The Israel 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If the invitation to Herzog is not withdrawn, there should be massive protest against the prospect of a likely war criminal being welcomed in this country.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)