Illustrative: Supporters of Hamas gather for a rally in Melbourne, Australia. Photo: Reuters/Joel Carrett

Israel announced it will revoke the residency visas of Australian representatives to the Palestinian Authority (PA) in response to Australia’s increasing hostility toward the Jewish state, further escalating tensions as relations between the two countries deteriorate.

“I decided to revoke the visas of Australian representatives to the Palestinian Authority,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said in a post on X on Monday.

“I also instructed the Israeli Embassy in Canberra to carefully examine any official Australian visa application for entry to Israel,” he continued.

In his statement, Saar linked this latest decision to Australia’s announcement last week that it intends to recognize a Palestinian state in September.

He also said this move follows “Australia’s unjustified refusal to grant visas to a number of Israeli figures,” among them former Minister Ayelet Shaked and Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee chairman MK Simcha Rotman.

Rothman’s visa was denied this week, only a day before he was set to travel to Australia for community events.

“If you come here to spread hate and division, we don’t want you,” Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said in a statement about Rothman’s visa denial.

He also noted that Rothman would not be eligible to reapply for another three years, stressing Australia’s commitment to being a place where “everyone can feel safe.”

Australian officials have argued that Rothman’s visit could offend the country’s Muslim population, drawing condemnation from the local Jewish community and Israeli leaders, who accused the government of being lenient toward Hamas supporters while barring a senior Israeli lawmaker.

“While antisemitism is raging in Australia, including manifestations of violence against Jews and Jewish institutions, the Australian government is choosing to fuel it by false accusations, as if the visit of Israeli figures will disrupt public order and harm Australia’s Muslim population,” Saar said in his post on X. “It is shameful and unacceptable!”

Last week, Australia announced it will formally recognize a Palestinian state during the United Nations General Assembly’s annual debate next month, joining a growing list of European nations backing the move despite sharp criticism from Israeli leaders and the country’s Jewish community.

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as “humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering, and starvation in Gaza.”

Albanese also said he had received assurances from the PA — which has governed much of the West Bank without holding elections for two decades — that there would be “no role for the terrorists of Hamas in any future Palestinian state.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned Australia’s decision, calling it “a reward for terror, a prize for the enemies of freedom, liberty, and democracy.”

“This is a grave and dangerous mistake, which will not help a single Palestinian and sadly will not bring back a single hostage,” the Israeli leader said during a press conference, referring to the dozens of Israeli hostages still being held by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza.

Ties between Israel and Australia have soured since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel, with Canberra becoming one of the country’s most outspoken critics on the global stage.

Meanwhile, antisemitism spiked to record levels in Australia — especially in Sydney and Melbourne, which are home to some 85 percent of the country’s Jewish population — following the start of the war in Gaza.

According to a report from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ), antisemitism quadrupled to record levels following the Oct. 7 atrocities, with Australian Jews experiencing more than 2,000 antisemitic incidents between October 2023 and September 2024.

Israeli leaders have condemned Australian officials for anti-Israel bias and inaction on antisemitism, while the country’s Jewish community has consistently called for stronger measures to combat the growing wave of targeted attacks and anti-Jewish hate crimes.

On Monday, an Israeli man looking for a haircut in Melbourne was turned away after the salon owner recognized his accent and accused him of being a “baby killer” responsible for “genocide in Gaza.”

In recent months, several Jewish sites in Australia — including schools, synagogues, homes, and cars — have been targeted with vandalism and even arson.

Pro-Hamas demonstrators at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, US, on Feb. 5, 2025. Photo: David Ryder via Reuters Connect

A coalition of leading Jewish civil rights groups is calling on the higher education establishment to prioritize fighting campus antisemitism during the upcoming academic year, citing an unrelenting wave of anti-Jewish hate that has swept the US in recent years.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Jewish Federations of North America, Hillel International, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations issued their joint statement on Monday, putting forth a policy framework that they say will quell antisemitism if applied sincerely and consistently. It included “enhanced communication and policy enforcement,” “dedicated administration oversight,” and “faculty accountability” — an issue of rising importance given the number of faculty accused of inciting discrimination.

“These recommendations aren’t just suggestions; they’re essential steps universities need to take to ensure Jewish students can learn without fear,” ADL chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “Jewish students are being forced to hide who they are, and that’s unacceptable — we need more administrators to step up.”

As previously reported by The Algemeiner, colleges campus across the US erupted with effusions of antisemitic activity following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, an uprising which included calling for the destruction of Israel, cheering Hamas’s sexual assaulting of women as an instrument of war, and dozens of incidents of assault and harassment targeting Jewish students, faculty, and activists.

At the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), anti-Zionist protesters chanted “Itbah El Yahud” at Bruin Plaza, which means “slaughter the Jews” in Arabic. At Columbia University, Jews were gang-assaulted, a student proclaimed that Zionist Jews deserve to be murdered and are lucky he is not doing so himself, and administrative officials, outraged at the notion that Jews organized to resist anti-Zionism, participated in a group chat in which each member took turns sharing antisemitic tropes that described Jews as privileged and grafting. At Harvard University, an October 2023 anti-Israel demonstration degenerated into chaos when Ibrahim Bharmal, former editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, and Elom Tettey-Tamaklo encircled a Jewish student with a mob that screamed “Shame! Shame! Shame!” at him while he desperately attempted to free himself from the mass of bodies.

More recently, Eden Deckerhoff — a female student at Florida State University — allegedly assaulted a Jewish male classmate at the Leach Student Recreation Center after noticing his wearing apparel issued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

“F—k Israel, Free Palestine. Put it [the video] on Barstool FSU. I really don’t give a f—k,” the woman said before shoving the man, according to video taken by the victim. “You’re an ignorant son of a b—h.” Deckerhoff has since been charged with misdemeanor battery.

Majorities of Jewish students continue to describe their campuses as hostile environments.

According to a recent Spring Campus Poll conducted by The Daily Northwestern, the official campus newspaper of Northwestern University, 58 percent of Jewish students reported being subjected to antisemitism or knowing someone who has. An even higher 63.1 percent said antisemitism remains a “somewhat or very serious problem.” Meanwhile, a Columbia University “climate survey” conducted last academic year found that 53 percent of Jewish students have been subjected to discrimination because of being Jewish, while another 53 percent reported that their friendships are “strained” because of how overwhelmingly anti-Zionist the student culture is. Meanwhile, 29 percent of Jewish students said they have “lost close friends,” and 59 percent, nearly two-thirds, of Jewish students sensed that they would be better off by electing to “conform their political beliefs” to those of their classmates.

Nearly 62 percent of Jewish students reported a low “feeling of acceptance” at Columbia on the basis of their religious identity, and 50 percent said that the pro-Hamas encampments which capped off the 2023-2024 academic year had a negative “impact” on their daily routines. Also, Jewish students at Columbia are more likely than their peers to report these negative feelings and experiences, followed by Muslim students.

“Campus antisemitism demand continued commitment from universities and colleges,” William Daroff chief executive of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, said in a statement on Monday. “Schools that implement these recommendations will not only better serve their Jewish students but strengthen the entire campus community’s dedication to academic excellence.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

Kanye West walking on the red carpet during the 67th Grammy Awards held at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, CA on Feb. 2, 2025. Photo: Elyse Jankowski/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect

In the Czech Republic, local officials have pushed back against a potential Ye concert in Prague following the cancellation of a July show near Bratislava, refusing to grant permission for the rapper formerly known as Kanye West to perform his music, including potentially recent tracks such as “Heil Hitler.”

“There is no request to organize such a concert, and if we were asked, we would not approve it,” said Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda.

He told Heyfomo.cz that “there is no room for antisemitism in Prague.”

Deputy Mayor Jiří Pospíšil added that the city “is not the place to celebrate Nazism.” He described himself as “strongly against Kanye West performing in Prague,” explaining how “we experienced firsthand the horrors of the Second World War, and we must not give room to people who glorify these crimes.”

A petition and open letter to Svoboda launched on Wednesday has received more than 14,000 supporters.

“Kanye West is abusing his media influence to normalize the language and symbols of the evil of war, which Europe, including the Czech Republic, has long rejected,” the letter states. “It is unacceptable that Prague provides space for his performance – not for musical expression, but for dangerous public attitudes that are in direct conflict with European historical memory and democratic values.”

The letter also points to “possible serious security risks” and notes that “an event of this type may attract radical and extremist groups from the Czech Republic and abroad. Given the public stance of the performer, there is a legitimate concern about the appearance of Nazi symbolism, violent behavior or the spread of ideologies that are unacceptable in a democratic society and criminal in the Czech Republic.”

The petitioners also argued that a Ye performance could break the law, violating a statute prohibiting “movements aimed at suppressing human rights and freedoms is a criminal offense, including the use of symbols, slogans or expressions of sympathy.”

Signatories of the letter included nonprofit leaders, lawyers, human rights experts, artists, attorneys, journalists, and scholars.

On Feb. 25, the European Jewish Congress reported that Czech police had investigated 40 percent more antisemitic hate crimes in 2024 compared to 2023, a total of 30 incidents of hate speech.

“In 2022, we dealt with 23 cases of antisemitic hate speech, 18 in 2023, and 30 in 2024,” said Czech Police spokesperson Ondřej Moravčík. “We are still in close contact with operators and owners of Jewish sites and carry out increased surveillance activities there.”

The Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic (FŽO) said that for 2023 it documented 4,328 antisemitic incidents, showing a 90 percent jump from the 2,277 incidents found in 2022. The group said that “in the Czech Republic, as in other countries, there is an insufficient level of reporting hate crimes, often due to stigma, distrust in institutions, or concerns about personal safety.”

For the 2023 incidents, FŽO saw a spike (almost 42 percent of the year’s total) from October through December, following the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.

According to the Anti-Defamation League’s Global 100 survey of antisemitic attitudes by country, research into the Czech Republic shows elevated levels of bigotry against Jews (support for at least 6 stereotypes) in 15 percent of adults — 1.3 million people — ranking the nation as the eleventh least antisemitic on the planet.

Ye has faced similar consequences in other countries for his decision to promote Nazism through his music, public appearances, TV ads, and even in the merchandise he hawks on his website. On July 2, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke announced the cancellation of the hip hop mogul’s visa, preventing future visits with his Australian wife Bianca Censori’s family in Melbourne.

“We have enough problems in this country already without deliberately importing bigotry,” Burke said.

“In Whose Name?,” a documentary featuring Ye, will be released on Sept. 19. The film’s director, Nico Ballesteros, began shooting the project six years ago at age 18 when West gave him what The Hollywood Reporter described on Wednesday as “unfettered access to his life, breakdowns and inner circle,” yielding more than 3,000 hours of footage.

“For a shy kid, the camera became both a shield and a window, a way to channel my introspection while still engaging with the world,” Ballesteros said. “Ye has always had someone filming him too, a lens between him and the noise. Maybe that’s why we understood each other without saying much. I was able to fade into the background, stay present, the camera always rolling, catching moments outside the public performance.”