Police admit concerns around Jewish safety

Police have reportedly cautioned Jewish leaders about potential safety risks for community members attending events during Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit next week.

The Australian reports that risk assessments have examined the possibility that violent extremists might exploit planned anti-Israel demonstrations, potentially endangering Jewish community members as they arrive at or depart from event venues.

Herzog accepted an invitation from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to visit Australia and express solidarity with Jewish communities following the terror attack that claimed 15 lives at Bondi Beach.

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon revealed 3000 NSW police would be on duty during the visit, and said newly passed state laws barring protests in specified areas of Sydney would be extended for another 14 days.

Defying the protest restrictions, the Palestine Action Group plans to march against Herzog’s visit, with spokesperson Josh Lees calling for NSW Police to facilitate a peaceful march from Town Hall to state parliament.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said, “There’s a need to protect both the President, who is an invited guest of Australia, and also regular Australians as they go about their jobs and lives in Sydney next week.

“Protests haven’t been banned in NSW or even in Sydney. What we have said is if there is going to be a march that dissects the middle of the city and interrupts millions of other people as they go about their job or puts a massive, massive impost on NSW Police, it’s fair and reasonable that the government say we can’t accommodate this.”

Minns described the restrictions as “reasonable” in the circumstances of Herzog coming to mourn “a terrible terrorist event” and said they were designed “to keep the public safe”.

On Tuesday, the Greens introduced a Senate motion attempting to revoke the government’s invitation to Herzog, which was defeated by Labor and the Coalition.

The anti-Zionist Jewish Council of Australia co-signed a statement with the Australian National Imams Council and the Hezbollah-linked Hind Rajab Foundation calling on Attorney-General Michelle Rowland, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke and the Australian Federal Police to refuse entry to Herzog.

The Hind Rajab Foundation is chaired by Dyab Abou Jahjah, who, in a 2003 New York Times article, claimed he had “joined the Hezbollah resistance against Israel” and “had some military training”. Jahjah is also included on the US government’s No Fly List because his family is linked, through business and personal ties, to Hezbollah’s terror-funding network.

Independent MPs Zali Steggall and Sophie Scamps have also urged Albanese to reconsider Herzog’s invitation because of its “potential impact on Australia’s fragile social cohesion”.

But Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said Herzog’s visit is not a provocation but an opportunity “to affirm solidarity in the face of terror, to restore seriousness to a debate overtaken by extremes, and to demonstrate that Australia remains capable of principled engagement in an increasingly polarised world”.

“President Herzog comes from the centre-left of Israeli politics and was a long-standing political opponent of Benjamin Netanyahu. As Israel’s head of state, he occupies a constitutional and ceremonial role, without responsibility for government policy or military decision-making,” Leibler said.

Australia Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said Herzog’s visit is not only appropriate “but an essential part of the healing process”, while Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-CEO Alex Ryvchin said it would bring “tremendous comfort to the families” of Bondi victims and “hopefully a reset of the bilateral relationship”.