Amos,

When I see someone wearing a cross, I make an assumption that the person is a Christian, or at least that Christianity has some signifigance to them.

When I see someone wearing a Mogen David (Star of David), I make an assumption that the person is Jewish, or at least that Judaism has some signifigance to them.

And when I see someone wearing a swastika armband, or with a sawstika tattoo, I assume that the person is a neo-Nazi.

Your "budding scholar of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics" would probably be smart enough to know what the swastika has come to represent in the past seventy years and would not be displaying it like that.