awakening for the Jewish community that the flag of a listed terrorist

00:10organisation was so freely flown both in Melbourne and in Sydney.

00:16I think it was a bit of a shock.

00:18Hezbollah are a band in Australia and it's a bit of a rude awakening to think that people

00:27are proudly flying their flag here in Melbourne.

00:30And what impact did the symbol have on the community?

00:34I think there's an element of fear, but for the community we want to go about our lives.

00:40This week is Jewish New Year.

00:43We want to be able to celebrate Jewish New Year without any fear or any nervousness about

00:50any potential hazards.

00:53Hezbollah have acted internationally and have attacked Jewish communities around the world.

00:59Iran has called for action by Hezbollah in various places and we have a right to be fearful.

01:08We think that there should be consequences for flying of the Hezbollah flag and for supporting

01:16Hezbollah.

01:18Does the appearance of the flag raise any security concerns for this week?

01:23I think it has to because the fact that purely that people are supportive of Hezbollah here

01:29are prepared to fly the flag, then we have to be worried.

01:33We don't know what the intentions are of these people.

01:37We don't know what they're trying to achieve by flying the Hezbollah flag.

01:40I don't know how they can possibly support them because of what they have done throughout

01:45the last 30-40 years.

01:48The relationship between Jewish communities and Islamic communities is already incredibly

01:52strained.

01:53Do you think that this impacts that relationship even more?

02:00I would like to say that historically we have had a really close relationship with the Islamic

02:04community.

02:05That has largely broken down over the last 12 months.

02:08I would like to think that regardless of what happened and the display of the Hezbollah

02:13flag, that in the future we can reconnect with the Islamic community and we can live

02:19peacefully together here in Melbourne and have some sort of social cohesion.

02:23Our interest is not to fight with the Islamic community here.

02:26Our interest is to make Melbourne a better place.