Banned MK says Canberra ‘surrendered to terror’

MK Simcha Rothman tells the Kan public broadcaster that Canberra’s decision to reject his visa is a “surrender to terror.”

Rothman says he applied for a visa through standard diplomatic channels with the involvement of the Foreign Ministry. He surmises that the decision was spurred by fear of backlash from anti-Israel activists.

“They were threatened by Islamist jihadists of what will happen if I am allowed to visit, and so instead of worrying about public order, instead of standing firm against terror, they surrendered to terror,” he says.

Rothman says the rejection is not against him but against Israel as a whole,  claiming that examples of supposedly hateful speech cited by the Australian government in its decision are comments well within the Israeli mainstream.

“‘You incite because you said Israel needs to destroy Hamas,'” he quotes from the decision. “‘You incite because you said a Palestinian state is dangerous to Israel and wants to exterminate it.'”