The Egyptian-American comedian Bassem, who has called Israelis “genocidal … pieces of shit” and claimed the Israeli embassy bombing in London in 1994 was orches­trated by Mossad as a ‘‘false flag” operation, is due to perform in Australia in August.

Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim told the Sydney Morning Herald, “Nobody from overseas who has a record of making debased gen­er­al­isa­tions about entire national or religious com­munit­ies should be granted a visa to Australia.

“That kind of rhetoric should not be allowed to poison our political discourse or be given the oppor­tun­ity to create and promote entirely baseless feelings of grievance, fear, suspicion and hatred between different sections of Aus­trali­an society.

“At a time of unpre­ced­en­ted strains on the peace and harmony of our country, which have been high­lighted by the [antisemitism] royal com­mis­sion, the gov­ern­ment needs to lead by example and apply its zero-tolerance-for-racism policy against granting a visa to this indi­vidu­al.”