Australia's Home Affairs department, led by Minister Tony Burke, has been found to have misconstrued a statement by MK Simcha Rothman to justify canceling his visa, Sky News Australia’s Sharri Markson revealed on Tuesday.
The document used to justify the ban, obtained by Sky News, misrepresents a media interview Rothman gave to Channel 4 in the UK.
According to the Home Affairs document, Rothman stated, "They are our enemies" in response to a question about why Israel doesn't let Gazan children leave the area. However, a review of the interview transcript reveals the full context of his statement.
When asked why Gazans couldn't flee into Israel, Rothman said, "Because they are our enemies." The interviewer then asked, "The children are your enemies?" to which Rothman replied, "They are our enemies and according to international treaties about refugees in the time of war, you don’t let them conquer your country with refugees."
The full interview transcript shows Rothman was arguing for the opposite of what the Australian government claimed. He was in fact making the case for other countries, like the United Kingdom, to accept more Palestinian refugees to help them escape Hamas, which uses them as human shields.
"And if the United Kingdom wants to be a humanitarian country, that cares about human rights and human lives, they would help the Gazans, who want to leave the area, leave and not aid Hamas to use them as human shields," Rothman stated.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar decided on Monday to revoke the visas of Australia’s representatives to the Palestinian Authority in response for the ban of MK Rothman.
In addition, the Foreign Minister instructed Israel’s embassy in Canberra to carefully review all official Australian visa requests for entry into Israel.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a strong statement attacking his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, following a series of anti-Israel motions by his government and antisemitic attacks in the country.
"History will remember Albanese for what he is: A weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia's Jews," Netanyahu stated.