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Today is Tuesday, July 13th, 2010. It has been 43 days since the bloody raid carried out by the Israeli army in international waters. During this raid on the Mavi Marmara nine people, including one journalist, were killed. We are here today as survivors of that attack, and as journalists who were not silenced by Israeli bullets. There were about sixty press members from Turkey and all over the world on those ships, which departed to carry humanitarian aid to the civlians of Gaza, who are imprisoned under an illegal Israeli blockade.

The raid at dawn targeted both journalists and regular civilians. The press members were confronted with death like everyone else on the ship.

The soldiers who illegally boarded the ship and opened fire, by order from the Israeli Ministry of Defence, also prevented us from doing our job. In fact, they ultimately punished us for doing our job. This is in clear violation of international law.

According to the “International Instrument for Citizenship and Civil Rights” which has been accepted by the United Nations since 1966, and the “First Principles Declaration Regarding the Mass Circulation of Media” which has been prepared by UNESCO. This enshrines “the freedom to give information, by journalists” and forbids “preventing them from collecting information”. Rights which Israel has clearly violated.

Dear Friends,

We were faced with an inhumane intervention that was against international law and in violation of the most basic of human rights. One of our fellow journalists, Cevdet Kılıçlar, was ruthlessly executed with a bullet to his forehead while fulfilling his duties as a journalist.
After the bloody raid was complete, our human dignity was completely disregarded as we were forced on our knees under the burning sun with our hands tied behind our backs. It was a harsh violation of our human rights. Our freedom to collect and keep information was completely ignored. Live broadcasts and all other forms of communication with the outside world were disrupted and prevented by the jamming of our satellite connection.

Our computers, cameras, memory cards- in short all the equipment necessary to do our job- were illegally confiscated, they were all stolen. The vast majority of these items were not returned. The few items that were returned had been destroyed deeming them utterly useless.

In addition to this, all of our personal belongings- books, clothes, shoes, and even toothbrushes were also stolen. Some of our money and passports were forcefully seized and never returned.

We were arrested at gun-point. They put handcuffs on us. We were illegally questioned over and over again, as if we were criminals. We had to endure humiliating body searched, full body searches, in order to prevent any images from reaching the outside world. Neither our press credentials, nor our membership to national and international press associations were acknowledged or respected.

We were told several times, and in the harshest and rudest possible way, that being a member of the press meant nothing. We were kidnapped and illegally detained in prison for two days. During this time we were not allowed to communicate with our press associations, employers or even our families. We were not given lawyers; in fact many of us never even got councilor assistance from our government. We could neither receive information from the outside world, nor send information out.

Dear Friends,

Press rights and freedoms that are guaranteed by international agreements have been disregarded, disrespected and treated with utter contempt by Israel. The rule of law- one of the shared values of all humanity- was ignored. We cannot and must not remain silent. Not as humans, nor as members of the press. We must protect the rights that have been fought for by so many who sacrificed so much so that we can benefit from them today.

Because of this we have established a platform called Flotilla Free Press (FFP). We will share developments and news about the what happened to us as journalists on that bloody night, and the steps we are taking to secure our rights on our website which shares the name.
We have researched our rights within the framework of international law. We have initiated action with our journalist friends from all over the world and are lodging law suites both in our own countries and in Israel.

We, as journalists, will follow this process to the end by suing for psychological and material damages under national and international law so that the guilty parties in this heinous crime against humanity, this blotch on the human history, will be punished and brought to justice.
In accordance with the information that we have received from our lawyers about the legal status of this action, we consider it beneficial to share with you our demands from both the United Nations and the government of Israel:
1- There is a prohibition against intercepting boats on the open seas according to international agreements. Firstly, the event occurred in international waters that are in the open seas. According to 1958 Geneva and 1983 the United Nations Admiralty Law Contract open seas means international waters which are not under the dominion of any state. There is the principle of the freedom of open seas. The Israeli government committed a crime in intercepting and boarding our ship in complete violation of international contracts, treaties and customs. Those who issued the order to attack, and those who carried out this raid must be held accountable by independent, international courts. The decisions resulting from this inquiry and prosecution are expected to be in accordance with human conscience and first the principles of law.

2- Israel violated international laws by seizing our technical equipment. The Israeli state must immediately return this equipment to journalists intact.

3- The attack on the Freedom Flotilla was an attack against press freedom. The event must be investigated by an objective, international commission under the supervision of the United Nations. The Israeli government must pay compensation to those who have suffered in this event, including their relatives.

4- The Israeli state has used disproportionate force and also ignored UN laws which prevent the deliberate use of force on journalists and civilians.
There were no weapons at all on the ship. On the contrary there was medicine, food, children’s playground equipment and other similar humanitarian aid. Most importantly, Israel knew this. The United Nations must take various actions, including economic sanctions, against Israel. Both the United Nations and the Security Council must deal with this situation seriously. This incident must be condemned in the harshest of terms by the Security Council.

5- Equally, international press associations must draft censure resolutions aimed at the Israeli government, which has prevented journalists from doing their job.

We will persist in our demands of the International community.

We will continue in our struggle to ensure that free media is not attacked.

We will continue reporting the truth.
We will not be silenced.

With regards,
Flotilla Free Press (FFP) Member Journalists

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BRISTOL City Council has voted to condemn Israel for the Gaza convoy incident that saw nine human rights activists killed.

Members called for the Government to “hold Israel to account for this illegal action” and to impose sanctions on the country until it “complies with international law and ceases perpetrating human rights abuses”.

Two Bristol men were aboard the Freedom Flotilla of ships when the Israeli military opened fire on May 31. One of them, Cliff Hanley, spoke in support of the motion before last night’s council debate.

He was joined by a number of pro-Palestinian protesters outside the council chamber, who want a boycott of all Israeli goods and companies in Bristol.

Mr Hanley said: “We question the morality of the council having money invested in Israeli banks or investment funds where it gains interest derived in any way over 60 years of ethnic cleansing of historic Palestine, the illegal occupation of the West Bank and the brutal starvation and slaughter of the people in Gaza.”

Proposing the motion, Lib Dem councillor John Kiely (Easton) compared life in Gaza to Bristol during the Blitz.

The Conservatives put forward an alternative motion, with what they described as “less emotive language” and calling for Israel to “exercise restraint”.

The amendment failed and while the Conservatives voted against the Lib Dem motion, the majority of the council approved it.

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by Stephen Zunes

Few decisions of the Obama administration have outraged the peace and human rights community as much as its successful efforts to block an international inquiry into May’s Israeli aid flotilla attack.

Instead, supported by leading Republican and Democratic members of Congress, the Obama administration has thrown its weight behind an investigative committee handpicked by right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to examine the incident.

The three-member panel is not a full committee of inquiry as defined under Israeli law, so it does not have subpoena power or the ability to question Israeli soldiers. Nor can it compel anyone in the military to provide evidence.

All the committee members can do is request documents and “summaries of operational investigations” that have already been conducted by the Israeli military itself.

The committee would not have the authority to even request testimony or other evidence “in regard to military personnel and personnel from the other security forces.”

They would not be able to interview any soldiers or officers individually or even see their testimony or statements, instead relying only on “summaries” and other documents of internal military inquiries. These are generally done by officers who have no training in such inquiries on possible violations of international law.

At most, the conclusions the panel gets will be lessons learned rather than any kind of investigation into possible criminal wrongdoing.
Israel’s Claims

“Israel claims the panel is independent, but insists that it accept the military’s version of events,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Given the Israel’s military poor record of investigating itself in past cases of possible wrongful death, it is hard to have confidence that the panel’s dependence on the Israeli military will lead to the truth.”

There are also questions regarding the committee’s makeup. None of the three members has any experience in this sort of inquiry. The committee is led by the conservative former Israeli Supreme Court Chief Justice Jacob Turkel, who has attacked credible international inquiries into Israeli violations of international humanitarian law.

A second member is Amos Horev, a reserve Israeli major general and major figure in the Israeli military industrial complex.

The third member is Shabtai Rosen, a 93-year-old law professor who was involved in the cover-up of the 1953 massacre in the village of Qibya when Israeli forces crossed into Jordanian territory, destroying 41 buildings (including the school) and killing 60 villagers.

The Obama administration and other supporters of Netanyahu have emphasized the presence of two foreign observes, Canadian Brigadier General Kenneth Watkin and Northern Ireland’s pro-British Unionist Party leader David Trimble.

The news media has emphasized that Trimble won a Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the Good Friday peace accord. What they have largely failed to mention is that Trimble was also one of the key players — along with right-wing former Bush UN ambassador John Bolton and the conservative former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar — in a group organized late last month known as “Friends of Israel.”

The initiative was launched, according to Trimble and the other sponsors, because of their concern about “the onslaught of radical Islamism” and outrage over the “unprecedented delegitimization campaign against Israel, driven by the enemies of the Jewish state and perversely assumed by numerous international authorities.”

Watkin has been implicated in a scandal, arising from the disappearance and torture of several detainees arrested by the Canadian Forces and turned over to Afghan security services. When called to speak before the Canadian House of Commons, he refused to answer questions about his role in authorizing the transfers despite knowledge of the likelihood of torture and other maltreatment of the prisoners.

International Response

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon noted how Netanyahu’s panel was “not sufficient enough to have international credibility.” The leading Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz, in its analysis of the probe, editorialized, “The government’s efforts to avoid a thorough and credible investigation of the flotilla affair seem more and more like a farce.”

By contrast, the Obama White House issued a statement praising the formation of the committee as an “important step forward,” insisting that “the structure and terms of reference of Israel’s proposed independent public commission can meet the standard of a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation,” as called for by the UN Security Council. U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Alejandro Wolff insisted, “We are convinced and support an Israeli investigation…and have every confidence that Israel can conduct a credible and impartial and transparent, prompt investigation internally.”

Congressional Democrats have defended the Obama’s decision to cover-up for the incident and prevent a credible investigation. Even though Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have documented the failure of the Netanyahu government to investigate possible war crimes by its armed forces, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) recently insisted that “the Israeli government…has a very good record of holding the Israeli government to account,” and that “the Israeli government has a better record of legitimate self-criticism than almost any other government in the world.”

Turning the consensus of international human rights organizations on its head, Frank argues that the only a group “commissioned by the Israeli government” would have credibility, while “clearly no inquiry chartered by the U.N. would have the credibility.”

Other congressional Democrats have insisted that the right-wing Israeli government of Benyamin Netanyahu be entrusted with the investigation, including Brad Ellsworth (D-IN), Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL), Rep. Sestak (D-PA), and Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

All this comes in spite of a recent public opinion poll shows a clear majority of Americans — including 65 percent of Democrats — favor an international inquiry over allowing Israel alone to investigate the circumstances of the attack.

It appears, then, that the Obama administration and its allies in Congress are committed to burying the truth and preventing Israel’s right-wing government from any culpability for its attack.

Quid Pro Quo?

At the same time, however, the Obama administration’s acceptance of this whitewash might have been an explicit quid pro quo: The United States would defend the suppression of the truth in the Israeli attack in return for Israel substantially loosening the blockade of humanitarian goods. If true, this maneuver would be yet another case of Obama provoking the outrage of the left wing of his party in order to pursue a behind-the-scenes deal he believes will advance the greater good. Some analysts, like Marc Lynch, make a compelling case that such a trade-off is worthwhile, in terms of easing an enormous level of human suffering as a result of the four-year old-siege.

While tactically defensible, such a quid pro quo is strategically questionable. Given the Israeli government’s history of reneging on its various international commitments, there are questions as to how comprehensive this lifting of the blockade actually may be and how long it will last. It would also mark yet another bad precedent of the United States effectively granting an ally a license to get away with violating international humanitarian law and other illegal activities, thereby further weakening the international legal protection of civilians.

The apparent weakening of the blockade is cause for cautious optimism. But global civil society must continue to pressure governments to ensure that Israel — no more or less than any other country — be held accountable for its violations of international legal norms.

Stephen Zunes, a Foreign Policy In Focus analyst, is a professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco.

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by boulos on June 27, 2010 ·

When Israel announced the formation of an independent commission to investigate the Flotilla debacle, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs issued a statement welcoming the news and noting that

“the structure and terms of reference of Israel’s proposed independent public commission can meet the standard of a prompt, impartial, credible, and transparent investigation.”

In the time since then, it has emerged that Amos Horev, one of the three Israeli panel members, helped castrate an Arab in the mid-1940s who had been accused of attempting to rape a Jewish woman. The act of castration inspired a popular song in Hebrew.

It has also emerged (thanks to Richard Silverstein) that another member of the panel, Shabtai Rosenne, helped David Ben-Gurion brainstorm lies which would cover up the Israeli military’s massacre at Qibya, in which Ariel Sharon led a force that murdered 60 Palestinian civilians, an act that outraged the world in 1953.

Richard Goldstone was subjected to the most savage obloquy for his work as a judge under the Apartheid South African regime.

If he had personally castrated a Black South African or helped cook up lies to exculpate the South African government for the Sharpeville massacre, maybe he would have been treated a little more gently?

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