Member of Knesset Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionists) spoke with Arutz Sheva-Israel National News on Monday after the Australian government canceled his visa shortly before he was supposed to visit the country.
"When I got the e-mail informing me that the visa was canceled, at first, I thought to myself that they discovered something terrible that I did that I didn't even remember. But then I read the message I got from the Australian government, and I understood that it's not about me, it's about the State of Israel," recounts Rothman.
According to Rothman, "The 'terrible things' that they blame me for saying are things that are accepted by a wide consensus of Israel. For example, that Hamas is bad and Israel is good, that Hamas should be defeated, that a Palestinian state is dangerous to the State of Israel, that we need to have sovereignty over Judea and Samaria - all of these issues enjoy the support of 2/3 of the Knesset.
He insists that the Australians "did not damn me for something that I did; they damned me because I said what the State of Israel's formal government says and a lot of Jews around the world say. It's not banning me, it's banning Israel, it's banning Israelis, and it's banning Jewish people from having debate or discourse in Australia, which is terrible."
Rothman believes that pressure and threats to the Australian government are what led to his ban from the country. "It says specifically in the letter that 'it will cause unrest' among the Muslim community in Australia. They say that 'the Muslims threatened us that if you come, there will be riots or radicalization of Muslims, so you must not come.' The Australian government is trying to appease terror, and appeasing terror never worked and it never will work. We learned this the hard way on October 7th. Sadly, apparently, the government of Australia did not learn this lesson. You should never give in to terror, you should fight terror, and definitely not prevent peaceful people and peaceful communities within your borders from having meetings."
As for his response to the revocation of his visa, MK Rothman explains that since he was scheduled to visit the country as a guest of the local Jewish communities, he would leave it to them to decide the next steps taken.
He added that he trusts that the State of Israel would respond strongly to Australia. "Again, it's not about me. All over the media and across the political spectrum in Israel, even people who do not agree with me understand that this is not against me or even the government, it's against the State of Israel and our ability to survive here in the Middle East. So I'm sure the consequences will be adequate."
A short time after the interview, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced that he had decided to revoke the visas of Australia’s representatives to the Palestinian Authority. In addition, the Foreign Minister instructed Israel’s embassy in Canberra to carefully review all official Australian visa requests for entry into Israel.
Rothman's cancelled trip was part of a broader international effort by the MK, who has been travelling the world to speak to various groups about the situation in Israel and to learn about the situation in Jewish communities across the globe.