Herzog attends Bondi memorial ceremony with Australia’s Albanese, who doesn’t give speech

President Isaac Herzog on Tuesday declared that antisemitism has no place in Australia as he attended a memorial service for the victims of the Bondi Beach terror attack targeting a Jewish event in December.

He attended the event at the Chabad of Bondi alongside Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who did not give a speech. Albanese only read aloud the names of the victims of the Hanukkah massacre, in which Islamic terrorists killed 15.

The Israeli president’s wife, Michal Herzog, said later this was “the decision of the community.” The prime minister met privately with the families of the victims afterward.

“What we saw in Bondi, the blood-curdling act of blind hatred, hatred of Jews, hatred of Australian values, simply has no place in this country, or anywhere for that matter,” Herzog said in remarks at the event, according to the president’s office.

As the event was ongoing, a large pro-Palestinian protest was held in central Sydney. Albanese has defended his invitation to Herzog to visit, despite opposition from anti-Israel activists, and has called for calm at the protests.

Albanese came under heavy criticism from Australian Jewry following the attack for not doing enough to fight antisemitism in the country. There has been speculation that the prime minister did not give an address because he was concerned about the reception he might have received in the Chabad center.

Herzog called Albanese “an important world leader,” adding that combating antisemitism “requires broad, serious measures,” and thanked him for “the legislation and initiatives” passed in Australia since the attack, which focused on tighter gun control measures and stronger powers to combat hate speech and extremist groups.

“The test will be in their full implementation and in the outcome,” Herzog said.

While the hall was packed, the reserved seats belonging to three victims of the attack who were active at the Chabad — Reuven Morrison, Tibor Weitzen, and Alex Kleytmann — were kept empty.

Herzog also joined Albanese for dinner at the premier’s private residence, his office said.

Prior to the memorial service, Herzog, World Zionist Organization chairman Yaakov Hagoel, and Jewish Agency chairman Maj. Gen. (res.) Doron Almog met with bereaved families of victims of the Bondi attack.

The visit has attracted the ire of anti-Israel activists in Australia. Pro-Palestine, anti-Israel groups organized protests in cities and towns across the country on Monday evening, where police clashed with demonstrators, as they tried to prevent the rally from marching into an area designated off-limits.

Protesters held a snap demonstration outside the Surry Hills police station on Tuesday to condemn the police’s behavior. In the later stages of the rally, protesters chanted “globalize the intifada” at officers, according to Australia’s Sky News, which is widely seen in the Jewish community as a call for antisemitic violence.

Demonstrators also chanted, “Arrest Herzog.”

Palestine Action Group leader Josh Lees, who led the rally, told protesters that New South Wales Premier Chris Minns directed the police to “use violence on us as part of his political directive, to crack heads, and I said — you know — use state violence in support of the state violence of Israel in Gaza,” the SBS public broadcaster reported.

New South Wales police have said they arrested 27 people at the rallies, including 10 for assaulting law enforcement, and have confirmed they deployed pepper spray against the crowd.

But they have sparked outrage, with a video circulating on social media showing Muslim men praying near Sydney’s Town Hall being pushed and shoved by the police.

Law enforcement hit protesters and members of the media, including AFP, with pepper spray in rarely seen violent scuffles in Sydney’s central business district.

Albanese said he was “devastated” by Monday’s violence and urged protesters to express their views peacefully.

“These are really scenes that I think shouldn’t be taking place,” he said in a radio interview.

“People should be able to express their views peacefully, but the police were very clear about the routes that were required if people wanted to march,” he added.

Minns, whose state includes Sydney, said the police had been placed in “incredibly difficult circumstances.”

Not far from Monday’s protests, he noted, Herzog had been taking part in an event for the victims of the terror attack alongside thousands of mourners.

Minns said it would have been a “disaster” if protesters had been allowed to march near that event.

Herzog’s visit is due to last until Thursday. On Tuesday morning, he met students at a Jewish school in the Sydney suburbs.

Many Jewish Australians have welcomed Herzog’s trip.

“His visit will lift the spirits of a pained community,” said Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the community’s umbrella body.