Peter Dutton’s comments about people escaping the bloodshed in Gaza are hurtful and “very bad for cohesion and harmony”, according to Palestine’s de facto ambassador to Australia.
After a week of intense parliamentary debate about Australia’s use of visitor visas for Palestinians fleeing the conflict, Izzat Salah Abdulhadi called the opposition leader’s commentary “very political”.
“It will have a very negative impact on the Muslim, Arab, Palestinian community, who already live in a very stressful situation seeing the killing of whole families in Gaza – we can see all these images,” said Abdulhadi, the head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia.
“It’s very bad for cohesion and harmony, which is important for national security and the national interests of Australia.”
Abdulhadi called on the new home affairs minister, Tony Burke, to provide certainty to people who have fled Israel’s military assault on Gaza in response to the 7 October Hamas attacks.
Burke is considering putting in place a pathway to support Palestinians as their visitor visas expire.
Abdulhadi acknowledged there was “a risk” the government might be spooked by the fractious domestic political debate, but said it was “time for leadership and to provide those arrivals from Gaza support”.
Abdulhadi represents the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The authority is dominated by Fatah – a rival to Hamas – and is not in control of Gaza.
Dutton triggered an acrimonious political debate when he said last week he did not think “people should be coming in from that war zone at all at the moment” because “it puts our national security at risk”.
He and his Coalition colleagues have since used parliamentary question time to prosecute the government over its processes to issue visas to “people from the terrorist-controlled Gaza war zone”.
In an op-ed in the News Corp tabloids on Sunday, Dutton argued there was “a real possibility the Albanese government has allowed Hamas sympathisers and antisemites into our country by failing to conduct necessary checks”.
Abdulhadi pushed back at those comments in an interview with Guardian Australia on Wednesday. He said departures from Gaza had been “totally frozen” since the closure of the Rafah crossing in May.
The Australian government had also used a “very restrictive visa-issuing process” with strict definitions of close family members, so it had become “really difficult” to bring anybody from Gaza, Abdulhadi said.
“But from a principled point of view, I think the comments of Mr Dutton are not evidence based, are not verified and are unacceptable,” Abdulhadi said.
“We’re used to this kind of politicising external issues, foreign policy, for domestic issues unfortunately.”
Australia issued 2,922 visas to Palestinians between 7 October and 12 August, but a further 7,111 applications were rejected, government figures show. Only an estimated 1,300 Palestinians had actually been able to make it to Australia.
Anthony Albanese rounded on Dutton in question time on Wednesday, saying the opposition leader’s entire political career was about stoking division.
“He continually looks to pretend that he’s so strong but nastiness is not strength,” Albanese told parliament.
“Punching down on vulnerable people is not strength but that is what this bloke does.”
Dutton’s office was contacted for a response but he has previously defended his comments.
He said on Tuesday he was advocating a temporary pause on Gaza visa approvals “just until the security situation stabilises and the government can assure Australians proper checks are being undertaken”.
The government has repeatedly said it is not taking any shortcuts with security checks and has confidence in security agencies.
The Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan alleged in parliament on Wednesday that the government was “cutting corners on security assessments” but the Asio chief, Mike Burgess, told Guardian Australia in March: “I’m confident the process is where it needs to be.”
