Published: 16 December 2024
Last updated: 16 December 2024
Israelis are not denied visas to Australia because they have served in the Israel Defence Forces, a spokesman for Home Affairs has told The Jewish Independent.
Home Affairs was responding to a report on Sky News which claimed two great-grandchildren of an Australian Holocaust survivor had been denied visas to Australia to visit their relative on her 100th birthday.
The spokesman said one of the applicants had already received a visa at the time of the report and the second has received their visa since. Both had applied for regular visitor visas and had been sent a military service form, a form which seeks additional information from applicants who have served in overseas armed forces, before a visa is granted. Neither had a visa denied.
The spokesman said the request for information about military service was a procedure for information-gathering when department officials felt they did not have adequate information in a visitor application form. He said the form was only a request for information and had been sent to 20 people in the past year, including people from the US and the UK. Requests for this information can delay visas but do not mean they will not be granted.
"We have granted 11,000 visas to people with Israeli citizenship in the past year and the vast majority of those would have done military service, so clearly it's not a sticking point," the spokesman said.
The issue of visas for Israelis has been heightened by the case of Ayelet Shaked, a former Israeli cabinet minister who has made derogatory comments about Palestinians and was refused a visa under a clause which allows the minister to deny a visa to someone he believes could incite discord.
Comments2
David25 December at 11:20 pm
Through a covert policy shift, they are exploiting rarely used visa forms, once reserved for edge cases, to delay and even deny tourist visas to Israelis. This blatant discrimination is not only unjust but deeply alarming.
What’s happening here is nothing short of a political game. Genuine tourists, families, and individuals who simply wish to visit Australia, spend their hard earned money, and support local businesses are being punished to satisfy a vocal minority of anti-Israel activists. These activists, many of whom have long propagated hateful rhetoric and outright blood libels against Jews, are now celebrating this policy as a victory. It’s shameful that the Australian government appears willing to fuel such narratives under the guise of bureaucratic procedure.
I’ve experienced the pain of this discrimination firsthand. My pregnant sister, traveling with her partner and 3 year old child, has been caught in this cruel system. Despite being a genuine tourist with no ulterior motives, she was subjected to invasive and humiliating questions about her military service from over a decade ago. Two months later, after filling out multiple absurd forms, her visa remains ungranted. It’s not just frustrating, it’s infuriating.
Australia once stood as a beacon of fairness and openness, but this policy spits in the face of those values. By targeting Israelis, singling them out for mandatory service they had to fulfill, the government is enabling anti-Semitic narratives and punishing innocent people for political gain. This isn’t just bad policy; it’s morally reprehensible.
Australians deserve to know that their government is compromising the country’s reputation as a welcoming and fair nation. It’s time to put an end to this discriminatory practice and ensure that Australia stands on the right side of history.
Rachel Sussman17 December at 10:28 am
A very thoughtful report, I hope this is the case. I myself had some visitors from Israel but they came before the request for these extra information became ‘necessary’.
I would like to point though that the ‘Israeli migrants’ are essentially Israelis holding dual citizenship rather than ‘true migrants’.
As for Shaked, to be honest I have some reservations about her views. Saying this, she does not incite hatred as such even if one does not agree with her views. What I find upsetting is not so much that she was refused entry as much as the fact that those who truly incite hatred within Australia are permitted to do so under the guise of ‘free speech’. Such double standard is upsetting.
Sadly the trust between many in the Jewish community ( including myself) and our Government has been broken and I am afraid is now beyond repair.