The Australian Jewish Democratic Society (AJDS) apologises to the Serbian Council of Australia and the Serbian community for mischaracterising the religiously-based “three-finger salute”. For Serbian Orthodox Christians the fingers symbolise ‘the father, the son and the Holy Spirit’ (the Trinity) and we recognise its religious significance to Serbs.
In making its submission to the Australian Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs Prohibition of Nazi Symbols Bill 2023, the AJDS should have explicitly distinguished between the Serbian Orthodox three-finger symbol that has first and foremost deep religious and national meaning, and its misappropriation as a racist, supremacist gesture, as was used by the Croatian Ustasha Regime to mock its religious significance during their extermination of Serbs, Jews and Roma during WWII.
The AJDS has also communicated with the Senate Standing Committee.
[Image — The Takovo Uprising is the title of two nearly identical oil paintings by the Serbian realist Paja Jovanović. They depict rebel leader Miloš Obrenović inciting his countrymen against the Ottoman Empire and initiating the Second Serbian Uprising]