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Australia to BAN Protests during Kike Israel POTUS's Visit to Sydney
| AZNgirl talking Selfie with Snow Leopard Handsome | 02/04/26 |
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Date: February 4th, 2026 2:52 PM Author: AZNgirl talking Selfie with Snow Leopard Handsome LJL this is Western "civil rights" right ljl
An Israeli visit to the site of the Bondi attack tests Australia The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is under most pressure Share Crowds gather during a National Day of Mourning to remember and pay respect to the victims of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack, at the Bondi Beach Pavilion in Sydney. Photograph: IMAGO/AAP Feb 4th 2026 | SYDNEY | 3 min read Listen to this story AI Narrated
Australian Jewish leaders boast that theirs is the most Zionist community in the Jewish diaspora. Australian Jews travel to Israel at a higher rate than most other Jewish communities around the world. They are also more likely than most to have family and friends who live in Israel. Perhaps it is no surprise, therefore, that some leaders of the Jewish community, grieving a terrorist attack on Bondi Beach on December 14th, asked the government to invite Israel’s President Isaac Herzog to come and mourn with them. Mr Herzog will arrive in Australia on February 8th and is expected to go straight to Bondi. Australian officials, worried about security, are sharing little other information about the visit. But they might be keeping mum for another reason, say observers. The visit has provoked renewed controversy in a country still reeling from more than two years of strife between defenders of Israel and advocates of the rights of Palestinians. The deadliest terrorist attack on Australian soil has left some in the Jewish community feeling shattered. One Jewish youngster in Bondi tells The Economist that he no longer feels safe in Australia, and that he is considering emigrating to America. Others have been moved to embrace their Jewish identity anew, says Rabbi Noach Koncepolski, who had just returned from helping a secular Jewish family place a mezuzah, a sign of the Jewish faith, on its doorposts for the first time. Chris Minns, the premier of New South Wales, says that in order to protect public safety and to help the Jewish community grieve, the state government will ban protests in much of Sydney during the visit. Under new laws rushed through after the Bondi attack, the state can shut down demonstrations for up to 90 days after a terrorist attack. A constitutional challenge to the laws is winding through the courts. But it will be heard after the president’s visit. One pro-Palestinian group says that it plans to march to the state’s parliament house in the centre of Sydney anyway. Police are bracing for a confrontation. Legislators, at federal and state level, are likely to be the source of more contention. At least two backbenchers from Mr Minns’ ruling state Labor party plan to join the marchers. In the federal parliament, too, several members have voiced concerns about the invitation. They point, among other things, to an episode early in Israel’s recent war in which Mr Herzog signed a bomb to be dropped on Gaza. The visit is a test for the Labor government of Anthony Albanese, the federal prime minister, who on December 21st was booed at a memorial service in Bondi. The boos echoed criticism from Binyamin Netanyahu, who in the days following the attack linked it to Mr Albanese’s September decision to recognise a Palestinian state. Mr Herzog may repeat that allegation in private, but is likely to avoid it in public. If all goes well, Mr Albanese hopes a smooth visit will signal that he is back in the Jewish community’s good books. A rowdy one, however, could rock his caucus and strain relations with the Jewish community. Whatever happens, Mr Albanese will be looking better than his conservative opponents. The aftermath of the attack has blown up the centre-right opposition coalition, made up of two parties, one tending to represent urban and suburban voters, the other stronger among rural Australians. The two could not agree on whether to vote for new legislation making it easier to ban groups committing hate crimes that was proposed by Labor after the attack. Its passage, with some suburban conservative support, has boosted the fortunes of the populist-right One Nation party, which is now second only to Labor in opinion polls. The emotionally charged debates around the conflict in Gaza and the attack in Bondi have strained social cohesion. Malcolm Turnbull, a former centre-right prime minister whose old constituency included the Jewish community in Bondi, says his is a multicultural nation, but “we cannot allow foreign wars to be fought out in Australia.” ■ |