Police clashed with anti-Israel demonstrators in Sydney during protests against Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia, prompting national leaders to urge calm and call for demonstrations to remain peaceful. 

Police said 27 people were arrested, including 10 for allegedly assaulting officers, after violence broke out Monday evening when authorities moved to clear thousands of protesters gathered near Sydney’s Town Hall.

The unrest unfolded as Herzog arrived in Australia for a visit centered on solidarity with the Jewish community after the Dec. 14 terror attack at a Hanukkah event in Bondi Beach that killed 15 people.

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Herzog traveled to Bondi during the trip, where he met bereaved families and participated in memorial events honoring the victims. In a post on X, he wrote, “Together with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the community’s leader, Rabbi Yehoram Ulman, bereaved families, and members of the Jewish community, we united in memory of the 15 victims of the Bondi terror attacks. The terrorists sought to instill fear in the Jewish people—and we respond with renewed Jewish pride, by choosing life and hope.”

Herzog also warned of rising antisemitism during the visit, calling it a global emergency and defending Israel’s actions in Gaza when asked about the protests.

Demonstrations opposing Israel’s war in Gaza and Herzog’s presence erupted across Australia, with the largest confrontation unfolding in Sydney. Authorities imposed restrictions on protest routes and used pepper spray to disperse crowds after tensions escalated.

Police said officers were met with violence and acted to maintain order, while protesters and some politicians accused authorities of excessive force.

Talking to Sky News Australia, former Australian Jewish Association president David Adler called the violence “a disgraceful display,” noting that Australia has a system of law and order and that a court decision establishing an exclusion zone for the protests was ignored by the “radical activists,” which “left the police with an impossible situation.”

Commenting on Sydney police actions against the agitators, Adler said there was some “rejoicing in our community to finally see a bit of pushback from the New South Wales police, because, for two years and a half, almost, there’s been a lack of law enforcement when it comes to the incitement, the antisemitism and we’ve seen the emboldenment and the dreadful incidents which have occurred right across the country culminating (on Dec. 14) with the massacre at Bondi Beach. So maybe we’ve seen a little bit of a flicker of pushback in law enforcement, which we certainly welcome,” he said.

AUSTRALIA BANS PRO-ISRAEL INFLUENCER WEEKS AFTER BONDI BEACH TERROR ATTACK

Andrew Wallace, a member of parliament said, “Australians who live in a democracy have a right to protest peacefully and lawfully,” Wallace told Sky News, “What we saw last night was not peaceful, and it certainly was not in accordance with directions given by police.”

Australian leaders called for restraint and warned against importing overseas conflict into domestic streets.

A timeline compiled by the American Jewish Committee notes that the December Bondi Beach attack came after a sustained rise in anti-Jewish threats and violence across Australia, including vandalism of synagogues and Jewish schools, arson attacks and public harassment since Oct. 2023. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry documented more than 1,600 anti-Jewish incidents between Oct. 2024 and Sept. 2025, following more than 2,000 incidents the previous year.

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Israeli leaders have pointed to the Bondi attack as evidence of growing risks facing Jewish communities abroad and have criticized Australian authorities for failing to prevent the terrorist attack.

Published on
11/02/2026 – 7:00 GMT+1

Political groups of the European Parliament reached an agreement on Tuesday on the EU-US trade deal, which was struck in July 2025 by US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and still needs to be ratified.

The agreement sets US tariffs at 15% on EU exports, while the EU committed to cutting its tariffs on US goods to zero, but its approval has proven controversial in recent weeks due to Trump’s threats to take control of Greenland.

The Parliament froze the approval process in January after Trump said on social media that he would impose a 10% tariff from February on eight European countries for having taken part in a military mission in the Arctic.

Works resumed a few weeks later, with representatives of the Parliament’s political groups fine-tuning the details of the legislation needed to implement the deal.

The final compromise they have reached will be formally voted on by the International Partnership Committee on February 24 and by a Plenary session as early as March.

It includes a “sunset clause”, which would see EU tariff relief expire at the end of March 2028, unless explicitly renewed, and a “suspension clause”, which would be activated in the event the US violates the deal’s rules.

“After the Greenland issue, we introduced a clear criterion for the territorial sovereignty of the European Union, to the set of criteria for a possible suspension”, said Socialist MEP Bernd Lange, lead negotiator on the file.

The Parliament’s version of the trade deal will also feature a safeguard mechanism to address the impact the reduction of tariffs for US goods could have on the EU market.

It also includes an automatic reintroduction of tariffs if the US does not reducing its own tariffs to 15% for a list of more than 400 steel-related products, which was agreed last July but which has not yet happened.

After the final vote in the plenary session, the Parliament will have to negotiate the terms of the agreement with the EU countries, and some of the conditions may change.