Government cancels Israeli speaker’s Australian visa

Israeli-American influencer Hillel Fuld has had his Australian visa cancelled by the Department of Home Affairs on grounds he may pose a risk to “the health, safety or good order” of Australians.

Fuld was scheduled to speak at Magen David Adom fundraising events in Sydney and Melbourne to support the organisation’s appeal to build a new station in Lehavim, southern Israel.

Emma Lipson, MDA Australia office manager in Melbourne, told The AJN that MDA Australia “totally rejected” the visa cancellation, noting Fuld “has spoken to large audiences across North America, Europe and Asia with no incident.”

The visa cancellation followed a social media campaign by pro-Palestinian activists who labelled Fuld “a well-known merchant of Zionist hate speech” and accused him of posting “racist, dehumanising rhetoric denying Israeli atrocities against Palestinians.”

The campaign called on supporters to contact Home Affairs and Minister Tony Burke to revoke Fuld’s visa under Section 116 of the Migration Act, which covers “risk to public order.”

One reason cited by the pro Palestine account was “denial of documented atrocities” including what the activists termed an aid site “massacre” – an incident subsequently shown to have been caused by Hamas.

“We have spoken with everybody possible to try and get the decision reversed, and we are just trusting the process and hoping that there is a positive outcome,” Lipson said.

She confirmed all Australian Jewish community roof bodies are supporting efforts to reverse the decision.

“If the community want to help us and support us, the best way to do that is to buy a ticket to our event in Melbourne. Come on Thursday night, support us,” Lipson said.

“We still have an MDA paramedic coming who will be speaking, and regardless of whether Hillel is here in person or is live streamed to the event, he will still be with us on the night.”

In New South Wales, Australian Friends of MDA general manager, Tamara Porat, echoed Lipson’s sentiments.

“We’re very saddened by the cancellation. We invited Hillel to speak about the state of the art technology that MDA uses in Israel to save lives. That was the only intention of bringing Hillel here to Australia,” she said.

She confirmed that Fuld would be present at the Sydney event via Zoom on Monday 16 June.

“I would like [members of the Jewish community] to join us  in support of MDA, and Hillel is going to speak about amazing technology that has been developed in house in MDA with one and sole intention, which is to save lives,” Porat said.

“We’d love the entire community to come and show solidarity and support”.

Robert Gregory, CEO of the right-leaning Australian Jewish Agency said, “In light of the fact that the Labor Government is targeting Jewish visitors by cancelling visas, AJA will issue a formal warning to Jews around the world to consider the risks of travelling to Australia under this government. There is a real concern that Jewish visitors may have their visas revoked after flights and accommodation are booked, a disturbing and discriminatory precedent”.

The Home Affairs department has declined to respond to an AJN request for comment, saying, “Due to privacy reasons, the Department cannot comment on individual cases”.