Kanye West Could Be Denied Entry to Australia for Antisemitic Comments, Minister Says

Former billionaire and disgraced rapper Kanye West may be barred from entering Australia over past antisemitic remarks, a government minister said on Wednesday.

Education Minister Jason Clare condemned West, who legally changed his name to Ye, for making “awful” comments admiring Hitler saying others who had made similar statements had been denied visas.

West is planning a trip to Melbourne to visit the family of his new partner, Bianca Censori.

“People like that who’ve applied for visas to get into Australia in the past have been rejected,” Clare told Australia’s Nine Network.

“I expect that if he does apply, he would have to go through the same process and answer the same questions,” Clare said.

Australia’s Migration Act allows security and character requirements for non-citizens to enter the country, ABC News reported. Any decision on whether West obtains an Australian visa would be made by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles, whose office said he could not comment on individual cases due to privacy reasons.

Australia’s opposition leader, former immigration minister Peter Dutton, supported the move. “My inclination would be not to allow him in,” Dutton told Melbourne’s Radio 3AW on Tuesday.

“His antisemitic comments are disgraceful, his conduct and his behavior is appalling, and he’s not a person of good character,” Dutton added.

Peter Wertheim, co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), met with Australian government officials earlier on Wednesday to discuss the ban.

“We had a sympathetic hearing,” 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.”

Among other insidious remarks, Ye has claimed Adolf Hitler’s bad reputation was “made by Jewish people” who “control the majority of the media,” and urged Jewish people to “forgive” Hitler.

Prior to that, he told Alex Jones on his InfoWars show there were “a lot of things” he loved about the fascist leader.

Soon after his anti-Semitic tirades began with Ye calling for “death con 3 on the Jewish people,” an enormous banner with the words “Kanye was right about the jews” was hung over a major Los Angeles freeway.