The following story is a running list of journalists and politicians who have visited Israel or Palestine either on the dime of lobby groups or governments, or at their own expense. It was last updated on November 14, 2023.
For decades Israeli advocacy groups have sent journalists as well as elected and aspiring politicians to the Middle East on what the Jewish Board of Deputies calls the “Journalists’ Mission to Israel”.
“For about 25 years, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) has been inviting senior media personnel to take part in the annual journalists’ study tour of Israel,” the board’s website reads.
“The aim of the study mission is to demonstrate the complexity of the situation in the Middle East and provide journalists with background briefings to improve their knowledge of the issues.”
While the trips themselves remain a rather opaque element of the media landscape (indeed, the NSW JBD did not respond for comment), a number of the most powerful people in Australian media have been on tours of Israel, organised and often funded (at least in part) by the JBD or the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).
The Israeli delegation to Australia also often organises trips that involve politicians, as well as the Australian Union of Jewish Students, which traditionally sends a group of some of the nation’s brightest student politicians every year.
In 2015, a particularly notable trip involved Sky News’ Sharri Markson, now-Daily Telegraph editor Ben English, now-Sydney Morning Herald editor Bevan Shields, and then-Seven senior reporter Alex Hart.
Then-Sky News’ David Lipson (now at the ABC, which does not send journalists on trips of this kind) and the AFR’s Aaron Patrick were also present. Then-JBD CEO Vic Alhadeff was also on the trip and currently serves on the board of SBS as a non-executive director.
SBS managing director James Taylor went on a sponsored trip in 2019, alongside now-2GB Drive host Chris O’Keefe, 2GB newsreader Amie Meehan, Nine executive James Chessell, now-deputy editor of The Australian Georgina Windsor, The Daily Telegraph’s Brad Clifton, now-Seven reporter Natasha Squarey, and then-Sky News’ Kaycie Bradford.
The Australian’s opinion editor Nicholas Jensen and columnist Gemma Tognini both returned from AIJAC-sponsored trips earlier this year, with Tognini calling the state of the Australian media landscape on Israel-Palestine “insane”.
“The majority of the Australian media have this just insane sponsorship, I guess, of the Palestinian cause, without any seeming analytical or sober-minded analysis,” Tognini said.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that a raft of MPs were also on an AIJAC-sponsored tour earlier this month, including the ALP’s Cassandra Fernando and Raff Ciccone, as well as Liberals Keith Wolahan, Andrew McLachlan and Jenny Ware.
With these tours designed to pull favourable coverage and policy settings (federal parliamentarians visit Israel at a significantly higher rate than other countries), disclosure obligations on journalists vary from outlet to outlet, with little to no consistency on whether journalists disclose their experience of a funded trip to the region before reporting back.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, Palestinian advocacy networks have also run tours of their own, albeit without the five-star experience of Israeli trips.
WA Senator Louise Pratt earlier this year returned from a tour organised by the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN), which in 2017 also saw now-Greens Senators David Shoebridge and Janet Rice visit the occupied territories. The same year saw APAN host a Labor contingent that included frontbencher Tony Burke, Julian Hill, Susan Templeman and Anne Urquhart, amongst others. Crikey understands that trips to Palestine organised by APAN are at least partially self-funded by participants. Crikey reporter Bernard Keane attended a tour of Palestine conducted by APAN in 2016.
The Seven Network, The Sydney Morning Herald, Guardian Australia, News Corp and the NSW JBD did not respond for comment.
Liberal Senator James McGrath returned recently from an AIJAC trip to Israel, telling an AIJAC-hosted luncheon in July that “the challenge for us, as the political class in Australia, is telling people why it is important to be on the side of Israel”. He spoke alongside fellow participant Dr John Lee, a former senior advisor to ex-foreign minister Julie Bishop and a key figure in the most recent Foreign Policy White Paper. Lee told the forum that the Palestinian people had “normalised radicalisation, and that’s a choice”.
A separate smattering of Coalition politicians have also visited the region on AIJAC trips over the last year, including former co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine Sussan Ley, Julian Leeser, Keith Wolahan, Anne Webster, Scott Buchholz and Senator Hollie Hughes. Since then, Ley has described Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s calls for restraint in the conflict as “disgraceful”. The Australian’s foreign affairs and defence correspondent Ben Packham joined one of these trips, and in August this year he spoke at an AIJAC supporters’ function of the impression he got of the “Jewish indigeneity to Israel”.
In 2022, the Nine papers’ federal political correspondent Paul Sakkal attended a week in Israel sponsored by the NSW JBD alongside NSW upper house member Jacqui Munro. Sakkal’s recent exclusive on APAN president Nasser Mashni attracted significant criticism on social media. The trip also included prominent young Liberal Lachlan Finch and recently-concluded JBD Director Gabi Stricker-Phelps.
In 2019, current Courier-Mail editor Chris Jones, the Advertiser’s former head of news Erin Jones, the Nine papers’ federal bureau chief Michelle Griffin, and radio host Brian Carlton all attended an AIJAC trip.
In 2018, former Age deputy editor Michael Bachelard, as well as the Nine papers’ current Europe correspondent Rob Harris both went on an AIJAC trip to Israel alongside then-editor of Adelaide’s Sunday Mail, Andrew Holman, now-West Australian Deputy Editor Mark Mallabone, then-Courier-Mail federal political editor Renee Viellaris, and the Financial Review’s Queensland bureau chief, Mark Ludlow. Nationals MP for Page Kevin Hogan also visited in 2018 alongside WA Liberal MP Rick Wilson and then-Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman. Tasmanian Senator Jonathon Duniam went on a separate trip that year and was joined by LNP Senator Amanda Stoker as well as former Senators Kristina Keneally and Stirling Griff.
Another group sponsored by the NSW JBD in 2018 included the Nine papers’ environment and climate editor Nick O’Malley, then-News.com.au editor-in-chief Kate de Brito, The Australian’s economics correspondent Adam Creighton, then-Sky News business reporter Leo Shanahan, Apple News editor Danielle Pogson, and Nine network editor Simon King.
A cross-aisle group of MPs that included the current speaker of the House of Representatives Milton Dick, as well as house Liberals Tony Pasin and Meryl Swanson visited Israel through AIJAC trips in 2017, alongside current MPs Andrew Hastie, Andrew Wallace, Steve Georganas, Anne Aly and Julian Hill.
Sky News host Peta Credlin also attended a trip in 2017 alongside the Daily Telegraph’s National Affairs Editor, James Morrow, saying on her return that “I’m yet to be convinced the Palestinian Authority is all it says it is”. They were joined by the Herald Sun’s Mark Dunn, then-West Australian political reporter Nick Butterly (now a media advisor for Resources Minister Madeleine King), weekend Courier-Mail editor Kelvin Healey, the ABC’s Nassim Khadem and then-Advertiser state political editor Daniel Wills.
Another trip in 2017 included Sky News senior reporter Caroline Marcus, the Daily Telegraph’s chief of staff Zac McLean, then-Seven’s Bryan Seymour, then-Sydney Morning Herald editor (now AAP CEO) Lisa Davies, weekend Courier-Mail editor Anna Caldwell, then-SBS executive editor Sally Roberts, and Nine mastheads’ executive editor Tory Maguire. Caldwell said on her return that Israel had “captured my heart and my mind”.
In 2016, News Corp opinion columnist Rita Panahi headlined a trip that included perennial Liberal candidate Georgina Downer, describing the media narrative on the conflict as a “victim-villain narrative”. The same year, former Victorian state MP Tim Smith also went on an AIJAC trip alongside a number of his Liberal state colleagues — Smith visited Israel four times in three years between 2014 and 2017.
Another 2016 trip included the then-Financial Review’s Luke Malpass, Nine’s national affairs editor James Massola, and Seven’s Amelia Brace, as well as Sky News’ political editor Andrew Clennell.
In 2014, a high-profile Labor delegation sponsored by AIJAC included current Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Tim Watts, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones, as well as Senator Deborah O’Neill.
Recently retired NSW Labor powerbroker and upper house member Walt Secord went to Israel on an AIJAC trip in 2012, and returned to tell an audience that included then-member for Wentworth Malcolm Turnbull: “Visiting Israel is the best education for any parliamentarian.”
A 2011 trip saw a number of parliamentarians attend an AIJAC trip, including current Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth.
The AIJAC Rambam program counts Turnbull, as well as former prime ministers Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott among its alumni.
