Israel’s president to mourn antisemitic bloodbath in Australia, the place fury over Gaza nonetheless divides

[ad_1] 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 point out solidarity with its grieving Jewish community , and mass protests by activists who contemplate him a warfare felony.

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 Seaside – the worst terror assault dedicated within the nation.

Within the weeks after the December 14 assault, the federal government has repeatedly pushed the necessity for social cohesion. Nonetheless, Albanese’s choice to ask 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 actually do perceive the depth of feeling about this go to, the depth of feeling locally about what we’ve seen in Gaza during the last two years… however this go to is a few mourning Jewish group, and I might ask Australians to recall that,” Overseas Minister Penny Wong advised ABC Radio.

Like many countries internationally, Australia has skilled sharp divisions over Israel’s warfare 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 most important can be exterior Sydney City Corridor, the place as much as 5,000 pro-Palestinian protesters are anticipated to assemble, regardless of restrictions on protests within the space imposed after the Bondi bloodbath.

Police say the protesters threat arrest in the event that they transfer past the City Corridor sq.. Protest organizer Josh Lees, from the Palestinian Motion Group, says demonstrators won't be intimidated.

“We can be there in enormous numbers for a peaceable protest to say Herzog is just not welcome,” he mentioned in a message posted to Instagram.

Main Jewish teams in Australia, together with the Govt Council of Australian Jewry and the Australian Jewish Affiliation, have welcomed Herzog’s go to and condemned the deliberate protests.

“President Herzog is a patriot and an individual of dignity and compassion and holds an workplace that's above celebration politics,” mentioned Alex Ryvchin, co-chief government ECAJ, which represents some 200 Jewish teams across the nation.

“He's an individual who has sadly needed to consolation households, police and first responders after terrorist assaults many instances, and can know tips on how to reassure and fortify our group in its darkest time.”

As Israel’s head of state, Herzog occupies a largely ceremonial function faraway from the manager decision-making led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose said intention to destroy Hamas following the group’s October 7 bloodbath has resulted within the deaths of over 70,000 Palestinians, in accordance with the Palestinian Ministry of Well being.

The Worldwide Felony Court docket issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in 2024 for alleged warfare crimes and crimes towards humanity. Then final September, an impartial 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 mentioned “a complete nation” had been accountable for the Hamas assault.

His phrases “might fairly be interpreted as incitement to the Israeli safety forces personnel to focus on the Palestinians in Gaza as a bunch 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 CNN request for remark. However Herzog has beforehand rejected claims he blamed all Palestinian individuals for the assault.

One of many 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 really feel fairly assured that he wouldn't even be trying this journey if he had not acquired assurances from the Australian authorities that he wouldn't be arrested,” he mentioned. The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has confirmed that Herzog is protected by diplomatic immunity.

An Israeli official advised CNN 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 of their celebration.

Considered one of Herzog’s entourage, Doron Almog, chairman of the Jewish Company, can be the topic of a proper grievance filed with the AFP by 4 authorized teams together with the Australian Centre for Worldwide Justice (ACIJ) and Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq.

Almog, a former normal within the Israel Protection Forces, reportedly canceled a deliberate journey to South Africa for concern he’d be arrested there by a rustic that took a genocide case towards Israel to the Worldwide Court docket of Justice.

In contrast to Herzog, Almog doesn't have diplomatic immunity, the attorneys mentioned.

CNN has reached out to the Jewish Company for remark.

In an interview with The Australian newspaper previous to his arrival, Herzog mentioned he needed to make use of the journey to confront “lies and false data” about Israel.

“It’s the time to get out of that brainwash marketing campaign that has been occurring throughout the Australian public for fairly a while, each towards the Jews and towards Israelis.”

However 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.”

Internet hosting Herzog “dangers entrenching the harmful and antisemitic conflation between Jewish id and the actions of the Israeli state,” Sarah Schwartz, the group’s government officer, mentioned in an announcement. “This doesn't make Jews safer. It does the alternative.”

On Monday, the group says a full-page open letter signed by “a whole bunch of Jews” can be revealed in two main Australian newspapers to “ship a loud message that Herzog is just not welcome right here.”

After the Bondi assaults, many within the Jewish group mentioned Albanese had not executed sufficient to stamp out antisemitism that had worsened since Israel sought to avenge Hamas’ murderous assault.

Within the two 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 , automobile fires, and antisemitic graffiti.

The shaken Jewish group was pressured to extend its personal safety for concern that hatred may flip to bloodshed.

Within the days after the Bondi Seaside bloodbath – 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.

Simply over a month later, police spent this weekend in talks with the Sydney-based Palestinian Motion Group to attempt to persuade it to just accept a compromise protest location, away from the City Corridor.

Sidoti, the UN commissioner, mentioned the Australian authorities had made a “tragic mistake” by inviting Herzog to the nation at a time of deep division.

“This error ought to have been corrected weeks in the past. It’s nonetheless not too late to appropriate it, nevertheless it’s more and more unlikely with each hour that passes, and that’s a grave pity,” he mentioned.