The conclusions of the Binskin report into the Israeli drone strike that killed seven aid workers of the World Central Kitchen (WCK) humanitarian food convoy on 1 April, including Australian Zomi Frankcom, have been released publicly.
Critics will assess the report as a failure which further entrenches impunity for Israel’s actions in Gaza. Binskin ultimately agrees with the Israeli military’s own assessment, concluding that the convoy “was not knowingly or deliberately directed” and that there was a significant break down in Israel’s targeting procedures. The report fails to provide meaningful recommendations for accountability and redress.
Retired Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin, the former chief of the Australian Defence Force, was appointed by the Albanese government as a special adviser and tasked with (among other things) examining the measures Israel has taken to hold those responsible to account and determining whether further investigation is warranted. The foreign minister, Penny Wong, noted that Binskin would provide advice to the Australian government about further actions that could be taken to ensure a full and transparent investigation. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and Wong had emphasised that the Australian government expected “full accountability” for these deaths.
In his report, Binskin said the Israeli government should provide an “appropriate apology” and consider compensation to the families of Frankcom and her six colleagues. The report had seven recommendations, largely urging the IDF to be more careful with aid convoys and requesting Israel provide Australia with any updates from investigations into the 1 April attack.
Unfortunately, Binskin largely echoed Israel’s conclusions. Ultimately, he failed to provide concrete recommendations for accountability, confirming that his task was a perfunctory exercise devoid of substance or any meaningful quest for truth and justice. Australian authorities could and should be doing more to support and call for an independent investigation into the WCK strike. There are many ways this could be achieved.
First, by requesting the Australian federal police open an investigation into the incident. Given Australia has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute allegations of extraterritorial war crimes, there should be no legal barrier to an investigation. The fact that an Australian citizen was killed should provide greater incentive for the AFP to investigate this strike.
The barriers would probably be a lack of cooperation from Israeli authorities to access evidence and the like, but such barriers should not prevent an investigation. Indeed, such barriers have not stopped the prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) from his investigations into the situation in Palestine, nor did they prevent Australia from being a member of the multinational Joint Investigations Team that conducted nine years of criminal investigations into the Russian downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which killed 298 passengers, including 38 Australians.
Australia provided more than $50m to that investigation and more than 500 AFP officers contributed to the investigation over that period. That’s what dedication to ‘full accountability’ looks like.
Such an AFP investigation could be conducted with the purpose of providing support to the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) at the ICC. The ICC is the only independent international court with jurisdiction to investigate the incident and other allegations of international crimes in Gaza. The Australian government could engage the OTP to form a joint investigation, such as the one currently under way in respect of allegations of core international crimes occurring in Ukraine, involving a number of European countries and the ICC. The Australian government has said on numerous occasions that it is a strong supporter of the court. In 2022, it referred the situation in Ukraine to the ICC and further supported the prosecutor’s investigations by providing secondment support with AFP officers. Indeed, the Australian government should refer the full situation in Palestine to the ICC and offer such support to the OTP, which has been seeking assistance from states for resources to support its work.
Second, subject to the wishes of Zomi Frankcom’s family, the NSW coroner could open a coronial inquest into her killing. Assuming Frankcom was a resident of NSW, the coroner has jurisdiction to investigate “suspicious or unusual” deaths of residents of NSW, including where they occurred extraterritorially. There is precedent for this: the 2007 inquest into the killing of the ‘Balibo Five’ in Indonesia.
Third, to further respect Frankcom’s memory, the Australian government should cancel all agreements with Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms company that manufactured the Hermes 450 drone, which launched the strikes killing the seven WCK aid workers.
In February, Elbit Systems was reportedly awarded a defence contract worth $917m to supply technology to infantry fighting vehicles for the Australian army. In light of last month’s advisory opinion of the international court of justice on Israel’s unlawful military occupation of Palestinian territory, axing this deal is the bare minimum response we should expect from the Australian government.
Despite Binskin’s confidence in Israel’s Military Advocate General (MAG) process, Israel has a record of not investigating allegations transparently. How much light was ever going to be shed on the attack that killed Frankcom and her colleagues while they were providing urgent humanitarian relief to a besieged civilian population?
Should the Australian government accept this report and take no further action to support independent investigations by the AFP and/or the ICC, it would grant full impunity to Israel, which has targeted humanitarian workers and aid convoys, even since the WCK strike. UN data reveals that more than 200 UN, Red Crescent and other aid workers have been killed on duty, and more than 500 health workers have been killed since the beginning of the war last year. It is alleged that these statistics reveal a deliberate policy of Israel targeting humanitarian relief support to people in Gaza.
If the Australian government was serious about accountability it would take steps to implement the above recommendations in full.