It is a hotly contested space to identify the very worst decision of the current Australian Labor government, but the decision by Foreign Minister Senator Penny Wong to issue over 860 visas to Gazans, may prove to be the strongest contender for this dubious prize.

Gaza is approximately 41 km long by 6 to 12 km wide, a land area of 365 km2. Gaza borders Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. Israel captured the area in the 1967 Six Day War but in 2005 in a controversial move withdrew completely as a unilateral gesture for peace. Hamas, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and a proscribed terrorist organisation, won the 2006 election and by 2007 exerted its full control by violence against members of rival Fatah Party which is part of the Palestinian Authority.

It would be hard to find a place anywhere on earth where the ideology and the culture is more anti-Western, where there is more support for Islamist terrorism and where there is a higher level of hatred of Jews than in Gaza. Under the terror regime of Hamas, local media and the education system, along with radical Islamic hate preachers, have brainwashed two generations in hatred and glorification of terrorism.

The schools are administered by a scandal-ridden agency, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), known for the anti-Israel, antisemitic and terror-supporting content of its teaching. The executive of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Gaza is composed 100 per cent by Hamas members.

This decision to issue over 860 visas to Australia is not moderate risk, it is not high risk, it is an extreme risk to the internal security of Australian citizens and therefore a clear breach of the highest duty of a government to preserve and defend the security of the people.

Both Prime Minister Albanese and Foreign Minister Wong have tried to assure the Australian people that security screening has been done so there are not significant risks. These promises are demonstrable nonsense.

The speed at which adequate security screening is claimed is impossible to fathom. Gaza is a region administered by a corrupt terrorist organisation and a war is raging, yet our government would have us believe that nevertheless screening has been properly undertaken in a fraction of the time required for ordinary asylum seekers.

The security challenges are enormous and complex. Prior to 7 October, Israel had issued thousands of work permits to residents of Gaza for jobs in southern Israel. Despite the detailed high-level security screening done by Israel intelligence agency Shin Bet, we now know there were numerous failures. Hundreds of Gaza residents with Israeli work permits were actively assisting Hamas with information used in the barbaric terror attack of 7 October. Detailed information about the layout of properties, location of safe rooms, which residences had weapons and more, was fed to Hamas. Some of the Gaza residents with Israel work permits even joined in the attacks and subsequent looting. So, it beggars belief as claimed that our Canberra bureaucrats could do a vastly superior job than Israeli security and in a fraction of the time.

It is also very interesting to consider the response of the numerous Arab and Muslim countries in the Middle East – none has offered a significant refugee programme for residents of Gaza. There are numerous unofficial reports that these countries assess the risks as excessive and don’t want to import terrorism. Perhaps they indeed know more about the nature of groups and ideologies which make up the Middle East than does Canberra.

The experience in other Western countries is also instructive. In 1992 Denmark took in 321 Arab Palestinian refugees and their progress was subject to a follow up assessment in 2019. Of the 321 who arrived in 1992, 207 (almost two out of three) had a serious fine or received jail time for crime by 2019. Of their 999 children, one in three had been convicted of serious crime, an enormous proportion considering some had not yet grown up. This experience points to a culture which resists the values of a liberal Western democracy.

A survey published 14 November by Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD) provides additional illumination of the extreme risks Australia will be unnecessarily assuming. It assessed the attitudes of Arab Palestinians in Gaza, in Judea-Samaria (West Bank) and eastern Jerusalem on a variety of issues after the 7 October Hamas terrorism. Not only is majority support of Hamas running at 75 per cent, but when asked about the specific major terror attack on Israel there was also 75 per cent support.

The assessment becomes even more shocking in looking at other responses. The smaller even more extreme Jihadist terror groups received higher levels of support than Hamas – Palestinian Islamic Jihad 84 per cent, Al Aqsa Brigade 79 per cent and Al Kassam 87 per cent. There are also extremely negative views of the West. The contention that the West hates Muslims and Islam is supported by 90 per cent. The US is viewed negatively by 98 per cent and even the moderate Arab UAE is seen negatively by a staggering 96 per cent likely due to being the first Arab country to sign the Abraham Accords normalisation agreement with Israel facilitated in 2020 by the Trump administration.

The level of antisemitism is very high. Children from kindergarten age in Gaza are taught that Jews are evil and role-play attacking Jews. Interviews done outside UNRWA schools record Arab Palestinian children keen to undertake various terrorist methods to kill Jews, including suicide bombs. A recent video posted by Quds News, a propaganda arm of Hamas, shows young Arab Palestinian girls playing a game in which they sing, ‘Jews are our dogs’ and, ‘Death to Israel’. No surprise that 90 per cent in the AWRAD survey have a negative view of co-existence with Israelis (Jews).

It could well be that much of the cohort coming to Australia from Gaza holds views totally incompatible with Australian values. Many are likely to be supportive of Jihadist terrorism and Hamas. Some may be prepared to undertake serious crimes or acts of terror. What is unfolding is serious negligence by the Labor government.