The Coalition wants to impose visa bans on international students who use antisemitic hate speech while participating in protests on Australian university campuses.
Pro-Palestinian protest camps have appeared at several universities across Australia in recent months, with hundreds of students calling on administrators to cut ties with companies associated with weapons manufacturing and Israel.
Jewish groups and politicians have raised fears for the safety of Jewish students amid claims of antisemitic behaviour and the use of divisive chanting on campuses.
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said if elected next year the Coalition would use section 116 of the Migration Act to cancel the visas of student protestors “found to be involved in spreading anti-Semitism or supporting terrorism”
“Since October 7 we have seen multiple instances of anti-Semitic rhetoric and sympathy expressed for listed terrorist organisations including Hamas on campus,” he said.,
“And yet there is no evidence the Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil and Immigration Minister Andrew Giles have cancelled a single student visa under the significant powers available under the Migration Act.
![CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA, NewsWire Photos. MAY 27, 2024: Police have decended on the pro-Palestine protest camp at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra to break up the encampments. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman](https://timesofsydney.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/caf6764d5f54d680b6246dd3444b312a65d29022.jpg)
Rising divisions over the war in Gaza come amid international outcry after an Israeli airstrike on a makeshift tent camp killed at least 45 people on Sunday night.
Speaking at a Jewish high school in east Melbourne on Monday, deputy prime minister Richard Marles said the amount of extreme hate speech he had observed was higher “than any that I’ve seen during my lifetime.”
The Greens will this week will call for a lower house vote on recognising Palestinian statehood, with leader Adam Bandt challenging Labor on Monday to support the measure.