Brisbane
—
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will get two very totally different receptions when he arrives in Australia on Monday – a heat welcome by a authorities decided to present solidarity with its grieving Jewish community, and mass protests by activists who think about him a conflict prison.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese invited Herzog to go to as a gesture of unity with Jewish Australians after 15 people were killed at a Hanukkah competition close to Sydney’s Bondi Beach – the worst terror assault dedicated in the nation.
In the weeks after the December 14 assault, the federal government has repeatedly pushed the necessity for social cohesion. However, Albanese’s determination to invite Herzog – the pinnacle of state of a rustic accused of genocide in Gaza, a declare Israel’s authorities denies – has angered many Australians and even led to requires the customer’s arrest.
“I really do understand the depth of feeling about this visit, the depth of feeling in the community about what we’ve seen in Gaza over the last two years… but this visit is about a mourning Jewish community, and I would ask Australians to recall that,” Foreign Minister Penny Wong advised ABC Radio.
Like many countries the world over, Australia has skilled sharp divisions over Israel’s conflict in Gaza which have spilled into protests – with extra deliberate in as many as 30 cities nationwide on Monday to mark Herzog’s go to.
The largest shall be outdoors Sydney Town Hall, where up to 5,000 pro-Palestinian protesters are anticipated to collect, regardless of restrictions on protests in the realm imposed after the Bondi massacre.
Police say the protesters danger arrest in the event that they transfer past the Town Hall sq.. Protest organizer Josh Lees, from the Palestinian Action Group, says demonstrators is not going to be intimidated.
“We will be there in huge numbers for a peaceful protest to say Herzog is not welcome,” he stated in a message posted to Instagram.
Major Jewish teams in Australia, together with the Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Australian Jewish Association, have welcomed Herzog’s go to and condemned the deliberate protests.
“President Herzog is a patriot and a person of dignity and compassion and holds an office that is above party politics,” stated Alex Ryvchin, co-chief govt ECAJ, which represents some 200 Jewish teams across the nation.
“He is a person who has sadly had to comfort families, police and first responders after terrorist attacks many times, and will know how to reassure and fortify our community in its darkest time.”
As Israel’s head of state, Herzog occupies a largely ceremonial function faraway from the chief decision-making led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose acknowledged purpose to destroy Hamas following the group’s October 7 massacre has resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 Palestinians, in accordance to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in 2024 for alleged conflict crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity. Then final September, an unbiased UN inquiry discovered Netanyahu and Gallant – in addition to Herzog – had “incited the commission of genocide.”
The inquiry fee pointed to feedback Herzog made lower than every week after Hamas militants killed and kidnapped hundreds of Israelis on October 7, 2023. Herzog stated “an entire nation” had been liable for the Hamas assault.
His phrases “may reasonably be interpreted as incitement to the Israeli security forces personnel to target the Palestinians in Gaza as a group as being collectively culpable,” the fee discovered.
After the report’s launch, Herzog angrily dismissed it as affected by an absence of legitimacy.
The president’s workplace has not responded to a NCS request for remark. But Herzog has beforehand rejected claims he blamed all Palestinian individuals for the assault.
One of the authors of the report, UN commissioner Chris Sidoti, a former Australian human rights commissioner, says the nation has a authorized and ethical crucial to detain Herzog on arrival, although he doesn’t assume it’ll occur.
“I feel quite confident that he would not even be attempting this trip if he had not received assurances from the Australian government that he would not be arrested,” he stated. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has confirmed that Herzog is protected by diplomatic immunity.
An Israeli official advised NCS that Israel’s justice ministry had assured Herzog and his delegation there was no menace of arrest, partly as a result of it was a state go to and in addition as a result of no warrants existed for anybody in their celebration.
One of Herzog’s entourage, Doron Almog, chairman of the Jewish Agency, can also be the topic of a proper criticism filed with the AFP by 4 authorized teams together with the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ) and Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq.
Almog, a former common in the Israel Defense Forces, reportedly canceled a deliberate journey to South Africa for concern he’d be arrested there by a rustic that took a genocide case in opposition to Israel to the International Court of Justice.
Unlike Herzog, Almog doesn’t have diplomatic immunity, the attorneys stated.
NCS has reached out to the Jewish Agency for remark.
In an interview with The Australian newspaper prior to his arrival, Herzog stated he needed to use the journey to confront “lies and false information” about Israel.
“It’s the time to get out of that brainwash campaign that has been going on within the Australian public for quite some time, both against the Jews and against Israelis.”
But not all Jewish teams in Australia are poised to welcome him.
The Jewish Council of Australia, a progressive advocacy group, accused Albanese of utilizing Jewish grief as a “political prop and diplomatic backdrop.”
Hosting Herzog “risks entrenching the dangerous and antisemitic conflation between Jewish identity and the actions of the Israeli state,” Sarah Schwartz, the group’s govt officer, stated in an announcement. “This does not make Jews safer. It does the opposite.”
On Monday, the group says a full-page open letter signed by “hundreds of Jews” shall be revealed in two main Australian newspapers to “send a loud message that Herzog is not welcome here.”
After the Bondi assaults, many in the Jewish neighborhood stated Albanese had not performed sufficient to stamp out antisemitism that had worsened since Israel sought to avenge Hamas’ murderous assault.
In the 2 years to September 2025, as Netanyahu’s authorities turned a lot of Gaza to rubble and the Palestinian loss of life toll grew, Jewish teams recorded greater than 3,700 “anti-Jewish incidents” in Australia, together with arson assaults on synagogues, automotive fires, and antisemitic graffiti.
The shaken Jewish neighborhood was compelled to improve its personal safety for concern that hatred might flip to bloodshed.
In the times after the Bondi Beach massacre – allegedly dedicated by a father and son who had embraced Islamic State ideology – the federal government introduced sweeping new gun laws, more durable guidelines on hate speech, and stronger powers for the house affairs minister to cancel visas on character grounds.
As his political opponents demanded he recall parliament and maintain a particular federal investigation into the assaults, Albanese requested Australia’s governor-general to formally invite to Herzog to the nation.
Just over a month later, police spent this weekend in talks with the Sydney-based Palestinian Action Group to strive to persuade it to settle for a compromise protest location, away from the Town Hall.
Sidoti, the UN commissioner, stated the Australian authorities had made a “tragic mistake” by inviting Herzog to the nation at a time of deep division.
“This mistake should have been corrected weeks ago. It’s still not too late to correct it, but it’s increasingly unlikely with every hour that passes, and that’s a grave pity,” he stated.
“This is a visit that will have serious consequences for social cohesion in Australia.”