A burka is a garment that envelopes a devout Muslim woman’s entire body, from head to toe, and only allows her to see what is in front of her dimly through a mesh screen.

Australia’s Minister for Immigration and Home Affairs also struggles to see what is before him; perhaps he should be called Tony Burka.

Burke’s response to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who sent a letter to Prime Minister Albanese this week accusing him of being weak and abandoning Israel and Australian Jews was to declare that, ‘Strength is not measured by how many people you can blow up or how many children you can leave hungry.’

Albanese justified his decision to recognise Palestine based on a photo of a skeletal child that featured on the front page of the New York Times and turned out to be evidence not of famine in Gaza but of an infant suffering from cerebral palsy and dying of malnutrition because he couldn’t absorb nutrients from the food he was eating. But when the scam was revealed, Albanese didn’t apologise to Israel or reverse his decision to recognise Palestine; he doubled down on his attacks.

A week later, the same journalist reported another scoop; a malnourished young woman was flown to Italy from Gaza. As it turned out, she didn’t die of starvation, as first claimed, but died of leukaemia.

The fabrication of a famine in Gaza doesn’t matter to Burke, or those in his office and ministry barracking for an independent state of Palestine, already informally known as Hamastan.

This week, one of the faceless bureaucrats in Burke’s ministry – should we call them burkacrats? – revoked the visa of Israeli politician, Simcha Rothman, over his ‘extreme views’, citing his call for the elimination of Hamas, which, the bureaucrat judged, would be considered ‘inflammatory and concerning’ to some in the Australian community.

It is undeniable that in the recent march over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, people were waving the black, white and green flags of jihad that are brandished by the supporters of Al Qaeda, Isis and Hamas, and undoubtedly they would not be happy if Rothman were to make calls for the elimination of Hamas in Jewish schools and synagogues.

Mr Rothman’s visa was also revoked because he dared to suggest that Gazan children should not be relocated to Israel during the war because they were ‘enemies’. Gazan children study in schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa) named after terrorists like Dalal Mughrabi (leader of the 1978 coastal road massacre, which killed 38 Israelis including 13 children) and in summer camps that praise ‘martyrs’, using Palestinian Authority (PA) textbooks that portray Jews as ‘treacherous and hostile’, count martyrs in the intifada, calculate the velocity of a rock thrown at an Israeli soldier, feature maps that erase Israel, and portray jihad as a duty.

Then there was Farfour, the jihadi Mickey Mouse on Gaza children’s show, Tomorrow’s Pioneers who shouted, ‘Kill! Kill! Kill!’ to toddlers on the Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa channel. Farfur memorably said in one episode: ‘You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists. We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers.’ In the last episode, Farfur was beaten to death by an ‘Israeli agent’ or as Saraa, the child presenter, said, ‘Farfur was martyred defending his land by an Israeli “terrorist”, the killers of children.’ At least ten children or teenagers under 18 were used by Palestinian militants to carry out attacks against Israel. Hamas indoctrinates children in the glories of martyrdom with their mother’s milk, but it’s Rothman, apparently, who is the extremist.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong was incensed that the Israeli government responded to Australia’s decision to revoke Rothman’s visa by revoking visas for Australian officials working in Ramallah with the Palestinian Authority. Being posted to Ramallah is hardly a plum diplomatic appointment so one can imagine that the officials weren’t necessarily too upset, but Wong was saying, ‘This is an unjustified reaction, following Australia’s decision to recognise Palestine,’ and the government had a right to protect ‘all Australians from hate and harm’. Fair enough. Why should anyone be allowed to upset Australia’s wannabe jihadists?

Albanese, Wong, and Burke – a truth-twisting triumvirate – repeat Hamas talking points almost verbatim, and point to the ‘evidence’ of international aid agencies, as if these organisations were impartial arbiters. In reality, they are embedded in an environment where Hamas rules by terror and locally engaged staff are recruited through Hamas or Fatah patronage networks. If they speak freely, they risk losing their jobs at best and being branded collaborators – a death sentence – at worst.

This is not mere speculation. Israel has provided evidence that dozens of Unrwa employees actively participated in the 7 October atrocities. To suggest that reports produced by such agencies represent neutral, factual assessments is wilfully naive.

The same is true for journalists based in Gaza. Anas Al-Sharif, the reporter for Al Jazeera, that was assassinated by Israel last week, headed a Hamas terrorist cell and appears in terrorist training lists and salary records. Hamas huggers weep over this loving dad, but this is an Islamist who celebrated the 7 October massacre on Telegram, writing, ‘9 hours and the heroes are still roaming the country, killing and capturing. Allah, Allah, how great you are,’ followed by three green hearts and a quote from the Koran justifying the slaughter.

Far from providing independent verification, the ‘evidence’ cited by aid workers and journalists in Gaza is indistinguishable from Hamas propaganda, laundered by the logos of international news and humanitarian agencies that have squandered any right to that respect.

They are not just untrustworthy, they are complicit in perpetuating the indoctrination of children, in turning humanitarian aid into a weapon, and complicit in the crimes against humanity committed by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. But so long as you don’t adjust your burka, you’ll never see a thing.