Melbourne: Israeli President Isaac Herzog ended a contentious four-day visit to Australia on Thursday that brought comfort to Sydney’s Jewish community traumatised by a recent antisemitic mass shooting, but also attracted large-scale demonstrations protesting the civilian toll of the Gaza war.
Herzog has been dogged by protesters who label him a war criminal as he visited Sydney, the national capital Canberra and Melbourne in the first Australian visit by an Israeli head of state in six years.
Authorities estimated 10,000 protesters shut down several downtown Melbourne streets with a rally Thursday evening as Herzog left the country. The largest protest of his visit was mostly peaceful, with only a single demonstrator facing a charge of assaulting a police officer, a police statement said. Earlier, Herzog challenged protesters to target Iran, which he described as an “empire of evil” that had killed tens of thousands of its own citizens.agencies