Canberra (QNN)- Opposition to Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s arrival in Australia is mounting, as a coalition of Australian and Palestinian legal groups has urged federal police to investigate and arrest a member of his traveling delegation over war crimes in Gaza.
Doron Almog, a retired Israel Defense Forces major general who is expected to travel with the president in his capacity as chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel, has formerly faced arrest warrants over allegations he committed war crimes in Gaza in 2002.
A decorated former officer in the Israel Defense Forces, Almog narrowly escaped arrest at London’s Heathrow airport in 2005 when he refused to leave an El Al plane on the tarmac after he was tipped off that a warrant had been issued for his arrest.
A London court issued the warrant for Almog’s arrest over accusations he committed a war crime in ordering the destruction of more than 50 Palestinian homes during operations in 2002 in Gaza. The warrant was issued after an application by British lawyers acting for Palestinian victims of the demolition.
Almog has also been implicated in the al-Daraj bombing in 2002, when a one-tonne bomb was dropped on a densely populated neighbourhood. The strike killed 14 Palestinians, mostly babies and children.
The UK warrant has since been withdrawn and Almog has consistently denied the accusations.
Almog is chairman of the executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel, which encourages the immigration of Jews in the global diaspora to Israel.
Four legal organisations – the Australian Centre for International Justice, Al Haq, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights , and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights – have lodged a submission with the AFP, requesting that Almog be investigated over allegations arising from his time as Commanding Officer of the Israeli military’s Southern Command between 2000 and 2003.
“Under his command, the Israeli military was responsible for countless and extensive human rights violations and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions inside the illegally occupied Gaza Strip,” the submission says.
“Under Australian law, grave breaches are serious criminal offences and Australia is obligated to search for, arrest and prosecute those alleged to have perpetrated them.”
The legal groups also insist Almog should be investigated for his actions as chair of the Jewish Agency, saying “Almog participated in the authorisation, organisation or direction of the transfer of Israeli civilian population into the occupied West Bank, being territory illegally occupied by Israel”.
The AFP has referred the Almog submission to its Special Investigations Command.
Rawan Arraf, the ACIJ’s executive director, said Almog should not be allowed to enter Australia.
“But given it is likely he will be allowed to enter the country, he must be arrested. He must answer to the credible allegations made against him. This impunity that Israel and its leaders enjoy, must end.”
In September 2005, Almog flew into London’s Heathrow airport for a series of fundraising and charitable events across the UK.
Ahead of his arrival, in the Bow Street magistrate court, a private prosecution was brought before the senior district judge Timothy Workman, who issued a warrant for Almog’s arrest over war crimes. The warrant said Almog committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip in 2002 when he ordered the destruction of 59 homes near Rafah.
Detectives were waiting at the immigration desk to arrest Almog. But the police plans were leaked to the military attache of the Israeli embassy, who boarded the plane as Almog prepared to disembark, telling him he faced arrest.
Almog stayed on the plane for two hours as it sat on the tarmac, before it flew back to Israel.
Herzog, as president of Israel, was invited to Australia by the federal government after the attack in Bondi in December. The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has said Herzog’s visit was intended to foster “a greater sense of unity”.
Recently, there have been growing calls in Australia to rescind the invitation to the Israeli president.
The Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ), Al-Haq, and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights said 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 Herzog during Israel’s “military onslaught” in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
The groups included a 10-page submission detailing the accusations 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”.
"At a time when the federal government is criminalising hate speech, a person who is alleged to have incited hate to commit the ultimate crime — genocide — must not be allowed to enter Australian territory without facing accountability for these serious allegations," Arraf said.
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.
“We call on Australia to arrest, investigate and prosecute President Herzog.”
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”.
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) condemned the invitation, labelling it a "grave moral failure" that would further divide the community, and a "direct insult" to those who have protested Israel's genocide in Gaza.
Labor Friends of Palestine also sent a letter to the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, urging his department to refuse to grant the Israeli president a visa. The letter, signed by Peter Moss, Wendy Turner and Oliver van Ingen on behalf of rank-and-file Labor members, questioned whether Burke had, or would, apply the character test to his visa application.
The call was echoed by independent MP Sophie Scamps who said the visit “risks igniting further division”.
Federal Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi earlier this month criticized the government for “welcoming the president of a state committing an ongoing genocide.”
Scamps - the member for Mackellar in northern Sydney- added her voice on Thursday. “For all of us after Bondi, the priority ought to be the safety and security of the Jewish community. Inviting a divisive figure, even a head of state, can only invite division and further risk,” she said in a statement.
Scamps continued: “Inviting a foreign head of state who has been found to have incited the commission of genocide risks deeply dividing the Australian community.”
“In the aftermath of the Bondi attack, this visit risks heightening tensions and deepening divisions, at a time when the Government’s priority should be fostering social cohesion, security and safety for Jewish Australians and for all communities.”
The Labor Friends of Palestine pointed to two clauses, including that a person didn’t pass the character test if they had been involved in “the crime of genocide, a crime against humanity, a war crime, a crime involving torture or slavery or a crime that is otherwise of serious international concern; whether or not the person, or another person, has been convicted of an offence constituted by the conduct” and that there would be a a “risk that the person would ...incite discord in the Australian community or in a segment of that community”.
The letter read, “We urge you to find that Herzog does not pass the character test, and therefore that you should refuse to grant him a visa.”
Co-convenor for Labor Friends of Palestine, Peter Moss, said the president’s visit “makes a mockery of all the fine words about hate speech, social cohesion, unity and healing”.
A complaint was also submitted by the Australian National Imams Council (ANIC), along with the Jewish Council of Australia and the Hind Rajab Foundation(HRF), to the attorney general, the minister for home affairs and the federal police, calling on authorities to refuse entry to Herzog and demanded an investigation into whether his public statements and conduct amount to incitement to genocide, complicity in war crimes and unlawful hate speech.
The organizations warned that allowing Herzog to visit could "inflame" social tensions, "undermine" Australia’s hate-speech protections and place communities at risk.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) - and Herzog himself has backed Israel's genocide.
In October 2023, he said all Palestinians in Gaza were "unequivocally" responsible for the 7 October Palestinian resistance operation. "It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved," he said in remarks that are widely accused of being genocidal in tone.
His comments, second in the list of statements made by senior Israeli officials, are included in South Africa's genocide case against Israel, which is before the International Court of Justice.
During a visit to Gaza in 2025, Herzog repeated the official Israeli claim that Israel was not responsible for starvation in Gaza.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos last year, he said expecting Israel to withdraw from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank was “not realistic at all. It doesn’t make sense” to Israeli settlers.
Despite the calls, Albanese, in a press conference, welcomed Herzog’s visit. “Anne Aly has certainly made a statement which is welcoming the role that this will play in unity, which is what we’re calling for. This country needs to come together,” he said.
In late 2023, Herzog was pictured signing an Israeli artillery shell being prepared to be fired into Gaza, writing in Hebrew on the munition: “I rely on you.”
https://x.com/declassifieduk/status/1963911689264312648?s=46&t=t_-JFgpXqgMIkVsuBfWELw
Chris Sidoti, one of the commissioners on the UN panel, wrote in the Guardian this week the invitation extended to Herzog was a “terrible mistake”.
