Erdogan at UN: Israel must apologize for flotilla deaths

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Speech at General Assembly comes on heels of UN report which says the Israeli blockade of Gaza is legal, but criticizes Israel for excessive use of force for its killing of 9 Turkish citizens aboard the Gaza flotilla in May 2010.

By DPA

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked Israel again on Thursday to apologize for the deaths of nine people on a Turkish ship that tried to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2010.

"Israel must apologize and compensate for the deaths of our martyrs and lift the economic blockade on Gaza," Erdogan said in his first address to the UN General Assembly.

The nine people were killed on May 31, 2010, when Israeli commandos raided the Navi Marmara, the main ship of a flotilla that was trying to bring humanitarian assistance to Gazans. Eight were Turkish nationals and one was a Turkish American.

A UN report last month said the Israeli naval blockade is legal, but criticized Israel for excessive use of forces when its commandos intercepted the ship on the high seas and stopped the flotilla from reaching its target.

remainder: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/erdogan-at-un-israel-must-apologize-for-flotilla-deaths-1.386135

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1. Erdogan must apologize for sending terrorists to run the blockade!

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2. Israeli Raid on Gaza Flotilla: A Revealing UN Rights Council Report

By Richard Lightbown

Following Israel's raid on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on 31 May, the UN Human Rights Council elected to establish an independent international fact-finding mission to investigate violations of international law, including humanitarian and human rights law. On 23 July the three-person Mission was appointed. It consisted of Chairman Karl Hudson-Phillips, retired Judge of the International Criminal Court and former Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago; Sir Desmond de Silva, former Chief Prosecutor of the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone; and Ms Mary Shanthi Dairiam, a specialist on international women’s rights. They were assisted by a large team including external specialists in forensic pathology, military issues, firearms, the law of the sea and international humanitarian law. The Mission began work in Geneva on 9 August and an advanced unedited edition of its report was published just over six weeks later on 22 September.

Israel’s response so far has been a 138 word statement declaring that Israel has always known how to investigate itself, praising the standards of the Turkel Committee, lambasting the Human Rights Council and declaring that it sees no reason to cooperate with the ‘commission’ whose report it will nonetheless read and study.

The Mission began by jettisoning the assumptions in its remit. Instead of assuming that criminal activity had taken place it began with the general consensus that there had been an interception by Israeli forces of a flotilla of ships carrying cargos of a humanitarian nature. It next had to consider its continued existence in the context of the establishment of a Panel of Inquiry on the flotilla incident by the UN Secretary General, (to the accompaniment of calls from the U.S. Administration and the government of Israel for the Mission to be disbanded). However since the UN Panel was only to review reports of investigations by the governments of Israel and Turkey in order to recommend ways of avoiding similar incidents in the future, the Mission considered its remit to be different and declined to give way to calls from vested interests. On 18 August the government of Israel stated in writing its position of non-recognition and non-cooperation with the Mission.

In its assessments the Mission gave particular weight to direct evidence from eye witnesses amongst the passengers and crew, forensic evidence and interviews with government officials. Because of the very limited and selective disclosure from the large amount of photographic evidence held by Israel, the Mission had felt obliged to treat with extreme caution material released by Israeli authorities which did not correspond with evidence of eyewitnesses.

http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16292

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3. Report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Inquiry on the 31 May 2010 Flotilla Incident

September 2011
Sir Geoffrey Palmer, Chair
President Alvaro Uribe, Vice-Chair
Mr. Joseph Ciechanover Itzhar
Mr. Süleyman Özdem Sanberk

http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/middle_east/Gaza_Flotilla_Panel_Report.pdf

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4. Human Rights Council Distr.: General 27 September 2010

Report of the international fact-finding mission to investigate
violations of international law, including international
humanitarian and human rights law, resulting from the
Israeli attacks on the flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian
assistance*

Summary

This report was prepared by the fact-finding mission established by the Human
Rights Council in resolution 14/1 of 2 June 2010 to investigate violations of international
law, including international humanitarian law and human rights law, resulting from the
interception by Israeli forces of the humanitarian aid flotilla bound for Gaza on 31 May
2010 during which nine people were killed and many others injured.

The report sets out background information relating to the interception of the flotilla
as well as the applicable international law.

The fact-finding mission conducted interviews with more than 100 witnesses in
Geneva, London, Istanbul and Amman. On the basis of this testimony and other
information received, the Mission was able to reconstruct a picture of the circumstances
surrounding the interception on 31 May 2010 and its aftermath. The report presents a
factual description of the events leading up to the interception, the interception of each of
the six ships in the flotilla as well as a seventh ship subsequently intercepted on 6 June
2010, the deaths of nine passengers and wounding of many others and the detention of
passengers in Israel and their deportation.

The report contains a legal analysis of facts as determined by the Mission with a
view to determining whether violations of international law, including international
humanitarian and human rights law, took place.

The fact-finding mission concluded that a series of violations of international law,
including international humanitarian and human rights law, were committed by the Israeli
forces during the interception of the flotilla and during the detention of passengers in Israel
prior to deportation.

in full: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/15session/A.HRC.15.21_en.pdf