Government investigates Palestinian author's visa after post celebrating Hamas attack emerges
A spokesman for Burke said his office was taking the issue seriously and had put questions to the department 'as soon as the minister's office became aware'.
'The government is serious in its view about not importing hatred, and we set a higher bar when the purpose of someone's visit is a speaking tour,' the spokesman said.
Supporters of Palestinian woman and cookbook author Mona Zahed claimed she had been granted a visa to come to Australia after raising money for her family's costs.
Melbourne artist Matt Chun wrote 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.
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'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.
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"Once the meaning of terrorism is separated from campaigns of violence against a civilian population, and extended to include those causing economic damage or embarrassment to the rich, the powerful and the criminal, then the right to freedom of expression has no meaning and democracy is dead," the group Defend Our Juries said on its website. The arrests outside parliament came amid what is expected to be a busy weekend of demonstrations in London as the war in Gaza and concerns about immigration spur protests and counter-protests across the United Kingdom. While Prime Minister Keir Starmer has angered Israel with plans to recognise a Palestinian state later this year, many Palestinian supporters in Britain criticise the government for not doing enough to end the war in Gaza. Pro-Palestinian protesters were gathering Saturday afternoon in central London for a march that is scheduled to end outside the gates of No. 10 Downing Street, the prime minister's official residence and offices. On Sunday, several groups are scheduled to march through central London to demand the safe release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza.
