Mark Dreyfus reflects on his time in Israel
Many viewed the Attorney-General’s trip as an attempt to repair the relationship.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus shared his insights with The AJN this week after returning to Australia from Israel.
Dreyfus travelled to Israel last week following tensions between the two countries, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in December accusing the Australian government of adopting an “extreme anti-Israel position”.
Many viewed Dreyfus’ trip as an attempt to repair the relationship, though some have claimed it was a cynical PR exercise.
During his visit, the Attorney-General met with Israeli leaders including President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Justice Minister Yariv Levin. He also met with the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.
Asked how he was received by Israeli officials, Dreyfus said “warmly”.
“Australia has a deep, enduring friendship with Israel. And it’s not just the relationship between the current government of Australia and the current government of Israel. This is a ‘people to people’ relationship … the fact that we have got some disagreements with the current government of Israel doesn’t change that relationship,” he said.
However, Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel posted that during her meeting with Dreyfus she “expressed to him my disappointment” with the shift in Australia’s attitude towards Israel.
Responding to Haskel, Dreyfus remarked, “It’s not particularly reflective of the lengthy meeting that I had with her. She raised some concerns, which … is what friends do … But I’m looking to my meetings with the senior ministers.”
Dreyfus also met with families of the hostages and visited the sites in the Gaza envelope where Hamas atrocities took place.
At Kibbutz Be’eri, he bore witness to the burnt down and bullet ridden homes of the murdered shown to him by Danny Majzner, who survived October 7 by hiding in his safe room and is the brother of Australian-Israeli grandmother Galit Carbone, who was killed. At the site of the Nova music festival massacre, Dreyfus met with Shalev Biton, who narrowly escaped death.
Asked if Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong should have visited the sites of the Hamas massacres, Dreyfus replied firmly, “I went.”

“The Prime Minister hasn’t been to Israel yet,” he said. “And for the Foreign Minister … she went three months into the conflict. Her priorities were to meet with senior Israeli ministers … and to meet with the hostage families, and I don’t think anyone can argue with that priority.
“For me personally, it was a deeply affecting experience.”
He described being in Israel when the ceasefire–hostage deal was agreed as “momentous”.
“It was clear to me from every meeting that I had with senior ministers, with heads of agencies, with hostage families, that there is overwhelming support for this ceasefire to take place, and overwhelming support for the return of hostages,” he said.
The day after Dreyfus returned to Australia, there was another antisemitic arson attack, this time on a childcare centre in Sydney. Asked what can be done to stop these attacks, he said, “We’ve already done a great deal, and we are resolute as a federal government and working with state and territory governments to bring this surge in antisemitic incidents to an end.”
He pointed to the government’s record on security funding for Jewish organisations, the outlawing of Nazi and terrorist symbols, criminalising doxxing, legislation before the Parliament to criminalise hate speech, establishing Special Operation Avalite to respond to incidents of antisemitism, as well as appointing Jillian Segal as special envoy to combat antisemitism.
However, Segal has made suggestions that the government has not adopted – including a judicial inquiry into antisemitism at universities, as well as tougher sentencing for antisemitic crimes.
Dreyfus noted the government’s record of setting tough penalties in the doxxing legislation and the proposed hate speech laws but believes “sentencing is a matter for courts”.
The surge in antisemitism has also impacted Dreyfus personally.
“I found it shocking that … I should have experienced personally, and that Josh Burns, my colleague and other Jewish parliamentarians should have experienced personally, a massive increase in antisemitic abuse on our social media pages, with the daubing of revolting slogans on our electorate offices, the attempt to burn Josh’s office, nothing prepared me for that,” he said.
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