Email |  Print | RSS | Comment |  

 Email |  Print

Sun, Jan 23, 2011 | Jerusalem Post: Flotilla raid was in accordance with int’l law and Turkish PM says Turkel C’tee report has ‘no credibility’ | By Dan Izenberg | Edited by Crethi Plethi

Retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice Jacob Turkel (2nd R), leader of the commission of inquiry into a raid on the Gaza flotilla, observers Canadian jurist Ken Watkin (L) and Northern Ireland politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate David Trimble (2nd L), International Law professor Shabtai Rosen (C) and Major General in reserve Amos Horev (R). (Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun; Jerusalem, June 28, 2010)

Turkel Commission: Flotilla Raid was in Accordance with International Law

Turkel Commission: Flotilla raid was in accordance with int’l law. Turkish PM Erdogan: Turkel C’tee report has ‘no credibility’. Israel’s PM Netanyahu: Report shows the truth.

The four Israeli members and two international observers who composed the Turkel Commission to investigate the flotilla incident on May 31 unanimously agreed that Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip and its overland import restrictions, as well as its military actions in capturing the Mavi Marmara were in accordance with international law, Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday.

According to the concluding remarks of the committee members and international observers,

“The naval blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip – in view of the security circumstances and Israel’s efforts to comply with its humanitarian obligations – was legal pursuant to the rules of international law. The actions carried out by Israel on May 31, 2010, to enforce the naval blockade had the regrettable consequences of the loss of human life and physical injuries. Nonetheless, and despite the limited number of uses of force for which we could not reach a conclusion, the actions taken were found to be legal pursuant to the rules of international law.”

Regarding the legality of the operation itself, the commission reached the conclusion that the Israeli armed forces’ interception and capture of the Gaza Flotilla vessels – including having the Shayetet 13 naval commandos board from the Morena speedboats and fast-rope from helicopter onto the roof of the vessels – was consistent with established international naval practice.

The commission concluded that on board the Mavi Marmara and the other flotilla vessels was a group of IHH and affiliated activists (the IHH activists) that violently opposed the Israelis boarding. The IHH activists who participated in that violence were civilians taking a direct part in hostilities.

“The force used against civilians on board the flotilla was governed by the principles of “necessity” and use of “proportionate force” associated with human rights based law enforcement norms. However, the IHH activists lost the protection of their civilian status for such time as they directly participated in the hostilities. The use of force against these direct participants in hostilities is governed by the applicable rules of international humanitarian law,” the report said.

The commission found that the conflict between Israel and the Gaza Strip is an international armed conflict. It also found that Israel’s “effective control” of the Gaza Strip ended when the disengagement was completed. The purpose of the naval blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip was primarily a military-security one.

The commission also found that the naval blockade was imposed on the Gaza Strip lawfully, with Israel complying with the conditions for imposing it.

As part of the conclusions it was also found that Israel is complying with the humanitarian obligations imposed on the blockading party, including the prohibition of starving the civilian population or preventing the supply of objects essential for the survival of the civilian population and medical supplies. Israel also makes sure that the the damage to the civilian population is not excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the blockade.

“The imposition and enforcement of the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip does not constitute “collective punishment” of the population of the Gaza Strip,” the report went on to say.

“International law does not give individuals or groups the freedom to ignore the imposition of a naval blockade that satisfies the conditions for imposing it and that is enforced accordingly, especially where a blockade satisfies obligations to neutral parties, merely because in the opinion of those individuals or groups it violates the duties of the party imposing the blockade vis-à-vis the entity subject to the blockade,” continued the commissions conclusions.

Read full article in the Jerusalem Post here.

Sunday’s report was the first of two parts. The second will be presented later on in the year and will look into the decision-making process that led to the attack on the flotilla.

You can download the full Report of the Turkel Commission for Examining the Maritime Incident of May 31, 2010 – Part One Here.

Israel’s PM Netanyahu: Report shows the truth

PM Benjamin Netanyahu made a statement at the Selection of Posters for the International Holocaust Day on the Turkel Commission report:

“On this stage, you see the transformation of the Jewish people.

The Holocaust survivors here survived an inferno that transpired on our people because we lacked the power of self-defense, and with the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel, we restored the capacity for self-defense.

Now, there are those who would deprive us of that right and of that power.

Of course, they don’t say that outright. They say: yes, Israel has a right to defend itself – but only in theory.

Because when we come in practice to exercise that right, they accuse us of war crimes.

This is what they did when we set up to put up a security fence against suicide terrorists. They actually wanted to take us to an international law court for committing the international crime, so they said, a war crime of putting up a fence against terrorist bombers.

And this is what happened the second time with the Goldstone Report – when we responded, in the most pinpointed way that any army has responded, to the firing of thousands of rockets on our citizens.

And this is also what happened last May – when Israel enforced a naval blockade to prevent weapons and war material from infiltrating into the terror organizations in Gaza.

Now, there were those who claimed that Israel and its soldiers acted improperly and against international law.

We established a commission, an independent, transparent commission, an impartial commission of inquiry, to look into these allegations.

The Head of this Commission is a former Supreme Court Justice, Justice Turkel. Among its members were security, legal and military experts, and it also included several prominent international experts and international observers, including the Nobel Prize Laureate, Lord David Trimble, and the former Judge Advocate General of the Canadian Army, Brigadier General Ken Watkin.

This is a highly impartial, highly expert, highly reputable Commission, and it published a report.

The report published today clearly shows that the blockade of Gaza is legal; it shows that the enforcement of the blockade last May was legal and it shows that the Israeli soldiers who boarded the Marmara acted legally and in self-defense.

I hope that all those who rushed to judgment against Israel and against its soldiers will read these reports and learn the truth about what happened.

The truth is that our soldiers were defending our country and defending their very lives.

This is not only their right; it is their duty.

The State of Israel stands behind them and thanks them for their courage.

Thank you.”

Source: PM’s Office.

Turkish PM says Turkel C’tee report has ‘no credibility’

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday dismissed the Turkel Committee’s findings defending the actions of IDF troops in the interception of a Turkish-led protest flotilla to Gaza last year.

Erdogan told reporters in Ankara that the report had “no value or credibility.”

Read article here.