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Occupied Palestine: Good News and Bad - by Stephen Lendman
First the good.
On June 22, the International Middle East Media Center reported that the UN Human Rights Council (that established the Goldstone Commission) approved "forming an international committee to probe the deadly Israeli" Flotilla attack, massacring and injuring dozens of nonviolent activists on board. Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak urged Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to shelve it, saying:
"We expressed our view that for the time being, as long as....new flotillas are in the preparation, it's probably better to leave (an investigation) on the shelf for a certain time" - in other words, postpone it long enough to forget, letting Israel's self-examination whitewash top officials' culpability, a vain hope given world outrage, mushrooming toward universally branding Israel a pariah rogue state.
The Human Rights Council (HRC) said committee officials will include lawyers and international law and human rights experts, the body to present its findings in September.
The European Campaign Against the Siege said the International Committee will contact Israel, Greece, Turkey, and the Freedom Flotilla coalition. It will also visit Gaza and urge Tel Aviv's cooperation, what wasn't given the Goldstone Commission, nor will be this time. However, with or without it, the investigation will proceed, exposing Israel's culpability.
On June 1, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RTP) responded to the Flotilla massacre headlining, "All States and the international community must urgently take measures against Israel's violations of international law," explaining that:
Throughout its history, Israel has willfully, arrogantly, and repeatedly violated core international law principles without accountability. "These violations....involve Israel's international responsibility, its obligation to make reparations for the damage resulting from these violations and the obligation of all States to prosecute and punish those responsible for these violations when they concern crimes against international law," especially ones against peace - the supreme international crime.
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