While standing at the site of Australia’s worst terror attack, Israeli President Isaac Herzog shared a message from the thousands who are reportedly preparing to protest his visit.
“It is important for me to say that I have come here in goodwill and in a message (to the) people of Australia – Australia and Israel are close friends and allies since the days of old,” he said from Bondi Beach.
“It was Australian soldiers who liberated the Holy Land as one of the greatest steps towards the creation of the homeland of the Jewish people.
“It was Australia who was the first nation to declare and recognise Israel at the United Nations, and Australia is a close ally for years and Israel was always a bipartisan issue in Australia.
“These demonstrations in most cases, what you hear and see, comes to undermine and delegitimise our right, my nation’s right, the nation which I am the head of state of – of its mere existence and it’s contradictory to whatever, ever said – was said and done by Australia.
“We did not seek that war October 7. Our nation was attacked terribly and people were butchered, murdered, raped and burnt and abducted.
“We have here, bereaved Israeli families who came from the Kibbutz, Kibbutz Nir Oz and came from the war in order to express their condolences here at Bondi, but also to make a clear statement and a message.
“We should all fight terror together. Terror is what undermines all the availability of peace and the notion of peace in our region. It was always the case and is always the case and, therefore, terror is unacceptable by any means.”