Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus to travel to Israel amid strained diplomatic relations

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus will travel to Israel in an effort to mend strained relations.   Last month, Israeli's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the Albanese government of having an extreme anti-Israeli position.

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00:00Look, we don't have the full details of this itinerary.

00:05We're being told it's still being worked out, but Mr Dreyfus, the Attorney-General, will

00:11travel to Israel for about a week, the Prime Minister said, and you'd have to assume that

00:17he's going to meet with leaders over there.

00:19Now, the Prime Minister was saying earlier that he thinks Mark Dreyfus is an appropriate

00:25person to do this visit.

00:27Of course, he's a very senior figure within the Labor Government here in Canberra, but

00:31he's also a Jewish MP.

00:34Now, this does, as you say, come amid rising tensions between Australia and the Israeli

00:40Government.

00:41The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, last month accused the Labor Government here

00:47of having an extreme anti-Israel position, and he also sought to link the arson attack

00:54at a Melbourne synagogue to the government's, what he called, extreme anti-Israel position.

01:00He also did call out the way Australia voted in the UN.

01:05It did, this was a vote last month, one of a number, that Australia voted with the vast

01:10majority, more than 150 countries, calling on Israel to bring an end to its unlawful

01:16presence in the occupied Palestinian territories as quickly as possible.

01:21And so Mr Netanyahu was not happy with that vote.

01:25Now, from the Prime Minister's perspective, he did visit that Melbourne synagogue in the

01:30days after it was attacked, and he also has sought to call out anti-Semitism rather consistently.

01:38But here's him speaking about the Attorney-General's upcoming visit to Israel.

01:44We have people regularly visit our friends, and Mark Dreyfus is visiting.

01:52He had, there was previously a scheduled visit that wasn't able to go ahead, so Mark Dreyfus

02:00will be visiting.

02:01He'll be there for around about a week, and we've publicly put out that announcement.

02:11Now like the Prime Minister said, Mr Dreyfus was set to go to Israel in October last year,

02:16but that was cancelled amid a missile attack from Iran, so this is that sort of delayed

02:22visit going ahead.

02:23Now in that press conference, the Prime Minister was also asked about why the Foreign Minister

02:28wasn't going, and Mr Albanese pointed out that Penny Wong has previously visited Israel

02:34amid the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

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