Mixed Reactions Emerge as Israeli President Plans Australia Visit Following Bondi Incident

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Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s recently announced plan to visit Australia in the wake of a terror attack on the Australian Jewish community has drawn mixed reactions.

While mainstream Jewish organisations have welcomed the news, critics have said his visit would be divisive and a “direct insult” to those who have protested against Israel’s military operation in Gaza.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he’d spoken with Herzog on Tuesday to express his “profound shock and dismay” over the attack on a Hanukkah event at Bondi on 14 December, which left 15 people dead.

“Upon the recommendation of the Australian government, the governor-general of Australia will issue an invitation in accordance with protocol to President Herzog to visit Australia as soon as possible,” Albanese wrote on X.

During a press briefing in Canberra on Wednesday morning, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that Israeli President Isaac Herzog plans to visit Australia. The purpose of Herzog’s visit is to pay tribute to the victims of the antisemitic attack in Bondi and to express solidarity with Jewish Australians and the broader Australian Jewish community.

Albanese said he had not spoken with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu — who has been outspokenly critical of his leadership and decision to recognise a Palestinian state — since the attack, and declined to say if he would invite him to Australia.

He would not comment on the criticisms, telling reporters: “I don’t think this is a time for any partisan politics.”

“We’ve invited President Herzog, which is entirely appropriate for the head of state to visit,” he said.

In a statement sent out on Tuesday, the Zionist Federation of Australia (ZFA) said its president, Jeremy Leibler, first wrote to the Israeli president, inviting him to come to Australia to stand with the grieving nation and shattered Jewish community.

Leibler commented on the significance of Herzog’s visit, emphasizing that after the Bondi attack, the community reached out to President Herzog. “It was not merely an attack on individuals; it deeply affected the sense of safety that Jewish Australians have held for generations,” Leibler noted.

“We are grateful that the Australian government has now taken up that call and, in accordance with protocol, will extend the formal invitation for a state visit,” Leibler said.

“That matters — because it shows, at the highest national level, that Australia stands with its Jewish citizens, and Australia stands with Israel, against terrorism and hatred.”

In a statement confirming the visit, Herzog also expressed “profound shock and dismay over the catastrophic terror attack against the Australian Jewish community in Sydney last week”.

In a message posted on X, Herzog expressed his condolences to the families who suffered losses and wished a swift recovery for those injured.

Herzog also said the attack underscored the need to take “all legal measures to combat the unprecedented rise in antisemitism, extremism, and jihadist terror”.

Security has been tightened around Jewish sites across Australia since the attack, as authorities respond to heightened concerns over community safety.

The specifics of President Herzog’s visit are anticipated to be confirmed soon, with the Zionist Federation of Australia indicating that it will likely take place early next year.

Kozminsky, however, highlighted the need for a broader approach to healing within the Australian community. “Inviting divisive figures won’t mend the wounds. True healing requires the government to enforce stronger gun control, uphold the right to protest, implement the Australian Human Rights Commission’s anti-racism framework, regulate companies that spread online hate, and encourage grassroots cross-cultural initiatives,” Kozminsky argued.

The ZFA — Australia’s peak body for Zionist organisations — characterised Herzog’s visit as a significant moment for the Australian Jewish community, with Leibler saying it would be an important moment of solidarity and healing.

“President Herzog’s presence will bring comfort to those who are grieving and reassurance to a community living with fear,” he said.

Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry — Australia’s peak body for Jewish organisations — said the upcoming visit would “bring tremendous comfort to the families and will lift the spirits of those still in hospital”.

The Jewish Council of Australia (JCA) — a progressive Jewish group founded in the wake of the October 7 attacks and Israel’s retaliatory assault on the Gaza Strip — said Herzog’s visit would be divisive and unlikely to be a source of solace to all Australian Jews.

“A visit from the head of a foreign country that has been committing genocide will only inflame tensions and exacerbate division in our community. That is why we and many other Australian Jews won’t take comfort from this proposed visit,” JCA executive member Ohad Kozminsky told SBS News.

“Such divisive invitations will not help the Australian community heal. For true healing, we need the government to strengthen gun laws, protect the right to protest, adopt the Australian Human Rights Commission’s anti-racism framework, regulate companies that disseminate online hate and promote grassroots cross-cultural initiatives,” Kozminsky said.

“If Australia wants to ‘confront antisemitism, hate and violence’, as Mr Leibler urges, it should sanction the country whose head of state encouraged genocide soon after October 7 when he said that ‘[i]t is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved’,” Kozminsky added.

Herzog made that statement at a 12 October 2023 news conference.

“I was disgusted by the way they twisted my words, using very, very partial and fragmented quotes, with the intention of supporting a fabricated legal contention,” he said as reported by Haaretz.

“There are also innocent Palestinians in Gaza. I am deeply sorry for the tragedy they are going through,” he said.

However, he added that there was a “reality cannot be ignored, a reality which we all saw with our own eyes as published by Hamas on that cursed day, and that was the involvement of many residents of Gaza in the slaughter, in the looting, and in the riots of October 7. How the crowds in Gaza cheered at the sight of Israelis being slaughtered and their bodies mutilated,” Haaretz reported the president as saying.

‘A grave moral failure’

The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) also condemned the decision to invite Herzog to Australia.

“This decision represents a grave moral failure and a direct insult to the hundreds of thousands of Australians who have spent more than two years protesting Israel’s ongoing genocide of Palestinians and demanding accountability under international law,” a press release signed by APAN president Nasser Mashni read.

“This invitation comes as governments move to expand protest and speech laws designed to silence opposition.

“Australians may be prevented from protesting Herzog’s visit and face criminal charges — a dangerous escalation that erodes democratic freedoms to shield a visiting foreign leader from accountability.”

Mashni also drew attention to the statements made by Herzog regarding ostensible Palestinian support for the October 7 attacks, saying it was “language that legitimises collective punishment and mass civilian killing”.