IN THE MEDIA
A visit to support the Jewish community became an excuse for some to further traumatise them
February 23, 2026 | Jamie Hyams
Canberra Times – February 21 2026
Last week, Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Australia at the invitation of the Australian government, as requested by Jewish peak body the Zionist Federation of Australia. The visit was primarily to support victims of the Bondi massacre, and was welcomed by the vast majority of our Jewish community. You’d need a cold heart not to be moved by footage of the president and his wife consoling tearful family members of those murdered.
Yet, sadly, the visit attracted opposition and vitriol from some for whom the plight of the Bondi victims and the traumatised Jewish community were outweighed by their determination to pursue their obsessive campaign against Israel.
As seen in Ebony Bennett’s comment piece, the crux of the opposition was that an independent UN commission of inquiry had accused Israel of genocide and Mr Herzog of inciting that genocide, and that he signed an artillery shell bound for use in Gaza.
The UN commission – which does not have any actual legal authority – was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) with a mandate whose terms make it clear its purpose was to find Israel guilty of violating international law. The UNHRC is dominated by human rights-abusing dictatorships and is so biased against Israel that it passes more motions condemning Israel each year than every other country put together, while only Israel has a permanent agenda item allocated to it.
It should then be no surprise that the UNHRC appointed commissioners who would reflect its views on Israel. Commission chair, Navi Pillay, has long supported the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel. In 2022, Commissioner Miloon Kothari claimed the Jewish lobby controls social media. Numerous countries including Australia, as well as the UN Secretary-General and UNHRC President, condemned the comments as anti-Semitic, but Pillay defended Kothari.
The same year, the third commissioner, Australia’s Chris Sidoti, cavalierly dismissed concerns about anti-Semitism, saying accusations of anti-Semitism were thrown around like rice at a wedding.
The three commissioners all resigned shortly after completing the report, which was a classic example of starting with a conclusion – in this case, that Israel was committing genocide – and then ignoring anything that contradicted that conclusion. Thus the fact that the Israeli armed forces were actually fighting a determined, entrenched enemy, and the Hamas use of civilian infrastructure to fight from, fire from, hide in and secrete weapons and tunnel entrances, and use of civilians as human shields, were all not part of that report.
Similarly, the Israeli measures to minimise civilian casualties, such as warning of impending attacks, evacuating them to safe areas, and implementing humanitarian pauses and corridors, were ignored, despite military experts praising them as unprecedented.
One nefarious Hamas tactic was the widespread use of hospitals as command centres or for fighting. Hamas military commander Mohammed Sinwar was even killed hiding in a bunker under a hospital. This made hospitals legal and important targets. Yet the report ignored Hamas’ illegal use of hospitals, instead accusing Israel of destroying the health system as part of a genocide. It should be noted Israel repeatedly evacuated hospitals of patients and staff before attacking them.
A shell accidentally hit a single clinic’s IVF ward, so the report accused Israel of “imposing measures intended to prevent births” as part of its genocide.
The widespread Hamas theft of food, which did cause some starvation, was ignored, but a brief Israeli blockade of food to prevent the theft, after enough had entered Gaza to last for months, was also portrayed as genocide.
The specific allegation against Mr Herzog is similarly skewed. Shortly after the October 7 atrocities, in which thousands of Gaza civilians participated, and at least tens of thousands more were seen celebrating and mobbing hostages and the bodies of those killed inside Gaza, Mr Herzog said, as part of an answer at a press conference, “We have to understand there’s a state, there’s a state … that has built a machine of evil right at our doorstep. It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible.” He seems to have been referring to the fact that Hamas was Gaza’s elected government, not just a terrorist group in Gaza. In the same answer, he added, “We are working, operating militarily according to rules of international law, period. Unequivocally.”
In subsequent answers, he said, “There is no excuse to murdering innocent civilians in any way, in any context.” When asked if he was saying all civilians were legitimate targets, he replied, “I did not say that and I want to make it clear.”
Yet this was portrayed as Mr Herzog inciting genocide, a false allegation that has been repeated ad nauseam.
As for his allegedly signing a bomb with a message of solidarity with IDF soldiers, it was a smokescreen shell, designed to save Israeli lives as they fought terrorists, not to kill Palestinian civilians, as frequently claimed.
We keep hearing that the Herzog visit was divisive, and damaging to social cohesion, but this was only because of the false information widely circulated about him by protestors determined to make it divisive, rather than showing any sensitivity to the needs of the Bondi victims.
This continues the pattern since October 7, 2023, where false allegations against Israel have been used to stir up protests, and these have damaged social cohesion, with chants including labelling all Zionists – which includes almost all Jews – as terrorists, and demanding that the terrorist Intifada that killed more than 1000 Israelis be globalised.
This has played a part in fomenting the huge surge in anti-Semitism that ultimately contributed to the Bondi massacre.
The federal government’s hate legislation and measures by some state governments to partly regulate protests are appropriate responses, and should not be used as an excuse to sow yet further division. It’s ironic that a visit to support the Jewish community became an excuse by some to further traumatise them. It’s well past time for this divisiveness to end.
