Asia Pacific Report
Israeli President Isaac Herzog faces a legal challenge over his role in alleged war crimes as news media say he will visit Australia early next month, reports Al Jazeera.
Australian journalist Lindal Rowlands writes that three Australian and Palestinian legal groups have made a formal call on the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to investigate President Herzog.
They said on Friday that they had written to “urgently alert” the AFP of their concerns “in light of serious and credible criminal allegations of incitement to genocide and advocating genocide” by Herzog during Israel’s “military onslaught” in Gaza since October 7, 2023.
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The three organisations are the Australian Centre for International Justice (ACIJ), Al-Haq, and the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.
Their challenge included a 10-page submission detailing the allegations against Herzog as well as Australia’s obligations under international law and its own domestic law, reports Al Jazeera.
“Where credible international findings indicate incitement to genocide and where domestic accountability has not occurred, Australia has both the legal authority and responsibility to act,” Rawan Arraf, executive director at the ACIJ, said in a statement.
Rowlands also reports that Arraf had said that the Australian government would be showing a “blatant disregard” for its international legal obligations “by allowing Herzog to enter Australia without an AFP investigation”.
‘No uninvolved civilians’ claim
Shawan Jabarin, the general director of Al-Haq, noted that Herzog had said that there were “no uninvolved civilians in Gaza” and was the head of state as Israel killed 23,000 children and 1000 babies “before their first birthday” in Gaza.
“Even the IVF clinic was bombed, destroying 4000 human embryos and the hope of future life,” Jabarin added.
Herzog is due to visit Sydney on February 7, according to The Times of Israel newspaper.
The Israeli president was invited by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the wake of last month’s mass shooting that targeted a Jewish celebration at Bondi Beach and left 15 people dead.
Albanese told reporters in December that the Australian government had extended an invitation to Herzog “to honour and remember victims of the Bondi anti-Semitic terrorist attack and provide support for Jewish Australians and the Australian Jewish community at this time”, the Al Jazeera report said.
