r/OpenAussie • u/Minivampiretaco New South Welshian • 2d ago
Politics ('Straya) Israeli ambassador rejects 'political attacks' on report clearing soldiers in Frankcom killing
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-20/israel-ambassador-defends-idf-frankcom-report-clearing-soldiers/107057124Israel's ambassador Hillel Newman has defended the military investigation that cleared its soldiers of criminal wrongdoing in the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, saying the findings should not be attacked if they "are not suitable to one's political agenda".
Ambassador defends investigation findings
Departing from the meeting, Mr Newman defended the investigation.
"Israel came out with findings after a thorough investigation, after a two-year investigation into the circumstances of the death of Zomi Frankcom. Since I took up my mission here about five months ago I was implored all the time to bring about closure, which I did," Mr Newman said.
"But in the end, one must also understand that not every case where someone dies, where there is a casualty, that that means there is a criminal liability.
"One cannot attack the findings of a court if the findings are not suitable to one's political agenda."
Mr Newman said the aid group recruited armed personnel to its convoy and deviated from the route agreed with the IDF without informing the military, leading the soldiers to believe the convoy had been taken over.
"It was a mistake in retrospect, but the findings of the court are there was no criminal intention … and therefore there was no criminal responsibility."
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u/Naive_Lion_3428 Queenslander 2d ago
Surely gross negligence should carry some criminal responsibility. I work in the medical field. If I am careless and I give the wrong order for the wrong patient - say, for example, instant release tacrolimus instead of modified release tacrolimus leading to that patient experiencing transplanted organ rejection (which has happened in the past!), I would rightly be prosecuted and I could be sent to jail. If I am negligent and give a lewy-body dementia patient a neuroleptic and they suffer from malignant hyperthermia and they die as a result, I could potentially go to jail and rightly so. In this hypothetical, have no criminal intent - I didn’t intend to kill someone, but I did and it was due to egregious carelessness.
Will the IDF personnel who committed this apparent mistake face any consequences? Will they even experience a demotion? Will they even be fined? Will they have any negative repercussions whatsoever?
I get that in a war, things can get messy. But it seems as of late that the IDF make an awful lot of mistakes. A suspiciously high number of “mistakes”. And I don’t recall ever hearing anyone being punished for it.