Kanye West could be refused a visa over his antisemitic comments if he attempts to visit Australia.
While responding to reports that the 45-year-old rapper intends to visit the family of his reported new partner Bianca Censori in Melbourne next week, Australian education minister Jason Clare said that West could be denied a visa.
Clare said he did not know if West had applied for a visa, but added that Australia has previously refused them to people with antisemitic views.
“I expect that if he does apply, he would have to go through the same process and answer the same questions as others who’ve aired such views”, the minister told Nine Network television on Wednesday (25 January).
The Independent has contacted Ye’s representatives for comment.
Clare’s comments follow a string of recent controversies involving West.
Last year, the rapper – who in 2021 legally changed his name to Ye – made shocking antisemitic comments, including stating on Alex Jones’s Infowars web show that he “liked Hitler”.
Previously, West had been dropped by both Adidas and Balenciaga over “hateful and dangerous” comments relating to Jewish people.
West began sharing antisemitic conspiracy theories on Instagram, including suggesting that rapper Diddy was being controlled by Jewish people. When his account was suspended, West tweeted that he was going to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE”.
West stood by his comments, claiming that he “doesn’t believe” in the term antisemitism.
Later in the same month, the Donda rapper appeared on the Drink Champs podcast, where he continued to share conspiracy theories. West claimed that George Floyd, who died at the hands of a Minnesota police officer, actually had taken the drug Fentanyl and that a police officer’s knee “wasn’t even on his neck like that”.
Elsewhere in the interview, West shared a number of antisemitic conspiracy theories and dog whistles, and claimed that he’d been “blocked” by the “Jewish media”. The episode was later deleted, with host NORE apologising and claiming that the most offensive comments were not meant to have made the final edit.
