rapper YE, once known as Kanye West, has been forbidden from entering Australia following the release of his pro-Nazi song Heil Hitler.
Home Minister Tony Burke said Ye had been traveling to Australia for many years. There, his wife, Bianca Censorli, was born. Her family lives in Melbourne.
Burke said Heil Hitler would promote Nazism. Released in May, the song has been criticized as an homage to anti-Semitism to German dictator Adolf Hitler. It is also prohibited on Germany and online platforms such as Apple Music, YouTube and Spotify.
The song contains a direct sample from a speech Hitler gave in 1935, repeating the slogan praises the German dictator.
“He's been in Australia for a long time. He has a family here. And after releasing the Heil Hitler song, he made the offensive comments my officials saw again.
“If you're going to promote such Nazism with a song, then you don't need it in Australia,” Burke added. “There are already sufficient problems in this country without intentionally importing prejudices.”
He said the Australian government had not banned permanent entry into Australia as “all visa applications will be reevaluated by my officials every time.”
“I haven't taken the way ACT operates, but even at the lowest level of visas, when my officials saw it, they cancelled that cancellation following the announcement of the song,” he added.
Australia's immigration law sets security and character requirements for non-citizens to enter the country.
A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry told Guardian Australia: “The government will continue to act decisively to protect its community from the risk of harm posed by individuals who have chosen to engage in criminal or concern behavior, such as canceling or refusing visas when necessary.”
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Ye and his representatives have not commented on the revocation of the visa.
This is not the first time Australia has considered blocking its entry into the west. In 2023, Australia's Minister of Education Jason Claire condemned “bad” anti-Semitic comments, including Hitler and the Holocaust, saying others who made similar statements had been denied visas.
“Such people who applied for visas to enter Australia have been denied in the past,” Claire told CNN Affiliate Nine News in January 2023.
You have a long history of making anti-Semitic statements.
Earlier this year, West's Yeezy.com was removed from Shopify, which features one product. This is a white T-shirt with a black sw in the center under the product name HH-01.
A Shopify spokesman said in a statement to Global News, “All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform. This merchant has not engaged in genuine commercial practices and has violated the terms and has therefore been removed from Shopify.”
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In February, West used his X account to share his controversial anti-Semitism ideas. On February 9th, West appeared to have disabled his X account for a brief period of time before reviving.
He was also dropped to the West with his talent agency 33 following anti-Semitic rants in X.
Daniel McCartney, the rapper, announced that as of February 10th, West had been removed from the agency's client roster.
“As soon as effective, I am no longer representing Ye (f/k/a kanye West) because of his harmful and hateful remarks that 33&West can support myself,” McCartney wrote in a post on Instagram Stories.
“Peace and love for all.”
The Prevention Abolition League also issued a recent post from West and a statement on his website, saying, “As if further evidence of Kanye's anti-Semitism was needed, he chose to place a single item sold on his website.
“Swastika is a symbol Hitler adopted as the main Nazi coat of arms. It continues to threaten the fears of those who burned his followers in the 20th century and targeted anti-Semitism and white hegemony,” the Post continued.
“If that's not enough, the t-shirt is labeled 'HH-01' on Kanye's website. This is the code for “Heil Hitler”.
“Kanye has been tweeting sleazy anti-Semitism since last week. There's no excuse for this kind of behavior. What's worse, Kanye promoted the website during the Super Bowl, amplifying it beyond already massive social media audiences.”
– Use files from Associated Press
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