Award-Winning Photojournalist Honoured, Yet Denied a Visa:

A Story of Art, Resilience, and Bureaucratic Failure

This weekend at the HeadOn Photo Festival in Sydney, the world celebrated the work of Abdelrahman Alkahlout, a young Palestinian photojournalist who is rapidly becoming one of the most acclaimed in his field. His award-winning image, “Faith Amidst Genocide,” was awarded the Exposure (Documentary) prize and is on show at the Bondi Pavilion.

The central image—of people praying on the rubble where a mosque once stood – is a profound testament to the resiliance of the human spirit.

Yet, the artist was not here to accept his award. An Australian bureaucrat refused his visa.

From the other side of the world, Abdelrahman texted how sad he was to miss the event, but at the same time how honoured he was by the prize:

“From the heart of Gaza to a global stage in Australia, our message of humanity and resilience continues to reach the world, proving that a photograph can shake the conscience of humanity more than any weapon ever could.”

A journey of survival and art

I came to know Abdelrahman through his work; he was the photographer who portrayed fellow award-winning Palestinian photojournalist Mohammed Asad. Mohammed himself took part in my exhibition in Sydney this August, where we raised around $8,000 from print sales to help keep him and his family alive at the height of the Israeli bombardment and genocide in Gaza.

Meanwhile Abdelrahman was evacuated from Gaza to Türkiye, his body riddled with Israeli bullets – a survivor of Israel’s brutal assault on truth.

Reports from Brown University's Costs of War project and the UN indicate that the number of journalists killed in Gaza (with recent figures around 250-270) exceeds the combined total of those killed in the U.S. Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan.

In limbo in Türkiye, Abdelrahman was excited to be invited to Australia. He dreamed of coming here on a culture visa to accept his award and maybe seek asylum.

Ashamed, I had to advise him that Australia was an unlikely path to safety. I had recently tried to sponsor a highly skilled Palestinian family on humanitarian grounds, only to be rejected. Only family members were being allowed in. And only some. I suggested he try for a visitor visa instead while seeking stability in Belgium.

Weeks later, I saw a triumphant post: a selfie of Abdelrahman phoning his proud father in Gaza to announce he had received a European visa. Since then, I've watched him collect one prestigious international award after another, including the IPA Press Photographer of the Year. Across Europe, he has been honoured and welcomed.

But not in Australia.

Here, some petty Australian bureaucrat judged the world’s top photojournalist not good enough to set foot on Australian soil.

Who works in our immigration these days? Has it been infiltrated by foreign agents? Is it stacked with Zionists and white supremacists?

I have not felt so deeply ashamed of being Australian since the pre-Whitlam days when as a young girl I tried to conceal my accent when abroad. It was the end of the Menzies era and the White Australia policy still held. So did the cultural cringe.

Whitlam changed all that.

As a university student in Canberra I remember the whispers of how Immigration Minister Al Grassby, on his first day, opened filing cabinets to find applications segregated by ethnicity in white, yellow and black coloured folders. He threw them in the bin and revolutionised our laws, introducing a humane, multicultural approach grounded in dignity and equal access. Grassby was later awarded the Order of Australia and a UN Peace Medal for his commitment to non-discrimination.

Somehow this has been lost over the years.

Abdelrahman Alkahlout’s photographs are shaking the world's conscience. It is a profound failure that our system deemed the man behind the lens unworthy of even a brief visit to accept his honour.

We badly need another Whitlam, another Grassby. We need the return of a humane, multicultural immigration policy grounded in dignity and equal access.

#photojournalism @headonphotofest @abd.pix96