The government has cancelled the visa of a Jewish influencer who has previously called for the ban of Islam and was booked to speak at several events in Australia.
The right-leaning Australian Jewish Association (AJA) said Sammy Yahood’s visa was cancelled three hours before his flight was due to depart.
The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, confirmed he had cancelled the visa on Monday evening, and said “spreading hatred is not a good reason to come”.
“If someone wants to come to Australia they should apply for the right visa and come for the right reason,” Burke told Guardian Australia in a statement.
In response to the decision, Yahood took to social media overnight to accuse Labor of “tyranny”, insisting his spirits remained high despite the block.
And so that means that his Jewish identity is more important to the story than the fact he is a Zionist, Israeli or a vile islamaphobe how? There are plenty of anti-zionist Jews. I march alongside some every week. All this does is further conflate Judaism and Zionism in the minds of the readers.
Yeah, this is becoming a real problem. I am now more than ever in my life hearing antisemetic views and having to do my best to try to guide and correct those around me to understand what you’ve just explained. It’s really sad to me as a Muslim that people are using israel-palestine as seemingly an excuse to exercise hatred and antisemitism, when they would condemn others who spread Islamophobia and use violent extremist action in ex. Nigeria to justify it.