Moderator's Warning: |
Two things to note:
1) This committee is not the formal UN investigation committee, but the UNHRC investigation committee.
The UNHRC is an anti-Israeli organization that has dealt with Israeli issues more than it did with every other country in the world combined, and it is also the one behind the infamous Goldstone committee.
2) Israel has not cooperated with the UNHRC committee (and does with the UN committee), and hence it was not given any of the evidence on the incident and was 'depending' entirely (if at all) on activists' testimonies and on what is known from the press.
What are you basing your "anti-Israel" comments on?1) This committee is not the formal UN investigation committee, but the UNHRC investigation committee.
The UNHRC is an anti-Israeli organization that has dealt with Israeli issues more than it did with every other country in the world combined, and it is also the one behind the infamous Goldstone committee.
Why has Israel refused cooperation?2) Israel has not cooperated with the UNHRC committee (and does with the UN committee), and hence it was not given any of the evidence on the incident and was 'depending' entirely (if at all) on activists' testimonies and on what is known from the press.
What are you basing your "anti-Israel" comments on?
Wiki said:Specifically, Secretaries General Kofi Annan and Ban Ki Moon, the council's president Doru Costea, the European Union, Canada and the United States have accused the council of focusing disproportionately on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.[4][5][6] The United States boycotted the Council during the George W. Bush administration, but reversed its position on it during the Obama administration.[7]
Why has Israel refused cooperation?
Deaths of nine passengers and wounding of at least 50 other passengers
117. During the operation to secure control of the top deck, the Israeli forces landed soldiers from three helicopters over a fifteen-minute period.71 The Israeli forces used paintballs, plastic bullets and live ammunition, fired by soldiers from the helicopter above and soldiers who had landed on the top deck. The use of live ammunition during this period resulted in fatal injuries to four passengers,72 and injuries to at least nineteen others, fourteen with gunshot wounds. Escape points to the bridge deck from the top deck were narrow and restricted and as such it was very difficult for passengers in this area to avoid being hit by live rounds. At least one of those killed was using a video camera and not involved in any of the fighting with the soldiers. The majority of gunshot wounds received by passengers were to their upper torsos in the head, thorax, abdomen and back. Given the relatively small number of passengers on the top deck during the incident, the Mission is driven to the conclusion that the vast majority were in receipt of gunshot wounds.
118 Israeli soldiers continued shooting at passengers who had already been wounded, with live ammunition, soft baton charges (beanbags) and plastic bullets. Forensic analysis demonstrates that two of the passengers killed on the top deck received wounds compatible with being shot at close range while lying on the ground: Furkan Doğan received a bullet in the face and İbrahim Bilgen received a fatal wound from a soft baton round (beanbag) fired at such close proximity to his head that parts such as wadding penetrated his skull entered his brain. Furthermore, some of the wounded were subjected to further violence including being hit with the butt of a weapon, being kicked in the head, chest and back and being verbally abused. A number of the wounded passengers were handcuffed and then left unattended for some time before being dragged to the front of the deck by their arms or legs.
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/15session/A.HRC.15.21_en.pdf
Moderator's Warning: Edited to comply with Fair-Use
It really makes for sickening reading including saying as expected that some of the killings were executioner styled killings. It also removes the illusion that only people on the MM were seriously injured. None were killed but they were subject to kickings, beatings, burnings and fractures despite putting up no fight.
If this is the way the Israeli Army operates towards civilians, and we must assume it is as their own report has found no fault with them apart from possibly a fault in operation, it is certainly not a way most western democracies would find acceptable for their government to act.
Who is this other UN inquiry you have mentioned Apocalypse? It seems odd that it should have too.
Who is this other UN inquiry you have mentioned Apocalypse? It seems odd that it should have too.
But I will wager that Israel will call that biased too when the report is released, since Israel is refusing access to the military personnel who did the attack and if the report finds Israel at fault, then well.. the same old thing from Israel.
It has been set up by Ban Key Moon, the UN General Sec. Israel is partly cooperating with this inquiry and the IDF/Israel government propoganda arm has been all over the news today condemning this OP posted report as biased (which it is, since Israel refused to cooperate with the lawyers and investigators), while talking up the Ban K. Moon enquiry.
But I will wager that Israel will call that biased too when the report is released, since Israel is refusing access to the military personnel who did the attack and if the report finds Israel at fault, then well.. the same old thing from Israel.
I still don't understand Pete why there are two UN inquiries.
It's because even the UN acknowledges that the UNHRC is not a trustworthy body.
Ban ki-Moon has condemned the UNHRC for its disproportional focus on Israel, along with the EU, the US, Israel, etc.
Fortunately it is a toothless organization, and its 'findings' would share the same end as Goldstone I.
"There is clear evidence to support prosecutions of the following crimes within the terms of article 147 of the fourth Geneva convention: wilful killing; torture or inhuman treatment; wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health," the report said.
"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."
Can you provide a link for this?
For something as important as this I would need a proper source. Please give source with quote where Moon is condemning UNHRW.
If it is a 'toothless' organisation then that would surely simply mean it cannot do anything to sanction those responsible for what it finds. That does not take away what it did find. The report does not deny what Israel says or the film Israel put out. It also believes that when the convoys first tried to board the MM they were not using live fire. That seems to suggest balance.
How the IDF acted once it was aboard the MM and indeed other boats is as they have described. The IDF's actions completely disproportionate and did not respect that these were civilian boats. Killings were indiscriminate, indeed it is believed all on the top deck were shot and many trying to escape. In addition some of people already incapacitated through injury were shot again or kicked. Some people were simply killed execution style None of that can you hide from.
It's also interesting to note that since the UNHRC have had no access to the evidence on the incident they seem to have depended entirely on the witnesses account in their reports and have fully adapted them, as the absolute majority of their 'findings' are being based entirely on the activists words. ("The activist doctors have found no bullet wounds in the three soldiers they've examined during the incident, hence we conclude that live fire was not used")
Same as Goldstone. Adopting what was claimed by propaganda organs as true in the absence of evidence (which was not looked for) to the contrary.
All to score points in fora like this.
With what? Scaffolding? Kitchen knives? No firearms or explosives were found on the ships.We now have the definitive source on the Mavi Marmara affair and it proves Israel was right. The ship was controlled by radical Jihadists who planned to attack Israeli forces
With what? Scaffolding? Kitchen knives? No firearms or explosives were found on the ships.
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