UN independent panel rules Israel blockade of Gaza illegal

[bemildred]

Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip violates international law, a panel of human rights experts reporting to a UN body said on Tuesday, disputing a conclusion reached by a separate UN probe into Israel's raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship.

The so-called Palmer Report on the Israeli raid of May 2010 that killed nine Turkish activists said earlier this month that Israel had used unreasonable force in last year's raid, but its naval blockade of the Hamas-ruled strip was legal.

A panel of five independent UN rights experts reporting to the UN Human Rights Council rejected that conclusion, saying the blockade had subjected Gazans to collective punishment in "flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law."

The four-year blockade deprived 1.6 million Palestinians living in the enclave of fundamental rights, they said.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/un-independent-panel-rules-israel-blockade-of-gaza-illegal-1.384267

[Jefferson23]

1. +1, What, no Álvaro Uribe input ?? lol

[Mosby]

2. No, this time it's Richard "what anti-semitism?" Falk.

[shira]

7. And 911 truther. Gotta love the clowns running the Useless Nations Human Rights Commission. n/t

[aranthus]

8. Simple rule of thumb.

If you have to rely on the United Nations to make your point, it means that you don't have one.

[bemildred]

3. Well, I admit I'm annoyed.

I was roundly savaged 6-8 years ago here, along with some other "pro-Palestinian" posters, for saying that the damage to US prestige and capabilities resulting from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars would prove very bad for Israel. Now we are there, and it will be pretended that this is all fortuitious and the result of "hate" or something. The "nobody could have predicted this" argument.

But yeah, I do expect the usual attacks on the credibility of this report, same as with the other one, but with the sides reversed.

I could give two shits whether the blockade and embargo are "illegal" or not, it's stupid and unethical and counterproductive, and that is why it must and will eventually stop.

[Jefferson23]

5. Yea, but you know that it is not enough that it's stupid, unethical and counterproductive. It is

not even enough when it is illegal...the two major players don't care. I see some promise from Egypt, on some level, at least
I am hoping no more OCL's..I don't think Israel would risk it...but I have underestimated them before.

I thought the Centcom report at the time would help, as it turned out it might as well have been written on toilet paper.


Btw, too bad they did not listen to you about Iraq and Afghanistan, it's all true. How far can you stretch yourself, at home
the 99% continue to be screwed too.

[bemildred]

6. Well, as I said before, at this point, it's been turned into a pissing contest.

So yeah, mere reason does not apply now, egos, credibility, and status are at stake. I do wonder if Erdogan will eventually extract his apology from Bibi, that would be most amusing, but it could go lots of other ways.

[Jefferson23]

10. I don't know if Erdogan manages that feat or not, but Israel has shot itself

in the foot as far as I'm concerned and will continue to do so if Bibi keeps listening to Lieberman. UN votes are in favor of the Palestinians even more so now than before..so kudos to Lieberman the wacko. It would have been easy for Israel to apologize and move on..why have issues with Turkey AND Egypt??It's so fucking stupid and the Palmer report only angered Turkey, ironically that was not the intention but there ya go.

He wants Israel to pay up something, and that something is not what Israel does..but who knows, perhaps an intervention is coming.

[shaayecanaan]

11. Ah well, you expected the US to act in accordance with its national interests...

more fool you. Enlightened self-interest is a foreign concept in any western democracy these days (a good example of that would be the impasse over global warming).

Governance today is purely about the politics of the moment, whilst at the same time felating the ever growing crop of special interest pudendae that periodically pop up in a whack-a-mole type fashion.

Even diehard supporters of the war should have surely realised that the Iraq adventure would be America's last hurrah, and that after taking a 3 trillion dollar hit on both Iraq and Afghanistan that the US would not be able to afford to invade Greenland, let alone Iran. Which is why the mullahs, no doubt, are sleeping the quiet sleep of the saved.

[bemildred]

12. Indeed.

Although these days I do not expect much.

"Free Trade" == "Free Markets" == "Corporate Rule". I do believe that governments, particularly governments that take their obligations to their citizens seriously, are seem mainly as an obstacle these days. And that's what I expect, mostly.

[dtexdem]

4. About time that some part of the UN called Israeli piracy illegal.

The Palmer Report's endorsement of piracy and denial of human rights was atrocious.

[King_David]

9. Reporting to the UNHRC ??

Ha ha ha ha ha.