Australia’s visa laws allow exclusion on grounds of character and incitement of discord. Those tests raise serious questions about whether Israel’s president should be welcomed while the killing in Gaza continues.

As an indicted war criminal, Netanyahu would be arrested on arrival in Australia and delivered for trial to The Hague. So, Israeli President Herzog is invited as a substitute.

Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke told us at the National Press Club on the 16 October last year that he had introduced new visa cancellation criteria, “a test of character, not necessarily a test of criminality “and “inciting discord”

On both grounds – character and inciting discord – Herzog should be barred from Australia. His government and he personally has given us a litany of lies about Israel’s barbaric actions in Gaza. He has approved a Netanyahu Government that is beholden to Zionist fanatics.

Despite what apologists like Herzog say the genocide is continuing in Gaza but at a slower rate. Over 400 Palestinians have been killed since the Trump bogus “peace plan” that rewarded Israeli aggression. Two million Palestinians are living in tents in a cold and wet winter. Israel has just approved 19 new apartheid colonies in occupied West Bank.

Israeli citizens overwhelmingly support the genocide in Gaza. Israel, that Herzog represents, has morally lost its way.

Herzog is the head of state that put his signature on a bomb that would indiscriminately kill Palestinians in Gaza.

In December 2023, Israeli president Isaac Herzog was pictured signing bombs due to be dropped on Gaza.

Next week he’ll be in the UK at the invitation of the British government. pic.twitter.com/jYLg3O3bVA

— Declassified UK (@declassifiedUK) September 5, 2025

A test of character that Minister Burke will insist on!

Herzog heads a state that has committed genocide as determined by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry in September last year. An Australian – Chris Sidoti – was a member of that Commission.

Following the October 7 attacks President Herzog said that an “entire nation” is responsible for the attacks. Many would argue that that was an incitement to genocide against all Palestinians. The widespread death and destruction in Gaza since then clearly show that that is happening as intended.

Eighty three per cent of the casualties in Gaza are civilians, yet Herzog says that Israel puts “a huge focus” on reducing civilian casualties. How does he explain sniper bullets in the heads of children killed by the IDF? He is not a truthful person.

Human rights organisations like Human Rights Watch allege systemic discrimination, persecution and apartheid against Palestinians in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Herzog turns a blind eye.

On 9 October 2023 Herzog was photographed brazenly signing a bomb that was to be dropped on Gaza to kill Palestinians. That picture tells us an awful lot about the character of the Israeli president. That act was surely criminal. Good character! Maybe criminal as well!

Herzog said that Israel is acting in self-defence and is adhering to international law. That is just not true.

• Israel is illegally occupying Palestinian land – West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza. So much has been found by the Security Council, (2334/2016), and the ICJ (July 2024). Israel refuses to end such occupation as it has been ordered to do.
• The 4th Geneva Convention affirms that it is illegal to transfer Israel’s population into occupied land. Israel is doing that.
• Israel is directly contravening ICJ orders in impeding aid into Gaza.
• Israel’s indiscriminate or disproportionate acts targeting civilian healthcare and aid workers is a violation of international humanitarian law.
• Forced evictions and displacement breaches international humanitarian law that Herzog refuses to acknowledge.
• UN human rights experts have highlighted Israeli crimes against humanity – murder, torture, sexual violence and war crimes with starvation as a weapon targeting civilians. Herzog denies it.

In January 2024, Herzog strongly condemned South Africa’s case at the ICJ that accused Israel of genocide in Gaza. He called the allegations a “blood libel”.

Herzog told the BBC on 1 November 2023 that “Israel is at the frontier of fighting jihadist civilisation. We are defending Europe. We are defending western values and the free world.” Really, with over 70,000 Palestinians massacred by the IDF!

In the same BBC interview Herzog warned against recognition of a Palestinian state. He said that “unilateral recognition… will only embolden Hamas and reward terror.” The only useful thing that the Albanese Government has done on the genocide is to support a two-state solution. Does our PM want the President of Israel pouring cold water on a two-state solution?

As the head of state of a criminal government, Herzog does not meet the criteria of “test of character”. He fails the good character test on numerous grounds.

Incitement of discord

Both the Prime Minister and Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke talk about the importance of social cohesion, particularly after the Bondi tragedy. Yet what is fuelling most discord is the failure of his government to call out genocide in Gaza.

A visit by the head of a State responsible for genocide and numerous other crimes will incite discord. The government should understand that. Peaceful protests will and should be widespread. Civil disobedience is necessary when governments, media, universities and churches refuse to act against genocide. They won’t even let the word “genocide” pass their lips. We have failed leadership. Citizens must respond.

With our “leaders” tone deaf on genocide we need to step up in protest and not be diverted by the accusation of antisemitism which is a cover for failure to call out the Israeli genocide.

Antisemitism is being weaponised to try and silence the world wide critics of the Israeli genocide.

How much longer will the Albanese Government allow Australian citizens, perhaps over 1000, to join the IDF in its illegal decade’s long occupation of Palestine and the massacre and genocide of Palestinian people?

Herzog’s visit will incite discord. Is that what the PM and Minister Burke want?

And this is not just Israeli crimes. Frances Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories has called out the world’s disgrace. “This is the world’s crime sustained by silence, complicity, and the supply of funds, weapons and political cover”. The sins of commission and omission!

The failed Australian response to genocide

Like other settler/colonial societies (New Zealand, Canada and the US) with histories of occupation of indigenous lands we have remained silent on Gaza despite seeing the livestreamed genocide. We can’t say we don’t know.

Colonial expropriation is always accompanied by terrible violence. That violence has been a feature of Zionism in Palestine for a century. That violence is now made worse by Israel punishing people in adjoining countries who are outraged by the violence inflicted on their neighbours. The Israeli colonial project begets more and more violence.

The governments in Canberra and Sydney have allowed the lie to take hold that criticising the Israeli genocide is antisemitic. It is time that Zionists are called to account for their dishonesty. And Anthony Albanese and Minns must be exposed for the political cover they have given to those who support or are silent about the industrial-scale murder of Palestinians.

Our government has decided to ignore the genocide and instead gives us words, words and more words about peripheral issues. It continues to allow arms to Israel, trade relations to continue and diplomatic cover for the criminal activities of Netanyahu and his government. The insipid response by the Albanese response to genocide has allowed the supporters of genocide in Gaza to hide behind the antisemitic banner.

Words and diplomatic niceties did not bring an end to the apartheid regime in South Africa. The end came through sanctions, boycotts, embargoes, freezing of bank accounts, demonstrations and refusal to shield the South African apartheid government from international accountability.

Words must be accompanied by firm action. Our government has failed to provide that and the visit by Herzog will be damaging for Australia’s reputation but most importantly it will tell the brave Palestinians that we don’t really care about them.

PM Albanese says that his government’s focus is to “bring the country together”. Yet the Herzog visit will divide us.

Anthony Albanese says that his government is determined to enforce Australian values of “common humanity”. That must include Palestinians.

By Tony Burke’s own criteria Herzog is not a fit and proper person to get a red-carpet welcome to Australia.