Palestinian author's visa cancelled after post celebrating Hamas attack emerges

Sydney Morning Herald

3 days ago

The Department of Home Affairs has cancelled a visa it had issued to a Palestinian woman who allegedly celebrated Hamas' October 7 massacre, reversing course just days after Immigration Minister Tony Burke vowed to block potentially divisive visitors.
In a statement issued on Friday afternoon, hours after social media posts from an account in Mona Zahed's name emerged that celebrated Hamas' massacre of about 1200 Israelis almost two years ago, a spokesman for Burke said her visa had been revoked.
'The department has advised the office that the visa was cancelled today - the reasons have been communicated directly to the applicant,' the spokesman said.
Zahed's supporters had said she had been granted a visa to come to Australia after raising money for her family's costs.
Melbourne artist and pro-Palestinian activist Matt Chun had written in an online newsletter on July 21 that his partner had been working with human rights lawyers to secure passage for Zahed and her family to Australia from Gaza.
'Finally, against all odds, [my partner] Tess has visas approved,' Chun said.
News Corp published a screenshot on Friday of a Facebook post from the Palestinian woman's page, dated October 8, 2023, which read: 'praise be to Allah who has kept us alive to see this day' alongside a photo of Israeli festival-goers fleeing Hamas' terrorist massacres the day before.
The post also included a photo of Palestinians being expelled from their land during what they call the Nakba, or 'catastrophe', in 1948, that surrounded the creation of the modern state of Israel.
Zahed, who is not in Australia, is the author of Tabkha: Recipes From Under the Rubble, a cookbook of Palestinian recipes, which Chun said Zahed wrote on her phone from a displaced persons' tent.