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SvennoJ 10 hours ago
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Australia denies entry visa to former Israeli justice minister

The Australian government has refused to grant an entry visa to former Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked to attend a security conference in Canberra and other events organised by the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).

Australian media report that Shaked was denied a visa under a section of the country’s Migration Act that allows for the minister to reject the visa if it is believed the applicant could “vilify a segment of the Australian community, or incite discord in the Australian community, or in a segment of that community”.

Shaked, who also held the post of interior minister, has previously given interviews calling for the complete removal of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, responded by posting a video message to social media attacking Australia’s government for being “anti-Israel” and alleging it had “become anti-Semitic”.

While Australia, a close ally of the US, has remained broadly supportive of Israel since the events of October 7, its position appears to have shifted in recent weeks.

A government review of 66 defence export permits to Israel is currently under way, the country recently voted in favour of a UN resolution recognising the “permanent sovereignty” of Palestinians over their natural resources, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has declined to object to recent ICC arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.


Palestinian children have ‘right to live safely’: Australian protest group

Children around the world are “witnessing the dehumanisation of Palestinian children” and understand “who bears the responsibility for the harrowing, violent reality” faced in Gaza, an Australian protest group says.

A group of children aged six-to-15 will hold a news conference in Melbourne on Sunday to defend the right of Palestinian children to education against “scholasticide” in Gaza and highlight the “annihilation of Palestinian children”, organisers said.

In a statement released ahead of the event, one of the event’s organisers, Nat Calleja, said Australian students who have raised concerns about Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon have had their homework destroyed, faced suspension and have been excluded from activities at school.

“The Children’s Press Conference for Palestine is an assertion that all children in this world, including the children of Palestine, have the right to live safely and free from violence, and every child and young person has the right to express dissent when elected officials fail childhood,” Calleja said.


Palestinian children sit in the back of a donkey cart as they are displaced from shelters in Beit Hanoon and cross into the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip following the Israeli army’s forced evacuation orders on November 12


Former PM Tony Abbott calls for Australia to withdraw from ICC

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has called for Australia to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

In a post to social media, Abbott accused the ICC of making “no distinction between terrorist aggression and national self-defence” describing the issuing of warrants for the Israeli leaders as “a shameful travesty”.

“Unless it rethinks, Australia should withdraw from this compromised and conflicted body,” Abbott said.

After being removed as prime minister in a leadership challenge in 2015, Abbott travelled to the UK where he advised the former Conservative government on trade and immigration, including the proposal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.

Another one preaching international law should have double standards.