Sydney (QNN)- Australian and Palestinian legal groups have formally urged the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to investigate Israeli President Isaac Herzog for his role in war crimes in Gaza genocide amid reports he will visit Australia in February.
The Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ), Al-Haq, and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights 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 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.”
The Times of Israel newspaper reported that Herzog is due to visit Sydney on February 7, at the invitation of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the wake of last month’s mass shooting at Bondi Beach.
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.
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.
