More on the Israeli flotilla commission

Amnesty International UK

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: TUESDAY 15 JUNE 2010

See also Chris Doyle Off the hook: Israel’s own Widgery inquiry into Bloody Monday

Gaza flotilla commission criticised over lack of transparency and accountability
Amnesty International has today criticised Israel’s proposed investigation into its military action against a Gaza aid flotilla as lacking in transparency and unlikely to ensure accountability over the nine deaths of activists during the operation.

The Israeli cabinet has approved a three-man Israeli commission, with two international observers, to examine Israel’s 31 May military action off the Gaza coast.

Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa Director Malcolm Smart said:

“The format of this government-appointed Commission represents a disappointment and a missed opportunity.

“The Commission looks to be neither independent nor sufficiently transparent; the two international observers may be denied access to crucial information, and the Commission’s findings may not be used in future prosecutions.”

The Commission will not have access to members of the Israeli military who were involved in the planning and implementation of the military action, except for the Chief of Staff, and there is nothing to indicate that its findings or recommendations will be binding.  The Commission will be chaired by former Israeli high court judge Jacob Turkel, a specialist in civil law who has also served as a judge on military court appeals panels.

The other two Commission members will be Amos Horev, a retired major-general and former chief scientist of Israel’s defence establishment, and Shabbtai Rosen, a professor of international law at Bar Ilan University and former representative of Israel to the United Nations.

The two international observers, David Trimble, former First Minister of Northern Ireland, and Ken Watkin, former head of Canada’s military judiciary, will only participate in the hearings and discussions of the Commission as observers.

Any information considered “almost certain to cause substantial harm” to Israel’s national security or foreign relations, by the Commission chair can be withheld from the international observers. The Commission may also choose to censor their report on similar grounds, after consulting with what is vaguely termed “the authorised bodies”.

“The processes of the Commission must be open, transparent and allow access to all information sources. It should not allow the political considerations of the Israeli government to determine which of its findings are made public.”

It is unclear too whether and to what extent the Commission will have access to all documentation, including film and video footage seized from TV crews and others aboard the ships in the flotilla, and what efforts it will make to gather information from the international activists who were on board the ships making up the flotilla.

“The stipulation that the findings of the Commission cannot be used in future legal proceedings is particularly worrying. It puts into serious question the possibility that anyone found to have ordered or committed human rights violations or violations of international humanitarian law will be held accountable.”

Israel, like all states, has an obligation to prosecute and punish perpetrators of crimes under international law. In addition, individual commanders and superiors may be criminally responsible as a result of the conduct of their subordinates. The Israeli investigation should reaffirm Israel’s obligation to combat impunity.

While its mandate includes examining “the security circumstances surrounding the imposition of the naval blockade”, the Commission has not been given the scope to examine more broadly the legality of Israel’s closure of Gaza, which includes a blockade by land and air as well as by sea.

“The creation of this Commission must not distract attention from Israel’s continuing blockade of Gaza, which Israel must lift immediately. The Israeli authorities’ closure of Gaza constitutes collective punishment and is in clear violation of the Israel’s legal obligations as the occupying power.”

The mechanisms available within Israel for investigating complaints have been widely criticised.  Despite repeated calls from the UN General Assembly, in the 18 months since the end of its 2008-9 military operation in Gaza, Israel has so far failed to conduct investigations that are “independent, credible and in conformity with international standards” into the alleged war crimes and other serious violations of international law by its forces which were reported by the UN-mandated Fact-Finding Mission on the conflict in Gaza and southern Israel.

Amnesty has called for a prompt and credible international inquiry into the deaths of nine international activists during Israel’s action against the Gaza flotilla and for full accountability. Those selected to conduct such inquiry should be persons of acknowledged impartiality, competence and expertise. Israel should cooperate fully with this international inquiry.

Neil Durkin: 020 7033 1547, 07972 718826

Amnesty out of hours: 07721 398984, www.amnesty.org.uk

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The man who ordered the attack on the aid flotilla to Gaza, set up the inquiry, chose its members and determined its mandate, has announced its outcome even before it has started. Binyamin Netanyahu’s beaming smile showed an Israeli prime minister confident that he had faced down international protestations over the Israeli attack on the Gaza aid flotilla, buying off the pressure with an inquiry that even the Israeli newspaper, Ha’aretz, described as a farce.

For those without crystal balls, Netanyahu helpfully told us that the inquiry will show that Israel took “appropriate defensive actions in accordance with the highest international standards”. Well, it will say that, we can be sure.

Is this a rerun of the Widgery inquiry into Bloody Sunday that falsely found that civilians opened fire on British soldiers first? (Israel stated that it was the civilians who attacked first, as if the boarding of the ships never happened). Let us hope that it will not take 38 years to find a Saville, unearth the truth and for someone to apologise for this Bloody Monday massacre as well as others.

The inquiry chairman, Jacob Turkel, has stated that holding people to account is a marginal issue. Israeli soldiers will not testify at the inquiry. Would any of the activists co-operate with or trust this kangaroo court? Would an activist beaten up by Israeli soldiers, who has seen their friends and colleagues killed and shot, feel safe going back? Will all their photographs and video footage be released intact after having been illegally confiscated by the Israeli authorities? Israel was very fast to release its own carefully edited selected footage.

Turkey has understandably dismissed this inquiry. A valid inquiry requires Turkey’s co-operation to share the findings of the post-mortems into the nine Turkish citizens killed. They reportedly show that one victim was shot five times from less than 45cm.

Netanyahu has hand-picked two international observers including Lord Trimble who on the day of the attack on the flotilla was starting a “Friends of Israel initiative”. They will not be allowed to vote on the inquiry’s conclusions. In case of need, the commission can hold closed sessions as it sees fit.

Do not expect the inquiry team to be so naive as to produce a report that will totally exonerate Israeli actions. No doubt there will be references to alternatives that should have been used, operational shortcomings, grey areas in international law and lessons to be learned.

If Israeli actions were legitimate, and if their soldiers did act properly and legally, then what has Israel to fear? If it wants to restore its image then only a proper international, independent inquiry reporting to the UN security council would suffice. Such an inquiry would have to have full powers making it mandatory on all parties to co-operate including Israel, Turkey and the activists. Any party found responsible for illegal actions should then be held to account.

The Israeli record of investigating itself is shockingly poor. Even when the Kahan Commission into the Sabra and Shatila massacres found Ariel Sharon to have “personal responsibility”, he still retained ministerial office in Begin’s cabinet, and before long became foreign minister and ultimately prime minister. The Shamgar commission set up to investigate the massacre of 29 Palestinians at the Ibrahimi mosque in Hebron in 1994 exonerated both the army and the settler leadership of all responsibility, and recommended the partitioning a site that had been a mosque for nearly 1,400 years.

The Landau commission investigating Israeli interrogation techniques, not only took no action but deemed Israel had the right to “use moderate physical pressure” – torture to the rest of us. It even outlined in a secret part of the report exactly how this should be done. Torture continues today, with recent reports of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy threatened with torture by use of car battery leads on his hands and genitalia.

While a UN inquiry into Israel’s assault on Gaza found evidence of potential war crimes and crimes against humanity, the initial Israeli investigation only prosecuted one soldier – for the use of a stolen credit card. History repeats itself, as it seems a credit card of one of the activists, taken by Israeli security ended up being used in Tel Aviv.

Impunity also extends to soldiers and settlers in the occupied territories. The Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem has reported for years on how settlers are never held to account for their crimes. Rabbi Moshe Levinger, a Hebron settler leader, was given a five-month sentence for killing a Palestinian, reduced to only four. While western fatalities attract more attention from the Israeli authorities and international media, justice rarely ensues and the families of Rachel Corrie or Tom Hurndall, both killed by Israeli soldiers, still await the truth of what happened to their loved ones even today.

How can a government that uses overwhelming force against civilians, torture, detains children without trial, steals land and resources of another people, demolishes their homes and property, and has violated so many laws and conventions it would be difficult to list them on one page, seriously be expected to hold itself to account?

Sadly, British ministers have already welcomed the inquiry despite its shortcomings and lack of independence. Suspicions have been aroused that acceptance of this charade was in return for a cosmetic easing of the blockade of Gaza, and not what is needed, its full and final lifting.

The international community, and in particular the United States, never says enough. Like a spoilt child, Israel can do as it pleases. Should we be surprised that Israel uses fake British passports to assassinate people in third countries? The impact of this lack of accountability was highlighted in the report of the UN fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict in 2009 arguing that this only led to further crimes.

Stitching up an inquiry will be a Pyrrhic victory for Israel, just as Widgery did not help the British. The blockade of Gaza is unravelling, its barbaric siege and imprisonment of Gaza further exposed to a horrified world, with more flotillas prepared to run the gauntlet of Israeli gunboats and boarding parties. Hamas gets stronger as do more hardline elements in Gaza. Israeli leaders are not asking the right questions. Only a root-and-branch change in their policies and actions towards the Palestinians will bring them both security and international acceptance that they crave.