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Whitewash? UN Names Panel to Probe Israeli Killings on Gaza-Bound Ship
"This is an unprecedented development," Ban said Monday, virtually patting himself on the back.
UN announces panel to probe Gaza flotilla raid But Phyllis Bennis, a fellow of the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies who has written extensively on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, remains highly sceptical given the Jewish state's track record.
She told IPS that Israel has never accepted U.N. or international investigations of its human rights violations.
"Look how it rejected and condemned the U.N.'s Goldstone Report documenting possible war crimes during the 2008-09 attack on Gaza," Bennis said. "Look at the refusal to allow the U.N.'s Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Professor Richard Falk, to enter the West Bank to carry out his mandate."
Instead, Israeli authorities arrested him at Tel Aviv airport, tossed him into a dirty prison cell overnight and deported him the next day.
"Look at Israel's refusal to allow Archbishop Desmond Tutu into Gaza to help conduct an international investigation," Bennis said. "Look at the one time Israel pretended to agree to cooperate with a U.N. investigation team, in 2002, when the U.N. was set to examine the killing of civilians in the Jenin refugee camp during Israel's re-occupation of the West Bank."
Israel agreed to accept the team, only to demand more and more concessions, finally reneging altogether on its promise, rejecting the team, leaving then U.N. Secretary- General Kofi Annan to shamefacedly disband the team, then cooling their heels in Geneva, and sending them home, said Bennis, author of 'Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today's U.N.'
That ill-fated 20-member fact-finding mission was headed by former Finnish President Martti Ahtissari.
Responding to questions, U.N. spokesperson Martin Nesirky told reporters Monday the current panel will not be involved in any criminal investigation.
"It has been tasked with making findings about the facts, circumstances and context of the incident, as well as recommending ways of avoiding similar incidents in the future," he added.
Last month Israel appointed its own panel of inquiry, widely criticised as a cover-up attempt, to probe the Gaza flotilla killings.
Mouin Rabbani, a widely-respected political analyst and contributing editor to the Washington-based Middle East Report, told IPS: "The Israeli report on the armed naval assault on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was a complete sham."
He said there was in fact no need to wait for the publication of the report to reach this conclusion.
"The concept that Israel is capable of investigating itself, and producing anything remotely credible, has been demonstrated as beyond the capacity of the Israeli system, time and time again," he said.
Israeli investigations of Israeli military conduct typically revolve around one issue: whether the military acted with sufficient proficiency to accomplish its objectives, and if not, to examine what went wrong - in the narrow, technical sense.
By design, the real questions are removed from the investigative agenda from the outset.
"Examining the legal questions surrounding this murderous assault, not least the question of criminal liability and consequences, do not enter into such exercises, apart from bland and general statements that Israel has the right to do whatever it damn well pleases," said Rabbani.
Thus the need for a credible international investigation as proposed by the secretary-general remains, and it is to be hoped that this is pursued even if the prospects, as with so much relating to Israeli accountability for criminal conduct, appear rather doubtful, he predicted.
In a statement released Monday, the secretary-general said that for the past two months, he was actively engaged in "intensive consultations" with the leaders of Israel and Turkey on the setting-up of the panel.
The panel will be chaired by the former prime minister of New Zealand, Geoffrey Palmer, with the outgoing president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe, as vice-chair.
Scheduled to begin work on Aug. 10, the panel will have two additional members, one each from Israel and Turkey. The first progress report is expected to be released by mid- September.
In late May, following the Israeli attack on the flotilla, the 15-member Security Council issued a presidential statement - far short of a resolution - "taking note" of a statement by the secretary- general on "the need to have a full investigation into the matter".
The statement also called "for a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation conforming to international standards".
The panel is a result of Ban's proposal to the Security Council.
Norman Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, told IPS: "How truly independent will this inquiry be?" That's the key question, he said.
"My initial concern is that the panel membership appears to be tied in with politically powerful interests - not a good sign. Whether this will be a clarifying or whitewashing effort remains to be seen," he added.
Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies told IPS that the irony, of course, is that the international and U.N.-backed team reflects Israel's continuing U.S.-backed influence at the United Nations.
Colombian President Uribe, Washington's closest ally and most reliable military dependent in all of Latin America, is hardly likely to challenge his patron's closest ally and military partner in the Middle East, said Bennis.
It may not be a complete whitewash, it may even turn into a good precedent for a future in which Israel really is held accountable for its violations of international law, but this first time isn't likely to go very far, Bennis added.
25 Comments so far
Show All"The May 31 Israeli commando raid on the aid flotilla, which sparked a deep crisis in already strained relations between Turkey and Israel, once close allies."
Proofreader, please.
I don't know that much about Palmer but Uribe is a US stooge. Israel only agreed to this panel because they know that they have nothing to worry about.
q
I'm still waiting for the investigation of the USS Liberty.
There were at least five different investigations. All came up with the same conclusion. Of course, this doesn't count. You're waiting for an investigation that would say what you want to hear.
How many were independent investigations? This one isn't independent either, and Israel is cooperating because they know the inquiry won't speak the obvious truth on the May 31 incident.
Ok....I'm waiting....how many investigations that were not staffed by Israelis?
To Zionists, 'coverup' means the same thing as 'investigation' when it comes to Israel.
"...outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as vice chairman,"
You've got to be kidding!
Sounds like a setup to me, probably instigated by the US. I don't know much about Palmer and I wonder who the Turkish dude is. I'd say that Richard Goldstone would certainly have been a good choice for investigation but at the moment he is under siege by the character assassination machine of the Israeli right and its both Jewish and non-Jewish fellow travelers here in the US. This is probably the best one will get out of the UN.
Uribe is most definitely a US puppet.
Check out Palmer if you want to see what a firm hand will be on the tiller over First Mate Uribe. His bio makes him look like the international Lee Daniels.
Uribe?
Wasn't Tony Blair or some other A-list charlatan employed by the Distinguished Statesman Escort Service available?
Micheletti couldn't do it. He has to wash his hair that day.
Israel says they attacked the civilians on the Turkish vessel only after they were attacked.
I heard from an eye witness from Maine who was aboard the vessel running parallel to the Turkish vessel and he said the Israelis were, without a doubt, the ones who initiated the violence. As ususal, Israel lies and the Americans fall all over themselves to be the first to kiss the Israelis' ass.
I am afraid there is no hope for America. Too many of its citizens are terminally stupid.
"terminally stupid" can apply to all of us, past and present! I enjoyed Ralph Nader's interview on BookTV this weekend in which he recommends we stop talking in "misused language"/code to politicians and confront them flat-out the way they speak to each other informally. (penetrating the verbal camouflage of disinformation with terms like "national security"). Would love to see someone with expertise publish a workbook for transparency/truth in language...many of the contributors here could pull it off!.
seven minutes should about do it (International Water)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct0T9PtQ3i8&feature=player_embedded#!
"and with outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as vice chairman,"
a mass murderer investigating mass murderers... ban-ki-moon shows us his true colors..
Uribe?
What, were Dick Cheney and Richard Pearle too busy?
How to prevent these "incidents" from happening in the future? Oh, you mean massacres and piracy? Well, how about passing international laws against those crimes--Israel will surely jump onboard. Err, we did, and they didn't. Back to the drawing board.
This was announced by the same Martin Nesirky, spokesman for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who, just days ago, announced (apparently on behalf of the Secretary-General) that aid could legitimately be delivered to Gaza only over Israeli approved overland routes. The UN Secretariat, through its shiny new spokesman, demonstrates how honest a broker it can be expected to be.
A recipe for no results.
A panel consisting of 2 former politicians that don't have reputation for protecting human rights, a defendent (Turkey) and the attacker (Israel) which by the way has not cooperated with previous UN inquiries into its actions and has yet to return the property that it confiscated and destroyed in its illegal hijacking in international waters. This is a recipe for no results, which would suit Israel and the United States fine.
Ragdoll
According to the human rights lawyer, Linda Brayer, in her June 4th essay posted on Jewish Peace News, there's not really much to investigate because it's clear the attack on the flotilla was an act of war against the vessels under whose flags the vessels were sailing.
Nobody disputes that the attack took place in international waters. Or that that the vessels were carrying civilians. The press has largely confused piracy, acts of aggression carried out in international waters by individuals, with this act of aggression carried out by a state which is an act of war constituting a Crime against the peace, and Crimes against humanity, namely murder.
It looks like this investigative panel is tasked with avoiding such attacks in the future, sort of like putting in a traffic light after 9 people are killed at an intersection by a drunk driver . . . and the drunk driver is let go.
"The press has largely confused piracy, acts of aggression carried out in international waters by individuals, with this act of aggression carried out by a state which is an act of war constituting a Crime against the peace, and Crimes against humanity, namely murder."
That's what the Jewish-owned press is supposed to do. Another job well done by the Israeli Ministry of Propaganda and Misinformation.
"Despite initial misgivings, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon received the tacit approval of the Israeli government to establish an international panel to probe the widely-condemned killings of nine Turkish civilians onboard a flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza last May."
Do we really need to get past this opening paragraph to know the outcome of this farcade? So, essentially, if Israrel had said "NO" to the investigation, they would have all quitely and sheepeshly acquiessed and gone home in agreement, I guess?
Really! Somebody should have asked Hitler for his approval to proceed before any action was taken. In retrospect, it should have been the right thing to do.
I can just see the report now:
"In an independent investigation of the UN's independent committee to investigate the terrorist attack perpetrated by Hamas, Hamas, Hamas and elements associated with Hamas, Hamas, Hamas, it was determined, after interviewing only the Israelis commandos involved that it was Hamas, Hamas, Hamas and its colaborators who were at fault by attacking the defenseless heroes armed only with rotten eggs and vibrators. Hamas, Hamas, Hamas is hereby found guilty of piracy against the State of Israel. Hamas, Hamas, Hamas, is guilty of terrorism against the State of Israel. Hamas, Hamas, Hamas should go to bed without dinner tonight for the atrocities commited."
Signed: Moe, Larry and Curly.
Or something like that.
re: uribe...a murderer judging murderers...
“...Colombia was once again the country where standing up for fundamental rights of workers is more likely than anywhere else to mean a death sentence, despite the Colombian government’s public relations campaign,” said ITCU General Secretary Guy Ryder. “The Colombian authorities must take urgent and effective measures to guarantee the physical integrality of Colombian trade unionists.
Uribe certainly has reason to shift the attention away from Colombia and toward Venezuela. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is pressing its investigation of the “false-positives” murders, and Uribe’s brother has been accused of working with death squads."!!! --conn hallinan, counterpunch
AP News
Aug 04, 2010 14:18 EDT
A domestic spying scandal has reached Alvaro Uribe's inner circle...
...Prosecutors have been questioning his closest advisers in recent weeks over allegations they illegally ordered warrantless wiretapping of the conservative president's political enemies by the DAS domestic spy agency.
Uribe's chief of staff, Bernardo Moreno, was deposed last week after jailed former DAS intelligence chief Fernando Tabares said Moreno told him in late 2007 that "the president was interested in having the DAS keep him informed" about four targets.
another joke by the gutless UN. Time to remove the 5 permanent panel ( NUKE NATIONS) and replace the UN with an open vote by all members. As long as the USA pretects Israel ALL the time nothing will be done. Is that not democracy, everyone gets a vote and not just 5 nations
{"Examining the legal questions surrounding this murderous assault, not least the question of criminal liability and consequences, do not enter into such exercises, apart from bland and general statements that Israel has the right to do whatever it damn well pleases," said Rabbani.}
and everyone else on the planet has the right to do as they please as well. if our governments are unwilling to hold israel accountable for it's actions, the responsibility falls on our shoulders. avoid israeli products and encourage your friends to boycott israeli companies as well.
encourage the congress to suspend all military/economic aid to israel, sanction israel in the UN, as we do w/ other rouge states that attack our allies (say n korea's attack on the s korean sub) and support the BDS (boycott, divest, sanctions) movement against israel.
http://bdsmovement.net/
Israel is a rouge state and needs to be checked before it causes more suffering to innocent people (people struggling for their lives, their culture, people struggling for peace and any innocent bystander who gets in israel's way).
as to norm solomon's comment...
{"Whether this will be a clarifying or whitewashing effort remains to be seen," he added.}
come on norm, was there ever really a doubt there ?
...peace...
so the killers of count folke bernadotte and the murderers at der yassin will soon have the chief killer in all of latin america, mr. uribe, vindicate israeli murderers and pirates (they're still using flotilla passengers' credit cards all over tel aviv shops)?
mr. moon is a bit of a spineless puppet, wouldn't ya say, boys?