A protester in Melbourne holds a picture of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, who was killed in an Israeli air strike while delivering food in Gaza. Photograph: AAP/Reuters View image in fullscreen A protester in Melbourne holds a picture of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, who was killed in an Israeli air strike while delivering food in Gaza. Photograph: AAP/Reuters Opinion Israel Zomi Frankcom did not deserve to die. Israel’s refusal to investigate her death and its failure to apologise is despicable Geoffrey Robertson The Israeli ambassador has claimed ‘a court came to a decision that there’s no criminal liability’ but there is no evidence that any court has been involved
Z omi Frankcom did not deserve to die. She and her six colleagues were traveling in a clearly marked humanitarian convoy to distribute food to starving Palestinians on a route that had been communicated well in advance to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It bombed them deliberately and repeatedly. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu , announced the next day that the attack was a “mistake” and a few days later its two commanders were forced to retire, and three others were disciplined. An internal inquiry followed, but this week – well over two years later – the IDF announced that there would be no further investigation because there could be no suspicion that any crime had been committed: it was merely a mistake. This is a serious misunderstanding of the law of war.
Read more Mistakes may have fatal consequences and, if they are the result of gross negligence or reckless or irresponsible conduct, they are culpable and deserving of punishment. The crime of manslaughter in Australian and English law reflects this grave level of criminality. In war law, under article 8 of the statute of the international criminal court (ICC) “intentionally launching an attack in the knowledge that such an attack will cause loss of life to civilians” and “directing attacks against personnel or vehicles involved in humanitarian assistance” are serious war crimes which may be committed by mistakes made through negligence or blind eyes turned to their foreseeable consequences. The IDF decision not to investigate Zomi’s killing on the grounds that it was merely a “mistake” is not a legitimate reason and the Israeli government’s refusal even now to apologise is despicable.
Not that an investigation by the IDF is likely to lead to an indictment of those who ordered the attack. According to statistics provided by a UN inquiry into “Operation Cast Lead”, the 22-day war in 2009, more than 1,000 Palestinians were killed, but no indictments were brought against those responsible for this exercise in urban military aggression (provoked by Hamas rocket attacks). There were many war crime allegations including attacks on hospitals and mosques, and the IDF commenced 400 investigations against individual soldiers but only two were ever brought to trial and the only prison sentence – of seven months – was imposed on a soldier for stealing a credit card.
The refusal to act over Zomi’s case and on two other atrocities involving the killing of workers for Médecins Sans Frontières was seemingly balanced by the decision to allow investigations into two other killings to go ahead – the murder of two doctors in a Red Crescent ambulance while they were tending to victims of an IDF strike, including five-year-old Hind Rajab, and another attack on ambulances that killed 15 medics. What was the…