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Guilty As Charged: UN Report on Gaza Flotilla Massacre - by Stephen Lendman
On September 22, Reuters headlined the news, saying:
"UN Experts Condemn Israel Attack on Gaza Flotilla"
It explained that the UN Human Rights Council's (HRC) "panel of international experts" concluded what was obvious on day one - that Israel's international water attack "was unlawful and resulted in violations of human rights and international humanitarian law...."
A one paragraph AP report said the same thing. America's leading paper, The New York Times (always pro-Israeli), published the above two accounts, not its own, ducking its responsibility to do in detail.
In contrast, Israeli papers covered it prominently, including Haaretz headlining, "UN Human Rights Council: Israel flotilla raid broke international law," saying:
"The UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission concluded that Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory was unlawful because of the humanitarian crisis there, and described the military raid on the flotilla as brutal and disproportionate."
Israel's response was unsurprising, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ygal Palmor saying:
"Israel is a democratic and law abiding country that carefully observes international law and, when need be, knows how to investigate itself."
True on the last point, but it never does nor will it. False on the others. As honest observers know, Israel is a lawless, undemocratic, pariah state believing in Jewish exclusivity above all other religions. As a result, its 1,548,000 Israeli Arabs (as of spring 2010) have no rights. In addition, the four million + in Gaza and the West Bank (Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics mid-2010 figures) have been persecuted under military occupation for over 43 years, living in constant terror.
Balad Party MK Hanin Zuabi, on board the Mavi Marmara mother ship, praised the HRC's report, saying "the criminals who ordered and carried out the raid should be brought to justice." More on Israeli retribution against her below.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said "Now it's required to be a mechanism in order to translate this report into action and to bring occupation commanders to trial for the crimes they committed." Indeed so, but no measures whatever have been proposed or implemented.
Information on the Flotilla Massacre
Seven earlier articles covered it in detail, accessed through the following links:
