Israeli MP urges UN probe of Tel Aviv

Arab Israel lawmaker Hanin Zuabi


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/140702.html


An Israeli lawmaker says she plans to demand a probe of Israeli leaders by the UN Human Rights Council over the deadly takeover of a Gaza-bound aid convoy.

Arab Israeli deputy Hanin Zuabi announced Monday her intent to ask the UN body to investigate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, Israel's Ynet news website reported.

On May 31, Israeli navy commandos attacked the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters, killing nine Turkish nationals onboard the aid convoy and leaving dozens injured.

Zuabi, who was accompanying Gaza Freedom Flotilla when it was attacked, charges the three Israeli leaders with bearing personal responsibility for the "criminal and pirate takeover" which claimed the lives of activists onboard the civilian fleet.

The MP is due to testify on Tuesday before the UN Human Rights Council's commission of inquiry into Israel's deadly onslaught on the Turkish-flagged aid vessel Mavi Marmara.

She has also demanded that Tel Aviv allows UN investigators to probe into actions by Israeli soldiers that took part in the Flotilla attack. She also called on the Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch to allow Palestinian senior cleric Sheikh Raed Salah, who was also onboard the Flotilla, to testify before the UN body.

Zuabi also plans to ask the Human Rights Council to extend the jurisdiction of its fact-finding commission to investigate "Israel's violations of international law in imposing a blockade on Gaza, war crimes, and crimes against humanity being committed in the Gaza Strip for four years."