The cancellation of Hillel Fuld’s visa has sparked outrage, but in light of recent precedent, the real surprise would have been letting him in, writes Dr Abul Rizvi.
THE DEPARTMENT of Home Affairs (DHA) has cancelled the visa of Hillel Fuld, a controversial “influencer” who was to speak at fundraising events in Sydney and Melbourne hosted by Magen David Adom, an Israeli national emergency service organisation. Is this a new escalation in the banning of “political speech” as Shadow Home Affairs Minister Andrew Hastie alleges, or would it have been more surprising if Fuld’s visa was not cancelled?
There is merit in comparing the cancellation of Fuld’s visa with that of another controversial figure, Hussain Makke, who was also scheduled to travel to Australia earlier this year to speak at events organised by Australia’s muslim community. His visa was cancelled after pressure from Sharri Markson of Sky News, as well as Senator James Paterson, also a former Shadow Home Affairs Minister.
Markson had accused Makke of spreading “dangerous views” and asked:
“Is Tony Burke really going to allow someone into Australia who calls Nasrallah one of the world's greatest freedom fighters?”
“Tony Burke is a serious problem,” said Markson.
Senator Paterson told Sky News:
“No one who praises a deceased terrorist, let alone attends the funeral organised by a listed terrorist organisation, should be welcome in Australia.”
Burke acted to cancel Makke’s visa.
The cancellation of Fuld’s visa reportedly uses s128 of the Migration Act, which states:
(a) If the Minister is satisfied that:
(i) there is a ground for cancelling a visa under section 116; and
(ii) it is appropriate to cancel in accordance with this Subdivision; and
(b) the non-citizen is outside Australia;
the Minister may, without notice to the holder of the visa, cancel the visa.
The relevant portion of s116 states:
(e) the presence of its holder in Australia is or may be, or would or might be, a risk to:
(i) the health, safety or good order of the Australian community or a segment of the Australian community.
Media reports suggest Fuld’s visa was cancelled due to his “Islamophobic rhetoric”, which risked inciting discord against Australia’s Muslim population.
A possible difference between the cancellation of Makke’s visa and that of Fuld is that Makke praised and attended the funeral of the head of Hezbollah, a listed terrorist organisation. On the other hand, Fuld is a close associate of the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Fuld has praised Netanyahu’s violent invasion and occupation of Gaza. While the USA has rejected the ICC indictment, several European nations have said they would enforce the ICC decision.
Is praising a deceased terrorist worse than being a close associate of an indicted international war criminal allegedly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians? The Labor Government has refused to reject or endorse the ICC indictment, so it is unlikely Fuld’s association with Netanyahu was a factor in the decision. The Coalition would likely reject the ICC indictment.
Feld has posted extensively on the Gaza conflict and Muslims more generally. In one post on X, Fuld claimed up to 15 per cent of Muslims were ‘radicalised’, that Islam was a ‘global plague’, and compared Gazans to Nazi-era Germans and should be ‘treated as such’. Surprising anyone, let alone a person of the Jewish faith, would describe a people whose land has been invaded, their homes, schools and hospitals razed to the ground and are being killed and starved in huge numbers as Nazis.
With the ongoing Gaza conflict and the risk of Fuld making similar public comments while in Australia, it would have been reasonable for the DHA decision-maker to be concerned about the risk of public protests in Australia from both sides of this debate. Those protests could have been a risk to public safety, with a substantial risk of violence from both sides of the debate.
Another way to look at this issue is to ask how Israeli Government supporters in Australia would have responded if a Muslim influencer, with a substantial public profile and thousands of followers on social media, had made similar comments about Jews? Could anyone imagine Markson, Andrew Bolt or the Coalition being relaxed about the entry of such a person to Australia to undertake a public speaking tour?
Given the cancellation of Makke’s visa and the risks to public safety in Australia, it would have been far more surprising if Fuld’s visa was not cancelled.
Dr Abul Rizvi is an Independent Australia columnist and a former Deputy Secretary of the Department of Immigration. You can follow Abul on Twitter @RizviAbul.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
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