Israeli President Isaac Herzog acquired two very completely different receptions 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 take into account 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 pageant close to Sydney’s Bondi Seashore – 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. Nevertheless, Albanese’s choice to ask Herzog – the top 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.
After touching down in Sydney on Monday, Herzog laid a wreath at Bondi Pavilion, close to the positioning of the bloodbath, as throughout city legal professionals for the Palestine Motion Group argued in courtroom for his or her proper to protest his go to inside an space topic to new authorities restrictions.
Like many countries internationally, Australia has skilled sharp divisions over Israel’s conflict in Gaza which have spilled into protests – and as many as 30 had been deliberate nationwide on Monday to mark Herzog’s go to.
The biggest was held exterior Sydney City Corridor, the place police clashed with hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters on Monday night, utilizing pepper spray to disperse the gang and making plenty of arrests. The Palestine Motion Group issued an announcement condemning the “brutal assault by the NSW (New South Wales) Police in opposition to an enormous peaceable protest.”
One video from the protests seems to point out police forcibly dispersing a bunch of Muslims praying on the street. In response, the Australian Nationwide Imams Council launched an announcement calling the police conduct “stunning, deeply disturbing, and completely unacceptable.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog and his spouse Michal arrive the Bondi Pavilion, in Sydney, on February 9 to put a wreath for victims of the December gun assault. – David Grey/AFP/Getty Photographs
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 protests.
Bondi Seashore bloodbath survivor, Yvonne, who declined to offer her surname, stated the Israeli president’s journey to Sydney gave her consolation. She survived the onslaught after sheltering beneath a picnic desk along with her 2-year-old son as gunmen fired on the gang.
“It means we’re not alone. He’s come from the opposite aspect of the world,” she stated of Herzog. “It means wherever we’re on the planet, we’re supported by Israel. It means loads.”
What the UN fee stated about Herzog
Individuals maintain up placards throughout a protest in opposition to the go to of Israel’s President Isaac Herzog in Sydney, Australia, on February 9, 2026. – Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Photographs
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 acknowledged intention to destroy Hamas following the group’s October 7 bloodbath has resulted within the deaths of over 70,000 Palestinians, in response to the Palestinian Ministry of Well being.
The Worldwide Prison Courtroom 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 “a complete nation” had been liable for the Hamas assault.
His phrases “might moderately 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.
A displaced Palestinian girl prepares meals over a hearth inside a makeshift shelter close to Gaza Seaport within the western a part of Gaza Metropolis on January 6, 2026. – Abood Abusalama/Getty Photographs
Smoke and flames rise after an Israeli assault on a three-story constructing within the Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza Metropolis on Friday, February 6, 2026. – Ali Jadallah/Anadolu/Getty Photographs
After the report’s launch, Herzog angrily dismissed it as affected by a scarcity 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 folks 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 suppose 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 stated. 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 risk 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.
One among Herzog’s entourage, Doron Almog, chairman of the Jewish Company, can also be the topic of a proper criticism 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 basic 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 in opposition to Israel to the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice.
In contrast to Herzog, Almog doesn’t have diplomatic immunity, the legal professionals stated.
CNN has reached out to the Jewish Company for remark.
‘This doesn’t make Jews safer’
In an interview with The Australian newspaper previous to his arrival, Herzog stated 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 happening throughout the Australian public for fairly a while, each in opposition to the Jews and in opposition to Israelis.”
However not all Jewish teams in Australia welcomed the go to.
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 govt officer, stated in an announcement. “This doesn’t make Jews safer. It does the other.”
A full-page open letter signed by “a whole lot of Jews” was revealed in two main Australian newspapers on Monday that stated Herzog doesn’t converse for them and is “not welcome.”
A girl pays her respects at Bondi Pavilion to victims of a capturing throughout a Jewish vacation celebration at Bondi Seashore, in Sydney, Australia, December 15, 2025. – Hollie Adams/Reuters
Mourners collect by floral tributes on the Bondi Pavillion in reminiscence of the victims of the capturing at Bondi Seashore, in Sydney on December 15, 2025. – Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Photographs
After the Bondi assaults, many within the Jewish neighborhood stated Albanese had not completed sufficient to stamp out antisemitism that had worsened since Israel sought to avenge Hamas’ murderous assault.
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