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UN Chief Dilly-Dallying on Panel to Probe Israeli Killings?
UNITED NATIONS - When the Security Council condemned the killings by Israeli military forces of nine Turkish civilians on a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza last May, it also released a presidential statement "taking note" of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's proposal for an international investigation of the incident.
Pro-Palestinian activists gather around an Israeli commando on board the Gaza-bound Turkish ship Mavi Marmara in the international waters of Mediterranean sea early May 31, 2010. (REUTERS/Adem Ozkose/Gercek Hayat Magazine via IHH/Handout) But nearly two months later there are no signs of the proposed "prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation."
After an earlier devastating three-week Israeli military offensive against Gaza in late 2008 - which left more than 1,400 people dead and over 5,000 injured - the Human Rights Council in Geneva appointed a three member fact- finding mission, led by Judge Richard Goldstone.
That panel submitted a blistering report accusing both Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes.
Norman Finkelstein, a scholar and political scientist, told IPS that after publication of the Goldstone report, Israeli leaders complained that the report was making it difficult for Israel to launch another war.
"Unfortunately, Ban Ki-moon did not implement the recommendations of the Goldstone report [to pursue war crimes charges], but instead has prolonged the proceedings," he added. "Now he is procrastinating on the formation of a committee to investigate Israeli crimes on the Mavi Marmara [the Turkish ship attacked by Israeli military forces]."
The outcome is easily foreseeable, said Finkelstein, author of several books, including ‘This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion'.
Israel is now preparing for an attack on Lebanon, he warned. "It will be an assault next to which previous ones pale by comparison. And it is because Ban Ki-moon has been delinquent in his responsibilities that Israel will be able to launch this monstrous attack," he predicted.
When the death and destruction come in Lebanon, Ban should be held culpable, said Finkelstein.
"The secretary-general is obviously under pressure from the United States and other Western states not to conduct an international probe unless he has the concurrence of Israel," says one diplomatic source.
"If the Israelis do agree," he told IPS, "which I very much doubt, it will be a watered down investigation, not a ‘full investigation' the Security Council agreed on."
Last month an Israeli-appointed self-investigating panel absolved the military forces of any criminality in the flotilla attack.
Richard Falk, professor of international law emeritus at Princeton University, told IPS: "It seems abundantly clear the Government of Israel is hostile to international criticisms, or to any effort to assess contested Israeli behavior by way of a U.N. initiative."
Falk said Israel refused to cooperate with the Goldstone fact-finding mission, and then defamed Goldstone and repudiated the report once released - despite scrupulous efforts to produce a balanced assessment of alleged violations of humanitarian law by both Israelis and Palestinians.
"The failure so far by Ban Ki Moon to appoint forthwith such an investigative panel contrasts with the response to a similar call in relation to investigate allegations of Sri Lanka's criminality in suppressing the Tamil insurgency," said Falk, currently U.N. special rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
"It should be obvious that only an international panel has any prospect of achieving a comprehensive, objective, and credible assessment of the flotilla incident, which directly involves a highly contested use of Israeli state power to attack a humanitarian mission on international waters," he added.
Asked if the secretary-general is still awaiting "permission" from Israel before naming the panel of inquiry, U.N. spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters Monday that Ban is very actively pursuing his proposal. "As you know, he has met [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and has spoken to him on the telephone."
He has also spoken to the Foreign Minister of Turkey, [Ahmet] Davutoglu, about this matter.
"So he is pursuing this very vigorously, and clearly, he does want to push ahead with it. But, as we've also mentioned on a number of occasions, you do need those key elements in place before you can actually make it happen," said Nesirky.
Asked who is responsible for the foot-dragging, Turkey or Israel, he said: "Look, it's not a question of foot dragging; it is a question of making sure that everybody is on the same page, to mix a metaphor."
"It's not for me to characterize the positions of other countries, or of member states; they can do that themselves," Nesirky said. "All I would say is that the secretary-general is in frequent contact with the parties concerned, and would hope to have a positive response so that he can then push ahead with this commission sooner rather than later."
Naseer H. Aruri, chancellor professor (Emeritus) at the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth, told IPS the proposed international commission "may never see the light of day if recent experience is to prove valid".
In October last year, Israel, the U.S. and western allies succeeded in "postponing" indefinitely the referral of the Goldstone report on the Israeli onslaught on Gaza to the U.N. Human Rights Council for discussion, he said.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that, behind the scenes, Palestinian officials had faced threats that Israel would retaliate by inflicting enormous damage on the beleaguered Palestinian economy.
The same accusations would have been launched against the Palestinian Authority had it not agreed to postpone the discussion of the Goldstone report in the U.N. Human Rights Council.
The flagrant violations of international law by Israel's armed forces against civilians resulted in similar policy responses from U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. "Both excused Israel, shielded Israel from international scrutiny, and permitted Israel to once again get away with impunity," said Aruri.
81 Comments so far
Show AllFinal paragraph sums it up:
"The flagrant violations of international law by Israel's armed forces against civilians resulted in similar policy responses from U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. "Both excused Israel, shielded Israel from international scrutiny, and permitted Israel to once again get away with impunity," said Aruri."
We can say the same about Bubba Clinton and others. International law is only applied when it benefits the interests of the Empire. Otherwise, hypocrisy and double standards rule the day.
Excellent post.
"Months After Flotilla Killings, Where's the Investigation?"
_____________________________
Maybe it got misplaced with all the flotilla members' personal possessions and equipment pillaged by the IDF attackers.
To echo Col. Ann Wright-- check the local black market.
Besides, Israel just finished whitewashing their terrorist assault on Gaza. Even rabid terrorist states need a bit of rest before inventing a whole new set of self-serving lies, distortions, and fabrications.
After all, they're only inhuman!
"I believe everyone, even Zionist psychopaths, should be assumed to be human and innocent..."
Really, Justice Arcs? I dare say that only a psychopath would really believe that, which fits in nicely with psychopathic Zionism.
Meanwhile, the Palestinians suffer while you wait for your 'proof'.
the proof: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article25972.htm
exhibit b:. Listen to the words of Professor!!! Arnon Sofer, the government consultant who did so much to help plan the isolation and imprisonment of Gaza, in a interview with the Jerusalem Post in 2004:
“When 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it’s going to be a human catastrophe,” Sofer predicted. “Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam*. The pressure on the border is going to be awful. It’s going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day.” Sofer admitted only one worry with all the killing, which will, he says, be the necessary outcome of a policy that he himself helped to invent. “The only thing that concerns me,” he says, “is how to ensure that the boys and men who are going to have to do the killing will be able to return home to their families and be normal human beings.”...
Source: Interview with the Jerusalem Post in 2004 ("It's the demography, stupid", Jerusalem Post weekend supplement Up Front, May 21, 2004)
The last words make one think of the qualms Heinrich Himmler had, about how long young SS men could sustain acting at the continuous mass executions without turning crazy. As a consequence"the authorities of the 3rd Reich turned to industrially organized mass executions via (using) gas chambers"
Bernd Rosenlecher
exhibit c
Israeli soccer matches were suspended during the assault on Gaza. When the games resumed last week, the fans had come up with a new chant: "Why have the schools in Gaza been shut down?" sang the crowd. "Because all the children were gunned down!" came the answer.
Aside from its sheer barbarism, this chant reflects the widespread belief among Israeli Jews that Israel scored an impressive victory in Gaza – a victory measured, not least, by the death toll...
...Every child has a story. A Bedouin friend recently called to tell us about his relatives in Gaza. One cousin allowed her five-year-old daughter to walk to the adjacent house to see whether the neighbours had something left to eat. The girl had been crying from hunger. The moment she began crossing the street a missile exploded nearby and the flying shrapnel killed her. The mother has since been bedridden, weeping and screaming, "I have let my girl die hungry". neve gordon/gael bronner
exhibit d
In its April 2008 report, the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said over 7,000 children had been arrested since the start of the second Intifada, 360 still in detention, some as young as 10, treated harshly like adults, in violation of international law requiring special treatment for children.
Of these, 145 have been sentenced, 200 still await trial, and 15 are administratively held without charge. The report also explained that about 500 other prisoners were arrested as youths, turning 18 in prison.
Other data confirmed around 75 children ill, not being treated, nearly all tortured by being beaten, hooded, painfully shackled and deprived of sleep for several days in the shabeh position — hands and legs bound to a small chair, at times from behind to a pipe affixed to the wall, painfully slanted forward, hooded with a filthy sack, and played loud music nonstop through loudspeakers.
Another Zionist going unhinged.
well i think it is true that among those who call themselves zionists, there are honorable men, for instance noam chomsky and richard goldstone, and many whose zionism is a kind of blindspot,.. for a short while in the 60's i was myself a member of hashomer hatzair,... at that time i knew about the endemic *israel"i racism, but hoped it would change... but i did not know about the nakba,..then i learned the truth about the nakba, and i met an "israel"i airman who described to me his glee napalming fleeing egyptian soldiers, and an "israel"i friend told me about how much martin buber was hated in "israel".....that was it. that is it., that monstrous thing, the abstract entity which is the state that hides itself behind the name "israel" must disappear and return to the abyss from which it arose...
Where does Chomsky call himself a Zionist?
Don't try to launder the word - and all the nastiness is entails.
As for Goldstone, so he didn't outright lie for Israel. Appreciated,
but still doesn't whitewash Zionists.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info
/article25972.htm
"The secretary general is obviously under pressure from the United States and Weatern states not to conduct an international probe unless he has the concurrence of Israel". Nothing like having your hands tied before you even begin. This whole issue is a waste of time and money unless you can give an honest assetment. Apparently Israel and their Western backers only want an investigation that puts Israel in a possitive light. If our children in school were being bullied at school and the principle refused to do anything about it saying boys will be boys, would that be exceptable?
Who needs an investigation? What difference would that make? About as much as the Goldstone Report did?
It's clear to anyone with eyes and a brain and a conscience what happened. Israel is now above the law, beyond the reach of any jurisdiction, perhaps too powerful to be stopped.
Welcome to the new reality.
Your're right, of course. Too real. Too depressing. Too FU**ING wrong!
The "international community" - the UN - established Israel. From there it went awry from the very start. Seems time to dismantle Israel, in it's current form, and resurrect it in a proper form - i.e. WITH a constitution, one that could be exemplary to the world of how well a secular state can be organized to give peope equal rights, liberties and obligations.
While you're at the business of "resurrecting it in a proper form" why not move it to Texas or Brooklyn and let the Palestinians have their land back? It would only be the fair & just thing to do.
the UN - established Israel
Is it not really quite ironic when you think about it? The one country founded on the basis of a UN resolution has managed to ignore more than 66 others, become a rouge state in terms of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, is founded on a “racist” or rather genetic and historical myth, is a colonialist aggressor sighting its security as the legitimacy for its ethnic cleansing, has been sighted for war crimes, state terrorism, and false flag intrigue designed to heighten regional tensions…..
I thought the UN was established to allow the world to agree in coming together to protect themselves through cooperation and development from counties specifically like this one that see no limit to their hegemony and inhumanity, and founded particularly so that another disastrous world war might be avoided. Yet principally because of the corruption of the US administrations, laws and government by Zionists to create out of America a puppet, and out of Israel a sword, we now face the threat of global Zionist fascism and the endless conflicts and suffering that it entails. The world is already at war, the rich for oil and the poor for food and freedom from tyranny.
As “conscious”, to whom you were replying put it so clearly, “Israel is now above the law, beyond the reach of any jurisdiction, perhaps too powerful to be stopped”
Stopping Israel, which means dismantling the cancerous corruption of the US regime, is what that “perhaps” hinges on, a tall order indeed but unless we come together to do just that, we are certainly “all Palestinians now”.
The expression “The road to hell is paved by good intentions” comes to mind. Zionism is a political project by sociopaths. It defines Jews as the permanent victim. Despite any number of atrocities done in their name we must feel sorry for them. Martha Stout's little book “The Sociopath Next Door” is brilliant. The 3 Lies And You Are History rule she espouses alone makes this book essential reading. It is a shame we cannot put the Zionist project for Eretz Israel into the dust bin of history where it always belonged.
Yes conscious, just like multinational corporations, Israel is above the law. No sanctions, just increased military aid.
International commission conclusions: "mistakes were made"
Israeli commission conclusions: "no they weren't!"
HEY, How about those G-20 protestors, huh? I hope they all got hit by the water cannon! (/sarcasm)
rabble is doing their own investigation on that one.
Is-real killers.
You guys sure don't like Isreal, I didn't know it was so strong, I have always believed that what they are doing is very wrong, but I didn't realize Americans hated Isreal. I see how that makes sence for sure, because most countries in the world hate us, and call us the murderers of the world. Is it our leaders ? Or is it us ?
I personally have never hated anyone, from any country, never really had the oppertunity to know someone that well from another country, except when I was very young and my friend from Germany went back there, because of local people being predjudice towards them. We never hated each other though, we parted freinds, sadly.
hatred?......
. Listen to the words of Professor!!! Arnon Sofer, the government consultant who did so much to help plan the isolation and imprisonment of Gaza, in a interview with the Jerusalem Post in 2004: “When 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it’s going to be a human catastrophe,” Sofer predicted. “Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam*. The pressure on the border is going to be awful. It’s going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day.” Sofer admitted only one worry with all the killing, which will, he says, be the necessary outcome of a policy that he himself helped to invent. “The only thing that concerns me,” he says, “is how to ensure that the boys and men who are going to have to do the killing will be able to return home to their families and be normal human beings.”... Source: Interview with the Jerusalem Post in 2004 ("It's the demography, stupid", Jerusalem Post weekend supplement Up Front, May 21, 2004)
The last words make one think of the qualms Heinrich Himmler had, about how long young SS men could sustain acting at the continuous mass executions without turning crazy. As a consequence"the authorities of the 3rd Reich turned to industrially organized mass executions via (using) gas chambers" Bernd Rosenlecher
Israeli soccer matches were suspended during the assault on Gaza. When the games resumed last week, the fans had come up with a new chant: "Why have the schools in Gaza been shut down?" sang the crowd. "Because all the children were gunned down!" came the answer. Aside from its sheer barbarism, this chant reflects the widespread belief among Israeli Jews that Israel scored an impressive victory in Gaza – a victory measured, not least, by the death toll...
.neve gordon/gael bronner
De-Countrify Israel Now. Take your "Love" somewhere else.
I hate what Israel has done and is doing to the indigenous population of the country it now occupies, as well as throughout the middle east, and to America itself.
America in particular is being destroyed by its fealty to Israel. That - in my view - makes Israel a fair target.
And if Israel doesn't reform itself, things are likely to get much, much worse.
The Lead-in to this article asks "MONTHS AFTER FLOTILLA KILLINGS, WHERE'S THE INVESTIGATION?"
Why not "YEARS AFTER 9/11, WHERE'S THE INVESTIGATION"
Any thorough investigation would have revealed Israel to be guilty in both cases.
Ouch........!!!!
Wow! In only two months Ban Ki-moon has already met with Netanyahu and spoken with him on the telephone. Anybody complaining about the lack of progress towards the international investigation of 'the incident' proposed by Ban Ki-moon is simply ignoring the record of accomplishiment by by Ban Ki-moon to date. For god's sake, people, he has already talked to Prime Minister Netanyahu and spoken to him on the telephone!
The matter is being pursued with all the diligence and tenacity you can expect of an American-owned Secretary General.
And as soon as he gets everybody on the same page...whatever that means...you're really going to see things move.
LOL
:vomit
I saw footage of the attack on Gaza - if the attack on Lebanon is even worse ...
Aljazeera english has their own youtube page, just in case the Corporate owned media (and the media afraid of Harper's dismantling) doesn't cover it. rabble.ca tends to have extensive coverage of these kinds of events.
Then again, hopefully Moon is replaced before the attack on Lebanon can happen.
Investigation?
No one really, truly investigated 9/11. What makes us think anyone will investigate this one?
Hugo Chavez or Ramsey Clark for Secretary General!
Hugo Chavez has a sophomoric sense if humor. And Ramsey Clark has none at all.
And your post is way beyond irrelevant.
No one investigated USS Liberty, why would they investigate this one?
Excellent!
Hey guys,
I hope this allowed, I have never used this website before so I wasn't really sure what this was going to do. So this is just a test post. I really like this forum, it has some excellent discussions that take place.Converse Century Converse pretty much established their cool kudos right from the start when in 1913 it announced it would be different to the mainstream.
murderers and terrorists since 1948. just ask the family of count folke bernadotte.
Your not supposed to plunder the resourses of yourselves though....
that's Suicide.
Let's not beat around the bush--the proper name for that particular spot on our planet is Palestine, and it belongs to people native to that area, regardless of their faith.
Investigation? What investigation? We don't need no stinkin' investigation.
Seriously, didn't you hear? Israel investigated itself and found itself to have done absolutely nothing wrong except for some lack of communication between the players. They, of course, have bowed to correct that little problem so that the same doesn't occur again in the future. Translated as, next time, they'll torpedo the boat and drop a missle on it just for good measure. Leaving witness can pose quite the PR nightmare for an otherwise righteous and justified massacre.
As for the statement "If the Israelis do agree," he told IPS, "which I very much doubt, it will be a watered down investigation, not a ‘full investigation' the Security Council agreed on." I wonder why nobody asked the Nazis for permission to investigate. It now seems that it would have been the proper way to proceed.
When any government sets up a commission to investigate itself, the government appoints people who believe that the government should always be blameless.
Warren Commission on the Kennedy Assassination had Allen Dulles,
the man who was fired by Kennedy for the bungled Bay of Pigs. Was
there an investigation? Absolutely not, and the same CIA people that
bungled Bay of Pigs have been implicated in the assassination.
9/11 Commission, directed by Philip Zelikow, who helped write the plans
to invade Iraq and Afghanistan.....What about all those reports about
explosions in the lower levels of the buildings? No investigation
What about the demolition of World Trade Center#7? No investigation
What about the five practice exercises by NORAD that prevented the
intercept of any hijacked planes? No investigation....What about
the "Put Options" on American and United Airlines (4600 times normal)?
No investigation.....What about money trail from Saudi Arabia, ISI (CIA)?
No investigation.....What about the murder of almost 3,000 American Citizens?
Evidence destroyed, videos confiscated and destroyed, and no investigation!
Whether it is "The Power Elite of The United States" or "The Power Elite of Israel", they are all in control and murder is only one of their tactics to maintain control of their people.
Is there anywhere that Israel doesn't have its tentacles?
New Zealand....They expelled all the Israelis and no longer have embassy there.
Yeah!!!!
Celebrate! Celebrate!! Celebrate!!!!
Bravo.
Unfortunately, the Israeli embassy in New Zealand is up and running:
http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3886929,00.html
In point of fact, that is not correct.
Israel closed its embassy in Wellington in 2002 for financial reasons and made their ambassador to Australia, the ambassador to Australia *and* New Zealand. In 2004 relations were suspended over a spy scandal. In 2005 the Israelis apologized and relations were resumed and have continued unchanged ever since. In 2006 Helen Clark, the PM expressed satisfaction with the UN Security Council's resolution to stop the Lebanon War. Other than that there hasn't been much of any newsworthy consequence.
Antother brilliant and complex analysis wow. Jews bad Anglos good. F@cking brilliant mate! You should write a book.
At least we can be thankful of the tens of millions of fat lazy racist Anglos who sit idly by and support their tax monies being used for War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity, supporting Apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
Besides, we have to "secure the border" to keep those bad ol Mexicans out dontya know. A majority of Anglos supports Arizona and its racist laws.
I'm sure you didn't understand the post.
Why don't you make an articluate argument for a change? I'm sure you don't understand what I'm on about.