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SvennoJ on 23 January 2026
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Australian, Palestinian lawyers seek police probe of Israeli president

Three Australian and Palestinian legal groups have formally called on the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to investigate Israeli President Isaac Herzog for his role in alleged war crimes amid reports he will visit Australia early next month.

The organisations said on Friday that they had written to “urgently alert” the AFP of their concerns “in light of serious and credible criminal allegations of incitement to genocide and advocating genocide” by President Isaac Herzog during Israel’s “military onslaught” in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

The Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ), Al-Haq, and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights included a 10-page submission detailing the allegations against Herzog as well as Australia’s obligations under international law and its own domestic law.

“Where credible international findings indicate incitement to genocide and where domestic accountability has not occurred, Australia has both the legal authority and responsibility to act,” Rawan Arraf, executive director at the ACIJ, said in a statement.

Arraf also said that the Australian government would be showing a “blatant disregard” for its international legal obligations “by allowing Herzog to enter Australia without an AFP investigation”.

Shawan Jabarin, the general director of Al-Haq, noted that Herzog has said that there are “no uninvolved civilians in Gaza” and was the head of state as Israel killed 23,000 children and 1,000 babies “before their first birthday” in Gaza.

“Even the IVF clinic was bombed, destroying 4,000 human embryos and the hope of future life,” Jabarin added.

Herzog is due to visit Sydney on February 7, The Times of Israel newspaper reports, at the invitation of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the wake of last month’s mass shooting that targeted a Jewish celebration at Bondi Beach and left 15 people dead.

Albanese told reporters in December that the Australian government had extended an invitation to Herzog “to honour and remember victims of the Bondi anti-Semitic terrorist attack and provide support for Jewish Australians and the Australian Jewish community at this time”.

However, Jewish Council of Australia executive member Ohad Kozminsky told Australian public broadcaster SBS last month that a visit from Herzog following the Bondi attack “will only inflame tensions and exacerbate division in our community”, considering he is the “head of a foreign country that has been committing genocide”.