UN insists on intl. Flotilla probe

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=130479§ionid=351020202



Despite Israel's announcement of an internal probe of its deadly Gaza aid attack, the United Nations continues to push for a full international investigation.

Israel's cabinet approved on Monday an Israeli inquiry into the May 31 onslaught, which killed 20 international activists onboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

The probe, however, falls short of meeting international demands for impartiality as the Israeli investigation panel includes no more than two foreign observers, who have no say on the proceedings and conclusions of the commission.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "takes note of the Israeli announcement on their inquiry," UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters later in the day, saying a thorough Israeli probe could fit with the Ban's proposal of a credible and impartial investigation.

But Ban's "proposal for an international inquiry remains on the table and he hopes for a positive Israeli response," Reuters quoted Haq as saying.

Diplomats said Ban urged Israel to accept a neutral inquiry panel led by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer, interpreting the cautious UN reaction as indicative of Ban's doubts about the impartiality of an Israeli-led probe.

Israel, once bitten hard by a UN Human Rights Council-mandated inquiry into its last year's 22-day offensive against the Gaza Strip, seems to fear and thus resist a second such investigation.

The Gaza war commission led by South African prosecutor Richard Goldstone did serious damage to Israel's global image by drawing attention to the Israeli army's deliberate targeting of civilians in Gaza and using Palestinians as human shields, among other war crimes.

Having lost nine nationals in Israel's May 31 attack, Turkey has decided to carry out its own inquiry, saying it has "no trust at all" that Israel will conduct an impartial investigation.

The Human Rights Council has also said it would organize its own fact-finding mission.

Q&A: Why Israel's siege is illegal

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/06/2010614102758862244.html


The International Committee of the Red Cross has described Israel's blockade of Gaza as a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

That conclusion rests on the Israeli government' status as an occupying power in Gaza, which assigns it certain obligations to the people of Gaza.

Those obligations are spelt out in detail by the Fourth Geneva Convention. At their most basic, though, they require Israel to provide for the basic needs of the people, particularly food and medical care.

To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.

The convention also requires the occupying power to allow sufficient shipments of aid - food, clothing, medical supplies and other essentials - and to take steps to preserve the health care system in the occupied territory.

Israel does not meet those basic requirements, according to many observers. Eighty per cent of people living in Gaza rely on food aid to survive; 14 per cent of children suffer from stunted growth due to malnutrition.

Power cuts are routine: 98 per cent of the population copes with routine blackouts. Fuel supplies are heavily restricted.

More than 100 basic medicines are unavailable in Gaza, and the territory’s few remaining hospitals - several were damaged during the 2008-2009 Israeli war in Gaza - lack basic supplies and equipment.

But didn't Israel withdraw from Gaza? How is it still an occupying power?

It’s true that the Israeli government no longer has a presence inside the Gaza Strip. Former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon ordered the withdrawal of all Israelis (including both soldiers and settlers) from the territory in his 2005 "unilateral disengagement plan".

But the Fourth Geneva Convention applies whenever a state has "effective control" over a territory. The Israeli government still controls Gaza’s airspace, and its land and sea borders. The only goods and people allowed into Gaza are those approved by the Israeli government.

Last month’s raid on the aid flotilla bound for Gaza is an instructive example. The organisers of the flotilla say their boats were on course to travel through Gazan waters, not Israeli waters. But the Israeli army still attacked the flotilla to prevent it from entering Gaza - showing that Israel maintains control over Gaza.

If there was no occupation, would the blockade still be illegal?

The principle of “proportionality” is central to international law: The military advantage gained by an action must outweigh the harm caused to the civilian population.

The blockade does not meet this test. It imposes hardships on the entire population of Gaza - 1.5 million people - purportedly in order to achieve a limited military aim: preventing Hamas from firing rockets at Israel.

What’s more, documents revealed last week by the Israeli human rights organisation Gisha show that the blockade actually has a political aim, not a military one. A written statement from the Israeli government described the blockade as "economic warfare" and said it was intended to break Hamas’s control over the government in Gaza.

What about the Egyptian government?

The Egyptian border crossing with Gaza, at Rafah, has been mostly sealed since Hamas took power in June of 2007. (The Egyptian government reopened the crossing earlier this month following Israel’s raid on the aid flotilla.)

But Egypt is not an occupying power in Gaza - it does not exercise "effective control" over the territory - so, whatever the moral and political arguments against its blockade, it is not required to apply the same legal standard as Israel.

Israel's flotilla probe criticised

Source: Al Jazeera
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/06/201061414383877403.html


Turkey and Palestinians have attacked Israel's announcement that it is creating an internal committee to probe its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last month, saying it did not comply with UN demands.
Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, said Israel was incapable of conducting an "impartial investigation," while Hamas, the body governing the Gaza Strip, said the country's continuing refusal to accept an international probe proved its guilt.
"By refusing the formation of an international committee to investigate the massacre, Israel is condemning itself," said Fawzi Barhum, a Hamas spokesman.
The Israeli cabinet formally ratified the creation of the three-man committee looking into the raid on Monday, following its initial announcement of the probe late on Sunday.
The UN Security Council has demanded that Israel create an impartial and transparent investigation into the attack by Israeli commandos on May 31.
The raid on the flotilla, which was trying to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip, left nine Turkish activists dead.
Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, said the setting up of an internal committee by Israel did not comply with the UN's demands.
"The proposition made today for the inquiry committee does not correspond to the request of the Security Council," Abbas said in Paris on Monday after meeting Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.
Turkey had also demanded a UN-led probe and threatened to review its ties with Israel if it did not heed calls for an independent inquiry.

'Uncovering the facts'
The committee set up to investigate the legal aspects of the raid will be chaired by Yaakov Tirkel, 75, a retired Israeli supreme court judge who will work alongside Amos Horev, 86, a retired major general, and Shabtai Rosen, 93, a professor of international law.
It will also include two international observers: David Trimble, 65, an Irish Nobel Peace Prize winner; and Ken Watkin, 55, former judge advocate general of the Canadian military.

It was not clear what powers Trimble and Watkin would have and a statement from Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said they would not be able "to vote in relation to the proceedings and conclusions of the commission".
The two men could also be denied access to information that could "cause substantial harm to national security or to the state's foreign relations," the statement said.
The inquiry will run alongside another internal military probe into the events of May 31, which began last week under Giora Eiland, a retired brigadier general.

Israel has made clear the investigation announced at the weekend will not hear any direct testimony from troops involved in the raid.
"I am convinced that uncovering the facts will prove that Israel acted in an appropriately defensive fashion in accordance with the highest standards," Netanyahu told cabinet members on Monday.
"The committee will clarify to the world that Israel acts according to law with responsibility and full transparency," he said.