The foreign minister, Penny Wong, has urged critics of a visit to Australia by Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, to consider the context of the trip, insisting Jewish leaders had urged the government to issue an invitation.

Herzog’s visit to Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney next week is prompting a growing backlash. Herzog, Israel’s head of state, was invited by the governor general, Sam Mostyn, to meet Jewish community members mourning the 15 victims of the Bondi terror attack.

Chris Sidoti, a former human rights commissioner and a member of the UN commission of inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory, has called on the government to withdraw the invitation because of a genocide case against Israel in the international court of justice and the unlawful occupation of the Palestinian territories.

NSW Labor MPs plan to join a protest against Herzog’s visit, and former cabinet minister Ed Husic said on Wednesday he did not believe it should go ahead.

Wong told ABC radio it was appropriate for Israel’s head of state to meet with Australian Jews after the 14 December shooting.

“I really do understand the depth of feeling about this visit, the depth of feeling in the community about what we’ve seen in Gaza, which is why we’ve been so clear about working, we’re pressing for peace with others in the international community for civilians to be protected and for aid to flow,” she said.

Asked about Sidoti’s calls for Herzog to be arrested in Australia, Wong confirmed she had considered legal advice about the trip.

“I have said previously that Israel will be judged by the international court of justice on its compliance with the genocide convention. And I’ve also said previously that it must accept its responsibility for the humanitarian situation in Gaza.”

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Wong said the context of the visit was key.

“We have the Australian Jewish community who have been targeted in an overtly antisemitic terrorist attack. We have had 15 Australians die, we have families mourning, and this was a request from the Jewish community for President Herzog to visit.”

The defence minister, Richard Marles, said Herzog would be a “welcome and honoured guest”.

Opposition frontbencher James Paterson called moves by Labor MPs to oppose the visit “appalling”.

“It seems extraordinary to me and frankly an act of bad faith and a terrible gesture towards the Australian Jewish community that we can’t even have the president of the Jewish state of Israel come to Australia after Bondi for a memorial, for the purposes of providing comfort to the Australian Jewish community, without Labor MPs publicly running it down and attacking it.”

Critics of Herzog’s visit have pointed to the UN commission of inquiry’s conclusion in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. That commission stated that Herzog as well as the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and a former defence minister “incited the commission of genocide”.

The report quoted Herzog in October 2023 saying about Gaza: “It’s an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true, this rhetoric about civilians who were not aware and not involved. It is absolutely not true.”

Herzog has denied the accusation, saying his comments were taken out of context. Israel’s foreign ministry has previously rejected the report, calling it “distorted and false” and claiming it “relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods”.

Separately, a Sydney man has been charged for allegedly making an online threat towards a foreign head of state. The Australia federal police executed a search warrant in the inner-city suburb of Newtown on Wednesday.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, is expected to meet Herzog during his visit.