Demand grows to disallow Israeli president from entering Australia
Australian National Imams Council, other groups file complaint to bar visit
Demonstrators hold flags and placards as they move along the streets during a rally for Gaza, in Melbourne, Australia on October 12, 2025. The march in Melbourne is part of an Australia-wide day of action. Demonstrators called for sanctions against Israel during the march.
ISTANBUL
The demand is growing to bar the Israeli president from entering Australia next month as a coalition of civil society groups lodged a legal complaint urging authorities to deny Isaac Herzog a visa and open a criminal investigation under Australian law.
The complaint was submitted by the Australian National Imams Council (ANIC), along with the Jewish Council of Australia and the Hind Rajab Foundation, to the attorney general, the minister for home affairs and the federal police, according to a statement by ANIC that was posted on US social media platform X.
They called 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 complaint, prepared by a senior counsel, cites publicly documented remarks made by Herzog in his official capacity.
The groups also accused Herzog of repeatedly denying or downplaying the scale of the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, despite findings by UN agencies and famine review bodies confirming widespread starvation and civilian suffering.
The organizations warned that allowing Herzog to visit could "inflame" social tensions, "undermine" Australia’s hate-speech protections and place communities at risk.
Authorities have not yet publicly responded to the complaint.
Australia's prominent justice advocates also demanded last Friday that the federal police investigate Herzog for incitement to genocide ahead of his visit to Canberra in February.
The Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ), while making a formal request for an investigation, said it would be unacceptable for Herzog, who is accused of inciting genocide, to enter Australia without consequence.
Herzog was invited by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after the Bondi Beach attack last month, which killed 15 people and injured 42.
A UN Human Rights Council special commission of inquiry into the war in the Gaza Strip found last year that Israel was committing genocide, and comments made by Herzog following the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack were evidence of genocidal intent.
