Australian and Palestinian legal groups have written to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) raising allegations regarding the role of Yaakov Hagoel, the current Chairman of the Executive of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), in relation to alleged unlawful settlement activities undertaken by the WZO in the unlawfully Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Hagoel arrived in Australia as part of the delegation of Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog

The groups urge the AFP to investigate Hagoel and examine whether the alleged conduct may give rise to offences under the Criminal Code.

The groups allege that the WZO carries out its unlawful settlement activities in the OPT through its ‘Settlement Division’, the main function of which is to promote the development of unlawful settlements through their financing, planning and construction, as well as the management of unlawfully occupied land in the OPT on behalf of the State of Israel. As Chairman of the Executive of WZO, it is alleged that Hagoel presides over the organisation’s executive leadership, exercising authority over the WZO’s day-to-day governance and institutional implementation - including having oversight over the Settlement Division and its activities.

It has long been established that Israel’s illegal settlements are a flagrant violation of international law, a position held by the Australian Government. Australia has regularly condemned Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise and on 10 June 2025, imposed targeted sanctions on Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, through their encouragement and support of unlawfully-transferred settlers and their presence in the OPT. Those sanctions also extended to settlers and settler entities linked to illegal outposts — a category of unlawful settlers who have been granted land allocation and grazing contracts by the Settlement Division.

The Israeli President’s delegation also includes retired Israeli General, Doron Almog, who infamously evaded arrest in the United Kingdom in 2005. The legal groups have submitted complaints regarding both Herzog and Almog ahead of their arrival.

The Israeli state delegation arrives at the same time as reports state that the sanctioned Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, announced measures approved by Israel’s Security Cabinet that will hasten Israel’s illegal annexation and accelerate illegal settlement activity.

In 2015, Smotrich was the chief proponent and driving force behind amendments to Israeli legislation that secured the Settlement Division’s status as a government-authorised body responsible for planning, funding, and implementing unlawful settlement activity in the illegally occupied West Bank. These amendments created a domestic legal pathway for Israeli state powers and public funds to be delegated directly to the WZO, allowing it to develop unlawful settlement infrastructure and support illegal outposts while bypassing government oversight and public transparency and accountability. At the time, critics warned these amendments were designed to entrench unlawful settlement expansion in the OPT and obscure the state’s direct role in financing it through the instrumentalisation of the WZO.

Rawan Arraf, Executive Director at the Australian Centre for International Justice, said:

“This is the third criminal complaint by our groups in respect of this Israeli state delegation. The alleged conduct of the WZO and its Chair Hagoel should be raising alarm bells, not rolling out a welcoming red carpet for him and the Israeli President. If the Australian Government is serious about the illegality of settlements and its so-called commitment to peace, then it must not provide diplomatic cover for the enablers of Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise. Hagoel must rather be investigated.”

Shawan Jabarin, General Director of Al-Haq said:

“The allegations against the WZO and its Chair Hagoel amount to inhumane acts of apartheid, and contribute to the maintenance of a discriminatory apartheid regime on both sides of the Green Line. The International Court of Justice clearly found that this type of conduct concerning unlawful settlements amounts to racial segregation and apartheid. These quasi-state organisations are maintaining the domination of Israel’s Jewish population, over Palestinians, who are being displaced and erased from their land to benefit unlawfully transferred-in Israeli Jewish settlers.”

Issam Younis, General Director, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights said:

“The lack of accountability for WZO’s activities has entrenched a system of impunity that has allowed unlawful settlement expansion in the OPT to not only continue but intensify, despite repeated international condemnation. If the Australian Government condemns illegal settlements, why is it allowing its key enablers to enter the country without prosecuting them? They must face accountability.”

Raji Sourani, Director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights said:

“Australia must act in line with moral and legal obligations. They must stop enabling Israeli crimes and inviting these individuals without facing any consequence. They must put an end to Israel’s impunity once and for all.”