Candace Owens barred from New Zealand over antisemitic comments

Officials cited Australia’s ban on the conservative commentator over antisemitic and anti-Muslim statements she has made.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Conservative commentator Candace Owens has been denied entry to New Zealand due to neighboring Australia’s ban last month that cited antisemitic and anti-Muslim statements she has made.

The immigration authorities directly cited the provision in New Zealand law that individuals excluded from another country may not be granted a visa, without mentioning her controversial opinions.

Australian Immigration Minister Tony Burke had announced in late October that Owens was not welcome because “From downplaying the impact of the Holocaust with comments about German SS officer Josef Mengele through to claims that Muslims started slavery, Candace Owens has the capacity to incite discord in almost every direction.

“Australia’s national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else,” he stated.

The move had been warmly applauded both by Jewish groups that had been urging the ban and the government’s parliamentary Opposition.

In recent months, Owens denied that the infamous Nazi doctor had conducted medical experiments on Jews in Auschwitz, calling the proven facts “bizarre propaganda” that are too “absurd” to be believed.

She has also espoused antisemitic conspiracy theories on Jewish power, including claims that the U.S. is “being held hostage by Israel,” that pro-Israel lobby AIPAC was behind the assassination of president John F. Kennedy, and that “secret Jewish gangs” control Hollywood.

Additional black marks against her include her defense of antisemitic rapper Kanye West, and her “like” of a post on X in March suggesting that fiercely pro-Israel but controversial Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is “drunk on Christian blood.”

The latter move was reportedly the final straw for The Daily Wire, the conservative media company that hosted her podcast, and they ended their contract with her.

Daily Wire cofounder Ben Shapiro had previously called her anti-Israel comments on its war against the Hamas terror organization “disgraceful” and “ridiculous.”

Interestingly, the far-right pundit had been a strong Israel supporter several years ago, having applauded, for example, then-president Donald Trump’s decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem, and panned antisemitic remarks made by New York Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.

Owens had been selling tickets to events in several cities in both Australia and New Zealand that were to be held early next year, which was billed as a speaking tour about her Christian faith and her views on freedom of speech.

Prices in Australia had ranged from $95 for a simple seat to $295 for a “meet and greet” event. Her most fervent fans could also ante up $1,500 for a private supper with the commentator.

The events have yet to be formally cancelled.

AntisemitismCandace OwensNew Zealandvisa