Australia may deny Kanye West entry in light of his anti-semitism

As Kanye West—now known as Ye—continues to face repercussions for his highly publicized descent into bigotry, an entire country has joined the conversation. On Wednesday, one of Australia’s government ministers said that Ye may not be eligible for an Australian visa given his string of anti-semitic comments.

Backlash to a potential Ye trip Down Under first arose after Australian outlet The Herald Sun reported that the rapper planned to visit to meet the family of his reported new partner, Melbourne native Bianca Censori. Speaking on Wednesday with CNN affiliate Nine News, Australian Minister for Education Jason Clare shared that Ye shouldn’t exactly count on a welcome brigade waiting on the tarmac.

“People like that who’ve applied for visas to get into Australia in the past have been rejected,” Clare states. “I expect that if [Ye] does apply he would have to go through the same process and answer the same questions that they did.”

Australia has a history of denying visas to individuals on the far right based on the “good character” test. In 2018, Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes was denied a visa after a petition protesting his entry gained over 81,000 signatures. British conspiracy theorist David Icke also had his visa canceled in 2019.

Clare is not the first Australian figure to publicly denounce West. Both Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton called for West to be blocked from the country after behavior Dutton called “appalling.”

“Australia should not put out the welcome mat and provide a platform to a hatemonger who spews threats against the Jewish community and peddles conspiracy myths about Jewish power, greed and control,” Abramovich told local Australian media on Tuesday. “Allowing Kanye into Australia would also send the wrong signal about our nation and violate our core values of tolerance, diversity and respect.”