Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Australia in early February 2026 at the invitation of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. He was there to commemorate victims of the December 2025 Bondi Beach mass shooting. He also gave a television interview.
When asked about the Israeli military’s longstanding ban on independent international journalists entering Gaza, Herzog said the restriction existed to protect them. He did not address the 265 Palestinian journalists killed since October 2023 — the highest death toll for journalists in any modern conflict — many of them targeted while reporting, sheltering with families, or in residential buildings far from active combat. He did not address the systematic elimination of entire media teams in single strikes, or the pattern documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders.
The “protection” claim is a familiar one. It serves to frame Israel’s information blockade as a safety measure while the only reporters permitted to cover the destruction are local Palestinian journalists who face lethal conditions without the institutional backing of foreign news organizations. Removing independent witnesses and then offering to protect those witnesses from the consequences of their removal is not policy. It is cover.
Australians said so directly. Thousands turned out across Sydney and Melbourne during Herzog’s four-day visit, organized by pro-Palestinian groups and joined by members of the Jewish Council of Australia — which released an open letter signed by more than 1,000 Jewish Australian academics and community leaders demanding Albanese rescind the invitation. In Sydney, police deployed pepper spray and arrested 27 people after crowds gathered near the Town Hall. A coalition of civil society groups had already filed a legal complaint urging authorities to deny Herzog a visa and open a criminal investigation.
The basis for those demands is documented. In September 2025, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found that Herzog had “incited the commission of genocide” by declaring in October 2023 that “it’s an entire nation out there that is responsible” — removing the distinction between combatants and civilians, and thus removing civilian protection. The commission named him alongside Netanyahu and former war minister Yoav Gallant.
Herzog dismissed the protests as attempts to “undermine and delegitimize” Israel’s right to exist. The protesters’ position was simpler: a man found by a UN commission to have incited genocide should not be received as a head of state.
Australia received him anyway.
Herzog Told Australian TV That Israel Bars Journalists from Gaza to Protect Them. At Least 265 Palestinian Journalists Have Been Killed.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited Australia in early February 2026 at the invitation of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. He was there to commemorate victims of the December 2025 Bondi Beach mass shooting. He also gave a television interview.
When asked about the Israeli military’s longstanding ban on independent international journalists entering Gaza, Herzog said the restriction existed to protect them. He did not address the 265 Palestinian journalists killed since October 2023 — the highest death toll for journalists in any modern conflict — many of them targeted while reporting, sheltering with families, or in residential buildings far from active combat. He did not address the systematic elimination of entire media teams in single strikes, or the pattern documented by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders.
The “protection” claim is a familiar one. It serves to frame Israel’s information blockade as a safety measure while the only reporters permitted to cover the destruction are local Palestinian journalists who face lethal conditions without the institutional backing of foreign news organizations. Removing independent witnesses and then offering to protect those witnesses from the consequences of their removal is not policy. It is cover.
Australians said so directly. Thousands turned out across Sydney and Melbourne during Herzog’s four-day visit, organized by pro-Palestinian groups and joined by members of the Jewish Council of Australia — which released an open letter signed by more than 1,000 Jewish Australian academics and community leaders demanding Albanese rescind the invitation. In Sydney, police deployed pepper spray and arrested 27 people after crowds gathered near the Town Hall. A coalition of civil society groups had already filed a legal complaint urging authorities to deny Herzog a visa and open a criminal investigation.
The basis for those demands is documented. In September 2025, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory found that Herzog had “incited the commission of genocide” by declaring in October 2023 that “it’s an entire nation out there that is responsible” — removing the distinction between combatants and civilians, and thus removing civilian protection. The commission named him alongside Netanyahu and former war minister Yoav Gallant.
Herzog dismissed the protests as attempts to “undermine and delegitimize” Israel’s right to exist. The protesters’ position was simpler: a man found by a UN commission to have incited genocide should not be received as a head of state.
Australia received him anyway.