I’ve written to the Governor-General and asked for a formal invitation to be granted by the Governor-General because Head of State to Head of State is the appropriate protocol, for the President to visit Australia in early 2026 to honour and remember victims of the Bondi antisemitic terrorist attack and provide support for Jewish Australians and the Australian Jewish community at this time. Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister, Wednesday 24 December 2025.
Journalist: Prime Minister, would you invite on a prime ministerial level, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Australia? And given his comments about your leadership previously, what sort of response would you –
Albanese: Well, I don’t respond to those issues, and 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.
The Australian Prime Minister Albanese and Isaac Herzog have known each other for a long time. Herzog was a longtime member and former chairman of the Israeli Labor Party. His role as president is said to be ceremonial and non-partisan (sic).
In October 2023 Herzog incited his country to genocide holding all Palestinians (including children) responsible for the October 7 attacks, thus giving the IDF a licence to kill Palestinians. Israel then proceeded to enact the genocide destroying Gaza and killing over 100,000 people half of whom were children.
In his book, The Killing of Gaza, Israeli journalist, Gideon Levy, called out President Herzog for inciting these war crimes.
Various prominent people including well known members of the Labor Party have called on Prime Minister Albanese to withdraw his government’s invitation. Given the unlikelihood of such a withdrawal, who is going to organise the protests that the letter below calls for, especially given the national character of the visit? It is one thing to call for national protest action. It is another thing entirely to pull it off. So far, the groups calling for opposition to the visit have confined themselves to petitions and letter writing campaigns, and taking out full page advertisements in the Sydney Morning Herald. Hardly the stuff of organising 50,000 people to follow you across an iconic bridge.
Also, I fail to see any evidence of a link between the two people alleged to have carried out the massacre at Bondi and the genocide in Gaza. Did either attacker attend any of the pro-Palestine demonstrations that have occurred in the last two years? Based on the evidence (or lack of it), I don’t think so. – Ian Curr, Editor, 31 December 2025
‘Australians for Humanity’ demand the invitation to Israel’s President be withdrawn immediately – December 27, 2025
The Israeli President cannot be welcomed in Australia. The government he represents has been found by the International Court of Justice to have breached international law: the Netanyahu regime has committed a range of international crimes against humanity including war crimes, apartheid, illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing.
The invitation to the President of Israel as head of a state responsible for genocidal acts is immoral, cowardly, illegal and wrong.
How can the Australian Prime Minister fail to understand that he risks all his endeavours for social cohesion by associating our nation with a government that includes indicted war criminals?
The massacre at Bondi Beach merits a national coming together coupled to support for those who are grieving and fearful.
It does not need a visit from a President of a country judged to have committed genocide in Gaza, a man who oversees a government which uses famine as a weapon of war, has slaughtered tens of thousands of Palestinians, mostly women and children and has refused to end the illegal occupation.
Is the government blind? Is it sensitive only to grief and fear experienced by one community?
President Herzog has presided over brutality and has approved the destruction of a people whose rights he does not respect. In December 2023 he was pictured signing bombs due to be dropped on Gaza. At a news conference following the October 7 2023 attack, he commented, ‘It’s an entire nation that is out there that’s responsible’, words subsequently cited in the genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Instead of Australian governments rushing to appease only one group by passing laws to erode free speech and the right to protest, obligations under the Genocide Convention and the rulings of the International Court of Justice should be implemented.
Such a change of attitude and policy will require courage and should encourage all politicians to realise fundamental truths, that state violence of all kinds can be ended by observing international law and by achieving justice for Palestine.
If the invitation to Herzog is not withdrawn, there should be massive protest against the prospect of a likely war criminal being welcomed in this country.
Signed and supported by:
- Margaret Reynolds
- John Menadue
- Alison Broinowski
- Paul Heywood-Smith
- Stuart Rees
- Paul Chambers
- Helen McCue
- Richard Broinowski
- Richard Hil
- Peter Slezak
- Lama Qasem
For contact regarding this statement:
Margaret Reynolds: margaret.reynolds.tas@gmail.com (0418 181 843)
Stuart Rees: profstuartrees@gmail.com (0419 151 777)
The President of Israel will be in Australia from Tuesday the 10th till Thursday the 12th of February. It is likely that Herzog will arrive at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith international airport on Israel’s Wing of Zion aircraft. He will be accompanied by the Chairman of the World Zionist Organization, Yaakov Hagoel, and the Chairman of the Jewish Agency, Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog.
The head of the world Zionist organization, Hagoel’s inclusion, no doubt with the agreement of Penny Wong and Anthony Albanese, signals that this visit is not solely a condolence, mourning, or ‘solidarity’ but also about political mobilisation of the diaspora.
General Almog’s inclusion in the visit is significant also. Almog commanded Israeli forces during murderous ethnic cleansing operations in Gaza in the early 2000s.
In 2005, a British court issued an arrest warrant against him under universal jurisdiction for alleged war crimes connected to the destruction of civilian homes in Gaza (he avoided arrest by remaining on his aircraft at Heathrow).
Herzog’s main aim will be to shore up support for the genocide by using those killed at Bondi. His cover story is that this is a ‘solidarity visit’ with those killed at the Bondi shooting.
Failing that, Herzog will use his contacts in the Australian government and business to normalise ethnic cleansing of the West Bank and Gaza using genocidal methods.
It goes without saying that any political or business leader meeting with the president of Israel should be seen as a guilty plea of accessory to Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.
It is likely that the Israeli President’s visit will be accompanied by extreme repressive force should any protest at the genocide be mounted to curtail, stop, or even point out the actions of these war criminals active in the genocide of Palestinians.
Ian Curr,
Editor WBT
28 Jan 2026
On the day of mourning* on 22 January 2026 for the victims of the Bondi shooting, President Herzog of Israel is supposed to be attending a ‘board of peace’ meeting in Davos Switzerland convened by President Trump.
“It is an entire nation (Palestine) out there that is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved.” – President Herzog of Israel invoking genocide in Gaza. South Africa argued in the ICJ that Israel violated the Genocide Convention by actions and omissions that are “genocidal in character” (i.e., they fall within the scope of acts prohibited by the Convention, potentially including incitement).
All international law is broken. Prime Minister Albanese has arranged for the President of Israel to come to Australia early in 2026.
It was a slow genocide and then came October 8 after Hamas got out the gates. Breaking down the fence made a lot of sense. They were going die anyway, living in an open air prison, what a big decision. The UN said enough we’re worried about all the dead, we’ll declare a Palestine state instead.
President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, is expected to arrive in Sydney on Saturday, 7 February 26, according to a report from the Times of Israel …
Reference
Case 192 – Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel) See https://www.icj-cij.org/case/192
* Please note that the original day of morning in Australia was a protest on the 26th of January 1938 because of the genocide of Australian Aborigines.
As of January 1, 2026, Israel suspended 37 international humanitarian organizations from operating in Gaza. This includes major groups like Action Against Hunger, CARE, Oxfam, Save the Children, World Vision, and many United Nations agencies such as UNICEF, UNRWA, and WHO.
These organizations have been key in providing essential aid, and the suspension is part of the Israeli strategy of genocide. The trial of inmate x 18 October 2019 next week after the Jewish holidays end the trial of Muhammad l Halle b will resume in bet Shiva District Court. It’s an either or situation.
Either El‑Halabi is one of Israel’s greatest and most dangerous enemies ever as the indictment against him indicates or he is the victim of a cynical cruel propaganda system that is exploiting him to stop the influx of international humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. Independent forensic audits commissioned by World Vision and the Australian government found no evidence that funds were diverted to any armed group.
El‑Halabi was the Gaza director of World Vision International, a major humanitarian NGO, responsible for delivering aid to thousands of children and families in Gaza.
Where do I sign?
The Israel President can not be welcomed in Australia. The government he represents has been found by the International Court of Justice to have breached international law: the Netanyahu regime has committed a range of international crimes against humanity including war crimes, apartheid, illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing.
Endorsements for advert opposing Israeli President’s visit
The organisers need a few hundred more names of those who would agree to have their names listed in the newspaper below the advert.
If you wish to be included, please email your agreement back in the immediate future – NOW! (ish) to margaret.reynolds.tas@gmail.com or profstuartrees@gmail.com