After President Isaac Herzog arrives in Australia for a four-day state visit, the trip’s centerpiece will be ceremonial engagement with the Jewish community still reeling from the Dec. 14 Bondi Beach attack, which left 15 dead. The Australian government has said that Herzog, who holds a largely symbolic role as head of state, is coming to meet people who have been grieving and to acknowledge their loss, even as the visit is expected to spark political and street-level tensions.
The government’s framing ties the state visit to the immediate aftermath of the Bondi Beach killings and to concerns that antisemitism has risen since the Israel-Hamas war began in 2023. It also comes amid a diplomatic dispute between Israel and Australia that has grown sharper in recent months, as both leaders traded public rebukes over Gaza and over Australia’s recognition of a Palestinian state.
Within hours of the Bondi Beach attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly blamed Australia’s position, posting on social media that “your call for a Palestinian state pours fuel on the antisemitic fire,” after Australia had joined France, Britain and Canada in recognizing a Palestinian state four months earlier. Albanese responded by accusing Netanyahu of being “in denial” over the humanitarian consequences of the war in Gaza, while Netanyahu branded Albanese a “weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews.”
Albanese has said the invitation to Herzog was the idea of Jewish leaders and that Herzog is coming to engage with a community “who are grieving the loss of 15 innocent lives.” Albanese also urged people to recognize “the solemn nature” of the engagement with the Bondi community as protests and public debate develop in the weeks around the visit.
Sydney-based Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said the community “warmly anticipates” Herzog’s arrival, describing the visit as a chance to recalibrate relations between “two historic allies.” Ryvchin said Herzog would “lift the spirits of a pained community” and he praised Herzog as a figure with an office he said is “above party politics,” adding that Herzog has previously comforted families and first responders after terrorist attacks.
Still, critics say the state visit will undermine social cohesion rather than repair it. Australian human rights lawyer Chris Sidoti, who said Herzog’s invitation is a “crazy idea,” warned that bringing Herzog to Australia will “undermine social cohesion” and “increase division.” Sidoti also was among three experts appointed by the U.N.’s Human Rights Council to an inquiry that reported in September that Herzog, Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant had incited the commission of genocide in Gaza.
Sidoti and other lawyers argue that Australian police could potentially arrest Herzog on suspicion of inciting genocide, a crime under Australian law as well as international law, while Israel has rejected genocide allegations against it as antisemitic “blood libel.” Australian Federal Police declined to comment, according to the Associated Press.
Inside Australia’s political landscape, Sidoti’s concerns echoed through government statements and expected protests. A lawmaker in Albanese’s government, Ed Husic, said he was “very uncomfortable” with Herzog’s visit, adding that he was “concerned that a figure like that doesn’t necessarily enhance social cohesion.” Some state government lawmakers from Albanese’s Labor Party said they will join a protest in downtown Sydney planned by the Palestine Action Group on Monday, with protest organizer Josh Lees saying, “We need to send a clear message to our government and to the world … we are fundamentally opposed to this tour, which is designed to normalize genocide.”
As the visit begins in Sydney, New South Wales officials have prepared for demonstrations in a city that is also hosting mourners in the immediate aftermath of Bondi Beach killings. New South Wales parliament rushed through legislation increasing police powers to arrest protesters in the aftermath of the declared terrorist attack, and Premier Chris Minns said a heightened police response was needed to ensure safety because “we will have thousands of mourners and thousands of protesters as well as a visiting head of state all in the same city at the same time.” Minns said police restrictions are intended to prevent major confrontations, saying “Every international city anywhere in the world would apply exactly the same geographical restrictions so that the two groups don’t meet.”
Herzog, a former head of Israel’s centrist Labor Party, is scheduled to travel to Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra over four days starting Monday. The state visit makes Herzog the first Israeli head of state to visit Australia since Reuven Rivlin in 2020, and it follows a family history of Australian diplomacy: Herzog’s father, Chaim Herzog, also visited Australia in 1986 as president.