On February 9, 2026, Israeli president Isaac Herzog arrived in Sydney, Australia. Herzog was in Australia to mourn those murdered in Bondi, but given that he has been a staunch advocate of Israel’s war in Gaza, his presence was, to say the least, controversial. Despite recent changes in the law to make protesting harder, protests went ahead anyway. The protest was a peaceful one, right up until the point where the police decided that was enough of that. Using the same ‘kettling’ procedures beloved of abusive law enforcement agencies the world over, they moved in and began cracking skulls.
Numerous people were hospitalised, dozens were arrested, and the police were quick to label the whole thing a riot. For the most part, Australia’s media and politicians, united in their desire to please Rupert Murdoch, echoed the police line. Australia’s long slow drift into authoritarianism continued.
.JPG)
