Israeli president ends fraught Australia visit
Israeli President Isaac Herzog was due to end a contentious four-day visit to Australia on Thursday that brought comfort to Sydney’s Jewish community traumatised by a recent antisemitic mass shooting, but also attracted large-scale demonstrations protesting the civilian toll of the Gaza war. Herzog has been dogged by protesters who label him a war criminal as he visited Sydney, the national capital Canberra and Melbourne in the first Australian visit by an Israeli head of state in
six years.”We came here to be with you, to look you in the eye, to embrace, to remember and weep together and we wept,” Herzog told a Jewish community gathering in Melbourne on Thursday under tight police security hours before he was due to depart Australia. “Indeed, we wept a great deal this week and still I must tell you that we return to Israel feeling empowered because we have seen firsthand the beauty and resilience of this community and its significance in the eyes of all Australians of goodwill,” he added.
Herzog and the Australian Government agree he was invited to support a community reeling from a December 14 attack, allegedly inspired by the Islamic State group, on a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach that left 15 people dead. Zionist Federation of Australia President Jeremy Leibler, who accompanied Herzog during his Australian travels, appealed to protesters to consider the grieving Jewish community.
“The community in Sydney is feeling extremely uplifted and seen following his visits,” Leibler told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “They (protesters) are entitled to their objection. I guess what I would ask is for the broader community to perhaps consider exercising just a little bit of regard as to the trauma that the Jewish community is experiencing following the attack on Bondi,” Leibler said.
Herzog’s critics take issue with another stated purpose of his visit. Herzog told The Associated Press in a statement last week his visit would “reinvigorate” bilateral relations and “dispel many of the lies and misinformation spread about Israel over the last two years.” “Now that means his visit is not a visit to mourn, but it’s a visit that is political, that is in fact propaganda,” Australian human rights lawyer Chris Sidoti told Seven Network television.
