Recently, Israel’s military prosecution decided not to open a criminal investigation into the 2024 Gaza strike that killed 7 World Central Kitchen workers, concluding that despite serious operational failures, the evidence did not establish “a reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.”
Among those to condemn this decision was the Australian government, with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong saying Australia had no confidence in the Israeli military justice process.
There’s just one rather glaring problem with Australia taking “the moral high ground.”
Writing in today’s The Australian, Glenn Kolomeitz points to the striking double standard:
In recent weeks Israel announced the closure of its investigation into the deaths of civilian aid workers in the Gaza Strip in April 2024. As a result of that two-year investigation, a decision was made not to start criminal proceedings. It is far from unusual for a democracy to determine that a criminal case is not sustainable.
Australia elected not to even investigate our senior commanders for the alleged crimes of subordinates in Afghanistan on the basis of a flawed application of the law and a lack of understanding of command structures in that theatre.
Not being one to let those pesky facts and laws get in the way of some good old-fashioned Israel bashing, Foreign Minister Penny Wong described her outrage at the decision which, in her words, fell far short of the accountability we expected.
Israel conducts a robust fact finding, takes rapid administrative action against Israel Defence Forces officers, investigates and finds that a criminal threshold has not been met. Australia gives what a government-appointed oversight panel described as a “blanket exemption” to our generals from even being investigated; is that the sort of accountability we expect?
In recent years a series of Australian Defence Force administrative inquiries into suspected civilian casualty incidents in Afghanistan were found to be so lacking in rigour and investigative scepticism that the validity of the findings exculpating ADF personnel has been seriously questioned. Not a word from Wong.
Perhaps she should reflect on the adage about people in glass houses throwing stones.
Read the entire thing.
© Divuach Ne’eman R”A, 2025
