U.N. Names Panel to Probe Israeli Killings on Gaza-Bound Ship

[ConsAreLiars]

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 2, 2010 (IPS) - 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.

"This is an unprecedented development," Ban said Monday, virtually patting himself on the back.

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."

More at: http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52358

[EFerrari]

1. And that butcher Alvaro Uribe is #2 on the panel.

Atrocious.

[ConsAreLiars]

3. More of the same by the dominant forces. Later in the article:

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.

It's hard to imagine that bringing a massive violator of human rights and advocate for, what's the polite term, extra-judicial actions against those some state designates as 'evil-doers' or such, was done as for any reason other than to guarantee that the panel would condemn its leaders if it condemned those murders.

[aquart]

2. "dirty prison cell"?

It would have been better with maid service?

I can understand not letting Archbishop Tutu in. Even if he looked mildly disapproving at me, I would just curl up and die.

[EFerrari]

4. Go to this video and start it at 7:50. It's Pieter Uys doing Tutu for Tutu.

http://vimeo.com/6479414

:hi:

[ConsAreLiars]

5. More about Uribe on the panel and the game being played.

At the beginning of this month the Israeli government announced it would cooperate with one out of two international UN-sponsored investigation commissions into the 31 May Gaza Freedom Flotilla massacre, a move which UN General Secretary Ban Ki-moon claimed was "unprecedented." However, the details of this commission and who will take part in it -- particularly the notorious outgoing president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe Vélez -- cast doubt over its impartiality.

The commission is composed of four persons, one chosen by Turkey, one chosen by Israel and two chosen from a list provided by Israel. The latter two are former Prime Minister of New Zealand Geoffrey Palmer, who will be the chair, and Uribe, who will serve as vice-chair. While Palmer, an expert in international law, is an uncontroversial choice, the appointment of Uribe is as perplexing as it is shocking. It appears that "balance" in this commission involves balance between someone versed in international and human rights law and someone who is adamantly opposed to it. This notion of balance fatally weakens this commission even before it has started, and tarnishes the process of international law.

Uribe is a controversial president whose regime has engaged in severe human rights abuses; illegal surveillance and harassment of human rights defenders by the intelligence service (DAS); international law violations (such as the bombing of Ecuadorian territory); corruption; crimes against humanity and excesses by the army in their US-sponsored counterinsurgency warfare.

Uribe's scorn for human right defenders is notorious. According to Human Rights First, "President Uribe and other administration officials have branded as terrorist sympathizers and have insinuated that illicit connections exist between human rights NGOs and illegal armed groups. Irresponsible comments by government officials in Colombia put the lives of human rights defenders at even greater risk and threaten to undermine the value and credibility of their work" ("Human Rights Defencers in Colombia").


From http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11449.shtml">here

[Violet_Crumble]

6. That's a real shame. When I first heard Israel would cooperate, I thought it was great...

It's only recently I've read about Uribe. I'd be interested to see what those 'supporters' of Israel who complain loudly about human rights abusers being on the HRC have to say about Uribe's inclusion into such an important investigation...

[ConsAreLiars]

7. Rather intersting, a link found other than the source material

goes back to a DU forum, one of a rather small group in which facts matter: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4495555 . Kudos to to IndianaGreen, Facts do matter to many here.

[shira]

8. So why did the UN choose Uribe from the list?

Also there's this...

U.S. heavily involved in organizing U.N. flotilla probe
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/08/02/us_heavily_involved_in_organizing_un_flotilla_probe

[ConsAreLiars]

9. The question, as your article explains, is why did US/Israel choose Uribe?

A U.S. official speaking on background said that Rice was heavily involved in the formation of the panel and met or spoke with several senior Israeli officials about it in the past weeks, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

"The U.S. was in close communication with Israel throughout the process to make sure this ended up in what we felt and they felt was a constructive place and we believe this is a good outcome," the official said.

The Israeli public reaction was a positive one. Netanyahu released a statement saying, "Israel has nothing to hide. The opposite is true. It is in the national interest of the State of Israel to ensure that the factual truth of the overall flotilla events comes to light throughout the world and this is exactly the principle that we are advancing."

An Israeli official told The Cable that the panel was a compromise in the face of repeated calls for an international investigation coming from both the U.N. and some of the countries involved, including Turkey.
...
"It's not investigative. It's a panel. A fair and balanced panel that allows us to sort of live with it," the official said. Notably, this is the first time an Israeli will sit on a U.N. panel that is commenting on Israeli actions.

It seems pretty clear that The Israeli government wanted Uribe there, to give a "fair and balanced" range of views regarding atrocities committed by ruthless governments against those they regard as enemies.

An interesting recent development is the uncovering of mass graves in Colombia, further adding to the world's awareness of the utterly brutal and criminal nature of the Uribe government. If the headline to this Al Jazeera news report "Mass grave threatens Uribe's legacy" - http://english.aljazeera.net/video/20108781742314518.html - is accurate and something that Uribe cares about, more than being a loyal servant to US Corporatist Expansionism, he might be less predictable than the US and Israel believed.

(edit slightly to clarify a point)

[shira]

10. Don't know - but the UN made the call. I wonder who else was on the list. N/T

[Chulanowa]

11. Good question

And I wonder what Israel's response will be if these guys find Israel was in the wrong?