Israeli MP whose Australian visa was cancelled says choice is Israel or Hamas

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has slammed Israel’s decision to tear up the visas of Australian diplomats working in the occupied Palestinian territories, labelling the move ‘unjustified’. The decision by the Israeli government comes as one politician, banned from entering Australia, tells the ABC the government has to decide if it's on the side of Israel or Hamas.

Transcript

00:00The announcement was made via social media on Monday night Australia time with the Israeli

00:07Foreign Minister Gideon Saar saying that the visas of Australian representatives to the

00:11Palestinian Authority in the West Bank were being revoked.

00:15He cited two main reasons for doing so.

00:18Firstly, the Australian government's announcement last week it was moving to recognise a Palestinian

00:23state.

00:24And secondly, the government's decision to reject or cancel the visas of a number of

00:28Israeli figures in recent times.

00:30Those two issues together, Gideon Saar said, was evidence the Albanese government was fuelling

00:35anti-Semitism in Australia.

00:38In response, Australia's top diplomat has labelled the moves as unjustified.

00:42Penny Wong accusing the Netanyahu government of further isolating Israel and undermining

00:47efforts for peace in the Middle East and a two-state solution.

00:51She's also rejected those allegations of anti-Semitism.

00:55It's understood this decision may only affect two Australian staff, the representative to

01:00the PA chief among them.

01:02And it is similar to how Israel responded to the decisions of other countries last year

01:07to recognise Palestinian statehood.

01:09Norway's envoys in Ramallah were shipped home and the Spanish consulate here in Jerusalem

01:14was banned from offering any services to Palestinians.

01:19The announcement came just hours after it was revealed the Australian government had cancelled

01:23the visa of far-right politician Simhach Rothman, who was due to tour the country.

01:28The grounds for that being that his views were inflammatory and could fuel division in the

01:33community.

01:34Mr Rothman says his foreign minister's decision is welcome.

01:38I think that the government of Australia needs to decide.

01:46Do they want to be on the side of Hamas or do they want to be on the side of Israel?

01:50Or it's not only Hamas and Israel.

01:52They need to decide if they want to be on the axis of evil or the axis of good.

02:00Mr Rothman insists that the only reason he was banned from entering Australia is because

02:04he has said that Hamas is bad and Israel is good.

02:08But the letter from Home Affairs, which the ABC has seen, outlines a number of other comments

02:13officials took issue with, among them that children aren't dying of hunger in Gaza, that

02:18those children are enemies of Israel and that the idea of a two-state solution has poisoned

02:24the minds of the world.

02:26He repeated some of those comments during his interview with me and also took issue with

02:31references to the West Bank, insisting that that occupied Palestinian territory be referred

02:36to as Judea and Samaria, the biblical names for the region.

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