{"id":281916,"date":"2026-02-09T09:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/281916\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T09:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:07:15","slug":"israels-president-visits-sydneys-bondi-beach-massacre-site-and-meets-victims-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/281916\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel’s president visits Sydney’s Bondi Beach massacre site and meets victims’ families"},"content":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE, Australia — Israel President Isaac Herzog<\/a> started a state visit Monday aimed at consoling grieving Australian Jews and improving bilateral relations by laying a wreath and stones at the site of an antisemitic attack in Sydney<\/a> that left 15 dead.<\/p>\n

Herzog met victims\u2019 families and survivors of the Dec. 14 attack on a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach. Only one of the two alleged gunmen survived following a gunbattle with police. Naveed Akram<\/a> has been charged with committing a terrorist act<\/a>, murdering 15 people and wounding another 40 in what was Australia’s worst mass shooting in 29 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Herzog laid the wreath and two stones he had brought from Jerusalem at the rain-swept Bondi Pavillion near the site of the massacre. The pavilion became on impromptu memorial in the days after the tragedy as flowers and cards were placed there.<\/p>\n

The Israeli president said the stones would remain at Bondi in memory of the victims and as a reminder that good people of all faiths and nations \u201cwill continue to hold strong in the face of terror, violence and hatred, and that we shall overcome this evil together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were shaken to our core when we first heard about the Bondi Beach attack. Our heart missed a beat, like all Israelis and all Jews. And I\u2019m here to express solidarity, friendship, and love,\u201d Herzog told reporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I also believe that this is an opportunity to upgrade the relations between Israel and Australia because we are two democracies that share values together and we are confronting the roots of evil from all over the world. And we should do so together,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The visit to Bondi within hours of the president landing in Sydney with his wife Michal Herzog came with tight security. Police snipers were visible posted on Bondi roof tops.<\/p>\n

Herzog will also visit Melbourne and the national capital Canberra before he returns to Israel on Thursday. Sydney and Melbourne are Australia\u2019s largest cities and home to 85% of the nation\u2019s Jewish population.<\/p>\n

Protests were held in Sydney and Melbourne later Monday over how Israel has waged the war against the militant Hamas group in Gaza<\/a> and treated Gaza’s civilian population. Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, triggering the war.<\/p>\n

Mainstream Jewish groups have welcomed the visit of Herzog, a former leader of the centrist Labor Party who now plays a largely ceremonial role.<\/p>\n

The smaller Jewish Council of Australia community group ran full-page ads in Sydney and Melbourne newspapers on Monday, endorsed with the names of 687 Australian Jews, that said: \u201cHerzog does not speak for us and is NOT WELCOME HERE.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe refuse to let our collective grief be used to legitimize a leader whose rhetoric has been part of inciting a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and has contributed to the illegal annexation of the West Bank,\u201d the council\u2019s executive officer Sarah Schwartz said.<\/p>\n

Jewish leaders initiated the invitation extended by Governor-General Sam Mostyn<\/a>, Australia\u2019s equivalent of Israel\u2019s president, at Prime Minister Anthony Albanese\u2019s<\/a> request.<\/p>\n

Albanese and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> have been openly hostile toward each other since the Australian announced six months ago that his government would recognize a Palestinian state<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Herzog said he welcomed the \u201cpositive steps\u201d the Australian government had taken to tackle antisemitism since the Bondi attack, which was allegedly inspired by the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n

The Australian Parliament last month rushed through legislation<\/a> that lowers the threshold requirements for groups to be banned for hate speech.<\/p>\n

The government also announced its highest form of public inquiry, a royal commission, would investigate<\/a> the nature, prevalence and drivers of antisemitism in general, as well as the circumstances of the Bondi shooting.<\/p>\n

Herzog said he shared the frustrations of the victims’ families that more had not been done to prevent such an attack on Australia’s Jewish community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese frustrations were shared by many, many of us, including myself,\u201d Herzog said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen this wave surge all over the world, and I\u2019ve seen it in many countries, including Canada, Great Britain, the United States, and Australia \u2014 all English-speaking countries,\u201d Herzog added.<\/p>\n

After the Bondi shooting was declared a terrorist attack, the New South Wales state parliament rushed through legislation increasing police powers to arrest protesters.<\/p>\n

Police can restrict protests for two weeks at a time for up to 90 days following a declared terrorist attack. Police last week continued the restrictions for another two weeks in an effort to contain civil discord in Sydney during Herzog\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n

Still, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside Sydney Town Hall on Monday afternoon \u2014 even though the Palestine Action Group organisers lost a court challenge to a police order preventing them from marching from the Town Hall to the New South Wales Parliament.<\/p>\n

In Melbourne, thousands of protesters gathered outside downtown Flinders Street Railway Station, blocking evening peak-hour traffic.<\/p>\n

Herzog said protests targeting him were mostly attempts to \u201cundermine and delegitimize\u201d Israel\u2019s right to exist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia — Israel President Isaac Herzog started a state visit Monday aimed at consoling grieving Australian Jews…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[144876,111,127,6557,122,42,61,43,238,5468,31008,7319,3894,98,40,38,41,39,126],"class_list":{"0":"post-281916","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-144876","9":"tag-antisemitism","10":"tag-article","11":"tag-diplomacy","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-israel-hamas-war","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-protests-and-demonstrations","18":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","19":"tag-religion","20":"tag-shootings","21":"tag-terrorism","22":"tag-top-news","23":"tag-top-stories","24":"tag-topnews","25":"tag-topstories","26":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}