Israeli President Isaac Herzog has arrived in Australia as the country is deeply split over whether he should be here at all.
For the Albanese government and major Jewish lobby groups, his trip is framed as an act of solidarity after the Bondi massacre and a chance to “build social cohesion”.
For Palestinian advocates, human rights lawyers, unions and some Jewish and Labor voices, it is the opposite: a visit by a leader they say is implicated in alleged atrocities in Gaza, landing at the same time as protest rights in Sydney are being tightened and legal complaints pile up at the federal police.
Here’s how we got to this point, and what different groups say is at stake.
Who is Isaac Herzog and why is he coming to Australia?
Herzog was invited to Australia by the federal government after the antisemitic massacre at Bondi in December, when 15 people were killed by two allegedly Islamic State‑inspired gunmen. Anthony Albanese has said he asked Herzog to visit so he could “grieve with the Jewish community”. The President will be staying for four days, visiting Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne.
Herzog has faced intense criticism for comments on Palestinians following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. In a speech to Israeli and international media, five days after the attack, he blamed all Palestinians for the incursion. “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible,” he said. “It is not true, this rhetoric about civilians who were not aware and not involved. It is absolutely not true.”
That speech was later cited by the UN Commission of Inquiry in 2024 when it named Herzog among Israeli leaders who had incited genocide. The commission said his comments “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”, and noted that the slogan “there are no uninvolved” was subsequently chanted by Israeli soldiers and written in Hebrew on an IDF watchtower. It also referenced a photo of Herzog signing an artillery shell bound for Gaza with the message “I rely on you”.
Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the commission’s report as “distorted and false”, while Herzog argued his remarks were taken out of context, saying he also made clear that Israeli soldiers would follow international law and later stating that “there are many, many innocent Palestinians who don’t agree” with Hamas.
For Palestinian advocates and their supporters in Australia, those comments sit alongside the scale of the war. “Since October 2023, over two million Palestinians have been displaced, and tens of thousands dead beneath the rubble. Palestinians, the ICJ, multiple human rights organisations and the UN Commission of Inquiry have all clearly stated the case for Israel’s genocide in Gaza,” said Australia Palestine Advocacy Network spokesperson Katie Shammas in a press conference last Friday.
“We have seen hundreds of thousands of Australians demanding our government sanction Israel as a means to stop the killing.
“But now what they have chosen to do is invite its President. Palestinians and our allies will not rest until there is accountability for this crime against humanity.”
Who wants Isaac Herzog investigated?
Herzog’s visit has prompted an unusual coalition of unions, MPs and advocacy groups to call for legal action while he is in Australia.
In a joint statement, the Australian Greens, Maritime Union of Australia, Labor Friends of Palestine, Palestine Action Group, Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, Jews Against the Occupation ’48, Hunter Workers and the South Coast Labour Council urged the Albanese government and the AFP to “urgently investigate” Herzog for “incitement to genocide, aiding and abetting war crimes, and crimes against humanity” and to ensure no claim of immunity blocks lawful steps.
That push builds on legal complaints from the Hind Rajab Foundation, the Jewish Council of Australia, the Australian National Imams Council and others, which the AFP says it is “reviewing”.
The Jewish Council of Australia has called the invitation an “outrage” that will “fuel the flames of division”, while executive officer Sarah Schwartz warns it risks entrenching “dangerous and antisemitic conflation” between Jewish identity and the Israeli state and “does not make Jews safer. It does the opposite”.
Judith Treanor from Jews Against the Occupation ’48 says the visit “tells the world that genocide is compatible with Jewish identity — and that lie endangers Jews everywhere … Jews are being used as a cover for genocide, and that inflames antisemitism”, and that “Herzog must be investigated, not welcomed”.
Who welcomes Isaac Herzog?
There are peak communal bodies including the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry that strongly support the visit.
AIJAC says it speaks for “the overwhelming majority of Australian Jews” in welcoming Herzog’s arrival as “a powerful message of solidarity and support” after Bondi, and ECAJ’s Alex Ryvchin says his presence will bring “tremendous comfort to the families” of the victims and “hopefully a reset of the bilateral relationship”.
Albanese further defended his decision to invite the President to Australia telling reporters on Saturday that he wants people to remain respectful.
“I do want to make this point — that President Herzog is coming in the context of the devastating antisemitic terrorist attack that occurred at Bondi on 14 December,” he said.
“So, people will have their views about the Middle East. As I’ve said, people want, in Australia, I think people want innocent lives to be protected, whether it be Israeli or Palestinian, but they want something else as well – they don’t want conflict brought here,” he continued.
“And I hope that people are respectful of the fact that this is a difficult time for families, particularly in the Bondi community, from the Chabad community there.”
Minns told reporters this morning that Sydney was on the “international stage” because of the visit.
“We want this 48-hour period to go off without incident,” he said.
“That’s hugely important for our reputation, but also in terms of unity and civility in the weeks and months and years ahead, long after the president has left our shores.”
What are the protest restrictions in Sydney?
While that debate plays out, protest rules in Sydney have quietly shifted.
After the Bondi attack, New South Wales passed laws allowing the police commissioner to declare a “public assembly restriction” zone for up to three months in certain areas. The declaration does not ban protests outright, but it affects moving street marches: police can refuse to authorise new marches in the zone and have expanded powers to issue move‑on orders for offences such as obstructing traffic.
NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon has extended that declaration for another two weeks across parts of the CBD, inner west and eastern suburbs ahead of Herzog’s trip. The area includes Sydney Town Hall and key city streets, although Hyde Park was carved out in January so the Invasion Day rally could go ahead.
Lanyon says the decision is about safety in a tense moment. “We want to ensure that free speech is enshrined, but we need to make sure that that is balanced by community safety,” he told media.
He said there is “significant animosity about president Herzog’s visit” and that this “was certainly a factor” in his thinking.
Describing the Bondi shooting as “the most severe terrorist event in New South Wales history”, he said the declaration is intended to give the community “time to feel safe”.
How are Sydney protest organisers responding?
Despite the restrictions, Palestine Action Group Sydney plans to rally at Town Hall at 5.30pm on Monday, with the intention of marching to NSW Parliament as part of a coordinated national protest against Herzog’s visit.
Group representative Josh Lees told PEDESTRIAN.TV they have followed the usual legal process by lodging a Form 1 with “plenty of notice” to police of the march route, which would normally give them legal protections from offences under the Summary Offences Act such as obstructing traffic. He argues that, under the declaration, police are now treating that as meaningless.
“Under the current protest restrictions they’ve announced with these new unconstitutional laws that Chris Minns has brought in, they can now say that that renders our Form 1 irrelevant, and that now they will assert that they can in fact give move‑on powers for those kinds of things,” he says.
“So effectively, they are trying to ban us from being able to march on Monday.”
Lees is calling on police to either shrink or adjust the restricted zone so the march can go from Town Hall to Parliament, pointing out that on 26 January police altered the area to allow the Invasion Day march and have approved a far‑right rally led by neo‑Nazis to proceed in the past. He says “clearly they can do this, and we are arguing that they must do this for this rally”.
Even if the declaration remains, he argues there is discretion built into how it is enforced. “We’re calling on them to guarantee that the police will exercise their discretion not to use the powers that they have to give move‑on orders,” he says, adding that “there’s nothing compelling the police to actually give a move‑on order to stop a peaceful march to New South Wales Parliament”.
Lanyon maintains that extending the declaration “is not about stopping free speech” and says his “top priority” is preventing disorder. He has not pointed to specific threats linked to Monday’s planned rally, but has repeatedly referred to the recent terror attack and what he calls the “significant animosity” around the visit.
Lees disputes the need for extra powers, saying Palestine solidarity protests in Sydney over the past two and a half years “have been entirely peaceful” and that “there’s absolutely no reason to think we couldn’t do that again on Monday night if the police were to work with us and facilitate that protest”. He is particularly concerned that Lanyon’s comments tie the depth of public feeling to tighter controls.
“The statement is quite shocking in that he explicitly says that a reason to try to ban our protest is because of the depth of community feeling,” Lees says.
“This is a fundamentally undemocratic statement where he’s saying that because so many people oppose the visit of Isaac Herzog, therefore we shouldn’t have the right to express that on the streets.”
Lees also wants people to understand they are not breaking the law by attending. “We are also trying to get the message out there that it is not at all illegal to protest,” he says. “Everyone can absolutely turn up to Town Hall knowing that they are not breaking any law, they are there perfectly legally there to attend a massive public assembly.
“We just need absolutely huge numbers of people to be out there on the streets to assert our right to protest, to say that we’re not going to be silenced, we’re not going to be intimidated by these outrageous, undemocratic and unconstitutional laws.”
NSW Police later clarified that the planned march falls within the restricted zone.
In a statement, they said: “Those who are planning to participate in the march are being warned, they do not have the protection of the Summary Offences Act, with respect to obstructing traffic and pedestrians.
“Police may issue move-on directions for people causing obstructions or behaving in an intimidatory or harassing manner or people who might cause or likely to cause fear in another person.”
Acting Assistant Commissioner Paul Dunstan said, “If you’re planning on attending the march at Town Hall on Monday night, know that there will be a large police presence and we will not tolerate any behaviour that causes obstructions to traffic and other pedestrians, or any behaviour that is intimidatory or harassing.”
Palestine Action Group has launched an urgent NSW Supreme Court challenge to the special powers and the ‘major event’ declaration, arguing they are excessive, unjustified and unlawful, with the hearing result scheduled on Monday morning just hours before the rally is due to begin.
Who else will be protesting?
Herzog’s visit has sparked a coordinated national day of action, with rallies listed in more than 20 locations across Australia.
In Melbourne, Free Palestine groups are organising a 5:30pm rally at Flinders Street Station. In Canberra, a nationwide march is planned from Garema Place, with organisers describing Herzog’s visit as “a national disgrace”. At least three NSW Labor backbenchers have said they will join protests on Monday and 13 MPs on Saturday wrote an open letter to Lanyon calling for them to permit the march.
Across these different groups, the core demands are consistent: stop Australian arms exports linked to Israel, consider sanctions, protect the right to protest at home, and ensure any leader accused of inciting or enabling atrocities faces proper scrutiny under international and domestic law.
Lead image: Getty
The post Why Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s Visit To Australia Has Sparked A National Showdown appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
