EDITORIAL: Why was a visa issued to a Hamas sympathiser?

The cruelty is shocking.

Under a photograph of panicked Israeli festival-goers fleeing Hamas’s brutal massacre of October 7, 2023, Mona Zahed wrote on Instagram: “Praise be to Allah who has kept us alive to see this day”.

In another post, while the attack which killed 1300 people was in progress, Ms Zahed wrote: “We woke up and got God’s kingdom”.

This is not a person who should ever be allowed to set foot in Australia, infecting our society with her dangerous hatred.

Yet Ms Zahed was issued with a visa which would have allowed her to do exactly that.

Australians will not accept this terrible war being brought to our shores.

On a webpage soliciting for donations for Ms Zahed and her family, supporters claimed that in a “true miracle”, Ms Zahed was given permission to enter the country to promote her cookbook.

Her backers include radical Melbourne author and artist Matt Chun, who edits an sporadic “anti-colonial and anti-imperialist” leaflet.

The Government has not clarified what class of visa Ms Zahed was approved for.

After news of Ms Zahed’s visa became came to media attention on Friday, it was swiftly cancelled, following intervention from Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke.

Every fair-minded Australian should be relieved that Ms Zahed will not be allowed into Australia.

But the Government and Home Affairs have serious questions to answer as to how on Earth a visa was issued to a person of such clear deficiencies of character.

What checks were done? And where did they go wrong?

Australians have been shocked by the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, set off by Hamas’s murderous actions of October 7 and refusal to agree to a ceasefire.

Unlike Ms Zahed, we are not indifferent to the suffering of others. Australians do not rejoice in others’ pain.

We want to do our bit to help those suffering, including by helping in efforts to provide Palestinians with a place to rebuild their lives.

Palestinians deserve safety.

So too do Australians.

That includes safety from the vile rhetoric of terrorist sympathisers. Australians will not accept this terrible war being brought to our shores.

Australia has issued thousands of visas to Palestinians fleeing Gaza since the October 7 massacre. Thousands more have been denied.

The Government has assured its citizens that the checks are robust.

However, something has clearly gone badly wrong in this instance.

It is frustrating that Mr Burke — nor the Prime Minister or any other senior minister — has chosen not to make any public comment on this serious issue.

All public communications have instead been issued through a “spokesperson”.

This Government’s obsession with maintaining “social cohesion” has in the past made it slow to act in properly condemning acts of anti-Semitism.

Yet here is a woman who celebrates the murder of Jews, being issued with a visa to our nation. What greater threat is there to our social cohesion than that?

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore.