Nazi messages encoded on a luxury vehicle’s personalized license plate have sparked widespread outrage and calls for it to be immediately revoked.
A surprised passer-by took a photograph of the Victorian license plate of a Lexus sports car parked at Westfield Doncaster, in Melbourne’s north-east, which read “88-SS”.
The number 88 is neo-Nazi code for ‘Heil Hitler’ and the SS was the notorious branch of Nazi Germany’s army whose primary task was to exterminate Jews and other people deemed undesirable by the regime preceding and during World War II. .
Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday night that the license plate was “stomach-churning” was pushing a “vile agenda” and was
This personalized Victorian number plate containing a coded Nazi message and a reference to Hitler’s infamous murderous paramilitary group the SS has caused outrage.
“VicRoads must ensure that personalized number plates containing anti-Semitic and racist acronyms and terms are immediately revoked or not approved in the first place,” Mr Abramovich said.
‘At a time when anti-Jewish hatred is skyrocketing across the country and we are seeing a dangerous surge of unabashed white supremacists who are determined to bring their vile and dark agenda into the real world, this kind of is the last thing we need. ‘
“We cannot afford to fall asleep at the wheel and allow egregious references that incite violence and glorify intolerance to appear in our cars.”
Abramovich called on VicRoads to follow the lead of New South Wales, which removed personalized number plates reading “OCT7TH” in an apparent celebration of Hamas attacks on Israel last year that sparked bloody fighting in the region.
Images of a white Ford Ranger with a NSW license plate were widely shared on social media.
Last Thursday, NSW Main Roads Minister John Graham announced he had taken action to remove the plates.
As soon as I found out about this, we issued an order for it to be taken off the market,” he told Sydney radio station 2GB.
«Previously the process took up to a month until the plates could be returned. The transport acted immediately.
This license plate which appeared to celebrate Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel on October 7 was removed last week by the New South Wales Highways Minister.
‘Given the tensions around the world, I wasn’t happy about it. As Minister of Highways, we have shortened that process and now the request is that these plates be (removed from the market) within 48 hours.’
Graham said if the owner does not turn in the offending plates, the car’s registration will be “completely cancelled.”
Leach said an X supporter informed him that the license plate had been “registered a few years before” the attacks, calling it a “very unfortunate coincidence.”
Transport for NSW denied the claims, telling news.com.au the offending license plate was registered in December 2023, after the attacks.
Hamas attacks in southern Israel left around 1,200 Israelis dead and hundreds more kidnapped.
Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich ((pictured) called on Victoria to follow New South Wales’ lead and remove the offending license plate.
It triggered an all-out war between Israeli forces and the militant group that controls the Palestinian area of Gaza.
According to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health, the death toll in Gaza has exceeded 27,000.
About 85 percent of Gaza’s civilians have been displaced due to airstrikes and ground operations.