Australia cancels visa of Israeli influencer over anti-Muslim rhetoric

Australia has cancelled the visa of an Israeli social media influencer who has campaigned against Islam, with the government saying it will not allow visitors to enter the country to spread hatred.

Australia’s Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, said on Tuesday that “spreading hatred is not a good reason to come” to Australia. His comments came just hours after influencer Sammy Yahood said his visa had been cancelled three hours before his scheduled departure from Israel.

“People who want to visit Australia should apply for the correct visa and come for the right reasons,” Burke said in a statement to AFP.

Shortly before the cancellation, Yahood had posted a series of messages on X attacking Islam. “Islam ACCORDING TO ISLAM does not tolerate non-believers, apostates, women’s rights, children’s rights, or gay rights,” he wrote, also describing the religion as a “disgusting ideology” and an “aggressor”.

The decision comes as Australia tightens its stance on hate speech. Earlier this month, the government strengthened hate crime laws following a mass shooting at a Jewish celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that killed 15 people, intensifying national scrutiny of extremist rhetoric and violence.

Yahood, who was born in the United Kingdom and recently became an Israeli citizen, has also used social media to call for the deportation of US Representative Ilhan Omar, a Somali-American Muslim lawmaker. In other posts, he mocked the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which coordinates humanitarian assistance in the occupied West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Israel last week began bulldozing UNRWA’s headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem, a move condemned by the United Nations and Palestinian leaders, who said it marked a “barbaric new era” of disregard for international law.

Despite the visa cancellation, Yahood said he travelled from Israel to Abu Dhabi but was prevented from boarding his connecting flight to Melbourne.

“I have been unlawfully banned from Australia, and I will be taking action,” he wrote on X, later adding: “This is a story about tyranny, censorship and control.”

Australian media reported that Yahood’s visa was revoked under legislation previously used to deny entry to individuals accused of promoting hatred. Sky News Australia said Burke has earlier cancelled visas for Israeli-American activist Hillel Fuld over what the minister described as Islamophobic rhetoric, as well as for Simcha Rothman, a far-right Israeli lawmaker from the Mafdal–Religious Zionism party, amid concerns his planned speaking tour would “spread division”.