New Zealand bans entry to conservative commentator Candace Owens for controversial and antisemitic statements
The refusal itself has sparked controversy
Candace Owens, a prominent conservative commentator recently estranged from the Daily Wire, has been denied entry to New Zealand. Her application for an Entertainers Work Visa was rejected by New Zealand authorities on Nov. 27, following a similar ban from Australia a few weeks earlier.
The decision has sparked controversy, with free speech advocates appealing the decision as unlawful. Others have commended the firm stance against antisemitic hate speech, a topic Owens has ventured into over the past year, aligning herself with notorious antisemite and entertainer Kayne West.
A spokesperson for the New Zealand immigration agency asserted that the refusal was made on the grounds that “visas cannot be given legally to people who have been banned from another country,” according to the Associated Press.
The AP cited her denial that Nazis conducted medical experiments on Jews in concentration camps during World War II as one of the reasons for the Australian ban, along with remarks opposing Black Lives Matter, feminism, vaccines and immigration.
The Jerusalem Post reported that Australian Immigration Minister Tony Burke stated: “Australia’s national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else.” With more than three million followers on YouTube, Burke said Owens “has the capacity to incite discord in every direction.”
The Anti-Defamation League detailed some of her more controversial claims, noting: “After the 10/7 attack in Israel, Owens came to routinely promote antisemitic tropes and spew antisemitic rhetoric on her podcast and social media channels.”
Owens shot to fame as a conservative political commentator, holding the position of communications director of Turning Point USA from 2017-2019, and later working alongside Ben Shapiro at the Daily Wire – a relationship that broke down publicly in March.
After parting ways with the Daily Wire, her rhetoric became so extreme that her former colleague, Dennis Prager, wrote an open letter debunking her wild assertions in hopes of reconciliation. Owens received the letter graciously but has yet to address any of the points he raised, which contradict her current stance.
No stranger to controversy herself, Laurie Cardoza-Moore, the president of "Proclaiming Justice to The Nations (PJTN)," was jubilant, calling on churches worldwide to excommunicate Owens for her views.
“Candace Owens has verged into the abyss of blind Jew-Hatred, rooted in the sewers of historical Christian anti-Semitism which led to the death of millions of Jews in the name of Christianity. Her ideas are a lethal cocktail of conspiracy theories and heresy which has been rejected by almost every denomination in Christendom. Candace Owens should be excommunicated by all Christians for her rabid Jew-Hatred and rejection of our Jewish roots,” Cardoza-Moore wrote.
Cardoza-Moore, who hosts the television program, "Focus on Israel," with a global audience of over a billion, said in her statement against Owens: “Let me be crystal clear, it’s time that churches close the doors on Candace. The Candace Owens we once knew - is no more, she has no more substance to share beyond [t]he repugnant, unfounded and obsessive hate for God’s Chosen People. There is no place for Candace anywhere in the Conservative Christian World.”
Owens is scheduled to speak at a series of events in Australia and New Zealand in February and March 2025. The promotional website continues to list tickets for sale, with no acknowledgment or comment yet regarding her ban from the two countries.
Jo Elizabeth has a great interest in politics and cultural developments, studying Social Policy for her first degree and gaining a Masters in Jewish Philosophy from Haifa University, but she loves to write about the Bible and its primary subject, the God of Israel. As a writer, Jo spends her time between the UK and Jerusalem, Israel.
