Australia cancels visa of Israeli influencer accused of ‘spreading hatred’

Social media influencer Sammy Yahood is known to spread Islamophobic content online.Published On 27 Jan 2026Australia has cancelled the visa of an Israeli social media influencer who has campaigned against Islam, saying it will not accept visitors to the country who come to spread hatred.Australian Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke said in a statement on Tuesday that “spreading hatred is not a good reason to come” to Australia, hours after influencer Sammy Yahood announced that his visa was cancelled three hours before his flight departed from Israel.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Australian writers’ festival apologises to Palestinian author after boycottlist 2 of 3Australian Parliament backs tighter gun, hate crime laws after Bondi attacklist 3 of 3Australia observes day of mourning for victims of Bondi Beach mass shootingend of listPeople who want to visit Australia should apply for the correct visa and come for the right reasons, Burke said in a statement to the AFP news agency.Just hours before his visa was cancelled, Yahood had written on X, “Islam ACCORDING TO ISLAM does not tolerate non-believers, apostates, women’s rights, children’s rights, or gay rights.”He also referred to Islam as a “disgusting ideology” and an “aggressor”.Australia tightened its hate crime laws earlier this month in response to a mass shooting at a Jewish celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, which left 15 people dead.In a recent post, Yahood, a native of the UK and a recent citizen of Israel, had also advocated for the deportation of United States Representative Ilhan Omar, a Somali-American, who is Muslim.In another, he ridiculed the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which is responsible for coordinating relief for Palestinians and Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.Israel began bulldozing UNRWA’s headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem last week, a move strongly condemned by the world body and Palestinian leaders, who said the flattening of the site marked a “barbaric new era” of unchecked defiance of international law by Israeli authorities.Despite the cancellation of his visa to Australia, Yahood said he flew from Israel to Abu Dhabi, but was blocked from getting his connecting flight to Melbourne.