Kanye’s comments on Jews and Hitler may lead to Australia ban
KANYE WEST could be denied entry to Australia, his girlfriend’s home country, because he defended Hitler and made anti-semitic comments, a government minister has said.
West, who goes by the stage name Ye, was reportedly planning the visit to meet the family of his girlfriend, Bianca Censori, who grew up in Melbourne.
The disgraced star, who has expressed anti-semitic opinions, was locked out of his Twitter account last year after saying he would go “death con 3” on Jewish people, in a mistaken use of the US military heightened alert status DEFCON 3. In December, West defended Adolf Hitler on Infowars,a show hosted by Alex Jones, the alt-right conspiracy theorist.
He said: “I see good things about Hitler ... This guy [Adolf Hitler] that invented highways. Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler.”
Jason Clare, the Australian education minister, condemned West’s remarks, describing them as “awful” and insisted that people who had made similar comments had been denied visas.
“People like that who’ve applied for visas to get into Australia in the past have been rejected,” Mr Clare told the country’s Channel Nine.
“I expect that if he does apply he would have to go through the same process and answer the same questions that they did,” he went on. West’s spokesman has been approached for comment.
Australia has previously refused or revoked the visas of far-right figures who failed its “good character” test. David Icke, the British conspiracy theorist, had his visa revoked in 2019, as he was embarking on a speaking tour.
Peter Wertheim, co-chief executive officer of Australian Jewry, met officials on Tuesday to argue for an entry ban.
“We had a sympathetic hearing,” Mr Wertheim told Sky News. “We’ve made the case that this particular individual does not meet the character test and that it would be in the national interest not to grant him a visa, and we set out our reasons in some detail in that letter.”