A former Israeli minister has been banned from entering Australia for a speaking tour on the grounds she could “seriously undermine social cohesion”, Immigration Minister Tony Burke said.
The visa application of Ayelet Shaked, who served as minister from 2015 to 2019, was rejected by Burke, who cited her previous public comments about the Palestinians.
Shaked and some Australian Jewish groups called the decision anti-Semitic, while Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said it was unacceptable.
Burke defended the visa denial, saying it would have been enforced if there had been problems with comments about Jews as well as Palestinians.
The fact that Shaked had applied for a speaking tour visa, rather than a visitor visa, meant there were other considerations to take into account, he added.
Burke highlighted his past comments that Palestinians should leave Gaza, areas of Gaza should be turned into a soccer field, and Palestinian children should be “little snakes.”
“If someone wanted to come here and said before that they had designated specific cities in Israel and they needed to be completely razed, I would not give them a visa to come here and give speeches,” Burke said. to Sky News.
“If someone had ever made comments about Israelis and described Israelis using terms like being like an octopus or like reptiles or something horrible like that, I wouldn’t let them into the country. “
Burke also said a former Israeli air force chief had recently been granted a visa and that Shaked would not be coming to Australia as a representative of the Israeli government.
“I have refused a large number of visas and my department has refused visas to people who want to come here to talk about the conflict if we think they are going to seriously undermine social cohesion when they are here,” he said. -he declared.
“If there’s one comment I hear all the time, it’s that (Australians) don’t want hatred from overseas imported here.
“Whether these hatreds are humiliating towards Israelis or towards Palestinians, I will take exactly the same hard line.”
Burke also argued that free speech advocates did not make the same argument when he removed visas for people with a history of anti-Semitic comments.
“My view is really simple,” he said.
“If you come here just to humiliate people, we can do without you.”
