Australia cancels Kanye West’s visa over ‘Heil Hitler’ song release
‘We have enough problems without deliberately importing bigotry,’ says minister about US rapper known for antisemitic outbursts, amid surge in anti-Jewish incidents since Oct. 7
Australia canceled a visa for American rapper Kanye West, also known as Ye, after he released “Heil Hitler,” a song promoting Nazism, the country’s home affairs minister said Wednesday.
The song, released in May, came a few months after West made a string of antisemitic posts on X, which included comments such as “I love Hitler” and “I’m a Nazi.”
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said that while previous offensive comments made by West had not affected his visa status, officials “looked at it again” after the song’s release.
“It was a lower level [visa] and the officials still looked at the law and said you’re going to have a song and promote that sort of Nazism, we don’t need that in Australia,” he told national broadcaster ABC.
“We have enough problems in this country already without deliberately importing bigotry,” he said.
Burke noted that West, married to Australian architect Bianca Censori, has been traveling for years to Australia. Censori’s family lives in Melbourne.
Burke’s office declined to comment on the exact date of the visa cancellation. West’s management did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
“Heil Hitler” was released on May 8 by the 47-year-old artist who now prefers to go by Ye — the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
It racked up millions of views on Elon Musk’s X platform after it was banned by other sites such as YouTube. It has since also been removed from Spotify, Apple Music and Reddit.
West — the winner of 24 Grammys over the course of his career in hip-hop — in recent years has made repeated antisemitic and pro-Nazi statements.
For years, West has spoken openly about struggles with bipolar disorder. He has said on “The Download” podcast that he has been diagnosed with autism.
Since Musk purchased Twitter (now X) in 2022, he has allowed hate speech and disinformation on the site, including by white supremacists and antisemites, and was himself accused of delivering Nazi salutes at US President Donald Trump’s inauguration rally.
Last month, Australia banned pro-Israel influencer Hillel Fuld from entering, and in October barred US conservative pundit Candace Owens.
Australia’s Jewish community, numbering around 120,000, has been among the hardest hit by the global surge in antisemitism since October 7, 2023. The country experienced more than 2,000 anti-Jewish incidents between October 2023 and September 2024, more than quadruple the number from the year before Hamas’s October 7 assault that sparked the Gaza war, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).
In recent months, Jews there have experienced synagogues, schools and homes firebombed, two nurses threatening to kill Jewish patients in their hospital, and the discovery of a trailer filled with explosives said to be intended for a mass-casualty event at a Sydney synagogue.
The Times of Israel Community.