In Brief
- Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi and independent senator Lidia Thorpe were among the attendees.
- Israel's ambassador to Australia Hillel Newman last month refused to apologise to Frankcom's family.
Dozens of activists have demanded Israel's ambassador in Canberra be expelled following the decision not to pursue criminal charges against officers who ordered strikes that killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom in Gaza.
The group converged in front of the Israeli embassy in Canberra on Tuesday displaying dozens of pictures of Palestinians killed by Israel since October 7 across the road from the embassy, with protesters chanting in unison: "Kick out the Israeli ambassador".
Israel's ambassador to Australia Hillel Newman last month declined to apologise to Zomi Frankcom’s family following the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) investigation which determined those responsible for the April 2024 strike that killed Frankcom and six of her colleagues would not be prosecuted.
Newman had said at the time he felt for the family but that the outcomes of Israel's investigation must be respected.
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A group called the Red Rebels staged a demonstration walking slowly to the embassy and pointing to its highly guarded gates, carrying a symbolic fake baby to represent the children killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza.
Activists blocked the entry to the embassy staging a demonstration in stress positions, causing police to physically move them from the driveway across the road. A tense standoff occurred as protesters chanted "free Palestine" in front of a line of police officers.
Zomi's friend Karuna Bajracharya was among the protest group, saying he found remarks by one of the Israeli officers involved in the strike that he did not regret the attack as "disgusting".
Former IDF reserve colonel Nochi Mendel has told the ABC and the Guardian in separate interviews he would do "exactly the same thing" again and that he believed the World Central Kitchen workers killed were "not innocent".
"It's infuriating. It's maddening," Bajracharya told SBS News.
"Like, disgusting the fact that he said, 'I'm not sorry', and the fact that he said he'd do it again.
"The people that we vote for and we put into power and that our taxes pay is supposed to represent us, the Australian people, and we are begging them: send this guy (the ambassador) home, send a clear message, cut the two-way arms trade. But it's obvious that our government is hamstrung."
Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi described the federal government as "cowards" for not declaring how it will proceed with its next steps to seek accountability over Frankcom’s death.
"They have power. They have responsibility, and we will hold them to account. They should have sanctioned Israel a long time ago," Faruqi told protesters.
In Australia's strongest condemnation of Israel's actions, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she was "outraged" following Israel's decision on the World Central Kitchen strikes.
"When Israel abrogated themselves of this crime, senator Wong told us how angry the Australian government was. Instead, they were considering what action to take next, and here we are, almost three weeks later, with nothing. Nothing, not a peep out of the government," Faruqi said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last month Israel had fallen short of the accountability required and the federal government would continue to press for justice for Frankcom and her colleagues.
Independent senator Lidia Thorpe was also among the protest attendees, carrying a box with individual shreds of paper with the names of the 20,000 Palestinian children killed by Israel, reading some of them to protesters.
Thorpe says she witnessed Newman in the Parliament House members' lounge on Monday, accusing him of having "free rein" in parliament.
SBS News has contacted the Israeli embassy and Wong's office for comment on the protest.
Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people in the October 7 2023 attack and 251 people were taken hostage, including children, according to Israeli tallies and Amnesty. All but one have since been released, most of them as part of ceasefire deals and some in Israeli military operations.
The attack precipitated Israel's war in Gaza, which has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians according to Gaza authorities, left swathes of the enclave in ruins and much of its population homeless.
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