Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: AMNESTY: ISRAELI INQUIRY INTO GAZA FLOTILLA DEATHS NO MORE THAN A “WHITEWASH”

Amnesty International has condemned the findings of an Israeli inquiry
into last year’s raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla as a “whitewash”
which failed to account for the deaths of nine Turkish nationals.
In a report published on 23 January, the Turkel Commission concluded
that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acted lawfully when they captured
the Mavi Mamara on 31 May 2010, killing nine activists on board, and
intercepted five other ships. Despite being nearly 300 pages long, the
report crucially fails to explain how the activists died and what
conclusions the Commission reached regarding the IDF’s specific
actions in each case.
The Commission’s failure to account for the deaths reinforces the view
that the Israeli authorities are unwilling or incapable of delivering
accountability for abuses of international law committed by Israeli
forces. It also highlights the need for follow-up to ensure that the
sharply contrasting conclusions of the International Fact-Finding
Mission appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, which were issued on
22 September 2010, but not even mentioned by the Commission, are
addressed and that the rights of victims to an effective remedy are
upheld.
The Turkel Commission concluded that, of the 133 incidents of force
used by the IDF during the raid on the Mavi Marmara that it examined,
127 were in conformity with international law, while it had
“insufficient information” to make a determination on the other six,
three of which involved the use of live fire. Significantly, it chose
to base its analysis of the lawfulness of the actions taken against
those who resisted the boarding of the ship on international
humanitarian law, which governs armed conflict and allows much greater
latitude for the use of lethal force. Amnesty International
categorically rejects the application of this legal framework to the
events concerned.
The Commission does not indicate which of the incidents of force
resulted in deaths or even if it has this information. However, it
states that a detailed analysis of each incident, as well as the
Israeli soldiers’ written testimonies on which this analysis was
based, are contained in an unpublished annex to the report, which it
recommends that the Israeli government “examine the possibility of
making… public”. Amnesty International calls on the Israeli
authorities to do so without delay, so that it can be read by
independent parties.
The September 2010 report of the International Fact-Finding Mission
concluded that IDF use of force during the raid on the Mavi Mamara was
“unnecessary, disproportionate, excessive and inappropriate and
resulted in the wholly avoidable killing and maiming of a large number
of civilian passengers”. Based on forensic and firearm evidence, it
said that “at least six of the killings can be characterised as extra-
legal, arbitrary and summary executions”.
The Mission also found that at least 24 passengers on the Mavi Mamara
were seriously injured by live ammunition fired by Israeli forces,
while other passengers on the flotilla who were posing no threat to
Israeli soldiers were injured by electroshock weapons, plastic
bullets, soft-baton charges fired at close range, stun grenades, and
physical force. It concluded that the IDF also used excessive force in
intercepting three other vessels in the flotilla, the Challenger 1,
Sfendoni and Eleftheri Mesogios.
The Turkel Commission claimed that activists on the Mavi Mamara used
firearms against Israeli forces, even though it could not establish
that activists had brought firearms on board, despite previous IDF
allegations to this effect. This assessment was based on written
statements, which the Commission acknowledged reflected “a situation
of considerable confusion”, submitted by soldiers who were not
subjected to cross-examination, as well as the fact that two IDF
soldiers were treated for bullet wounds. However, there is no
indication in the report that medical professionals who treated the
soldiers were questioned or that ballistics tests were conducted to
determine the source of the wounds.
By contrast, the International Fact-Finding Mission “found no evidence
to suggest that any of the passengers used firearms or that any
firearms were taken on board the ship”, and noted that Israeli
authorities refused to provide medical records or other evidence
substantiating the allegations of firearm use by activists.
The Commission’s report notes the limitations of the evidence on which
its analysis was based, but it is far from clear that it made
sufficient efforts to obtain additional evidence and testimonies
during its seven-month investigation. It did not have the power to
question Israeli soldiers, relying instead on their written
testimonies, as well as written and oral testimonies of senior IDF
officials and Israeli political leaders, much of which has not been
made public.
The Commission heard testimony from only two of the more than 700
passengers and crew on the flotilla. While the vast majority of
passengers live outside of Israel, and the Commission invited flotilla
participants to testify, it appeared to make only half-hearted
attempts to secure their testimony, and made no effort to utilize the
extensive eyewitness testimony collected by the International Fact-
Finding Mission, with which Israel refused to co-operate.
The Commission noted that it did not have access to autopsy reports
for those killed during the raid, claiming that this was due to the
Turkish government’s request that the Israeli authorities not perform
autopsies before returning the bodies to Turkey. However, the Turkish
authorities subsequently performed autopsies on those killed during
the raid, and there is no indication that the Commission requested the
autopsy reports, as the International Fact-Finding Mission did.
Highly contentious legal arguments were used by the Commission to
argue for the applicability of international humanitarian law to the
raid, rather than international human rights law or law enforcement
standards. The Commission viewed the events on the Mavi Mamara as
armed hostilities between activists engaged in violent conduct and the
IDF, and argued that these activists “lost the protection of their
civilian status for such time as they directly participated in the
hostilities”. Effectively, the Commission argued that these activists
could be shot dead lawfully whether or not they were posing a direct
threat to the lives of IDF soldiers.
Amnesty International rejects this interpretation, and believes that
Israel’s interception of the Gaza aid flotilla and the resistance it
encountered from some of those on board the Mavi Marmara did not form
part of an armed conflict. International human rights law and law
enforcement norms should have been applied. As such, the use of force
– and especially lethal force – should have been an act of last
resort.
Amnesty International also rejects the Commission’s conclusions
regarding the status of the Gaza Strip, the nature of Israeli control
over Gaza, and the Israeli closure of Gaza.
Citing an Israeli Supreme Court ruling, Al-Bassiouni v. Prime
Minister, the Commission argued that Israel’s “effective control” of
the Gaza Strip ended following the withdrawal of Israeli forces based
in Gaza and the dismantling of illegal Israeli settlements in the
Strip during the “disengagement” of 2005. Amnesty International has
repeatedly highlighted that Israel remains the occupying power in the
Gaza Strip, due to its continuing control of Gaza’s land crossings,
air space, and territorial waters, as well as the “buffer zone” inside
the Gaza Strip.
Amnesty International also contests the Commission’s findings that the
purpose of Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza was “primarily a military-
security one”. Israeli officials have repeatedly justified the
blockade as an economic sanction against an “enemy entity”, including
in the Al-Bassiouni case cited by the Commission. The naval blockade
must be assessed in the context of the closure policy implemented by
the Israeli government since June 2007 – a siege that constitutes
collective punishment and violates the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Finally, Amnesty International rejects the Turkel Commission’s
conclusion that the closure policy is lawful. The siege of Gaza has
been punishing its entire population of 1.5 million people, half of
whom are children, since June 2007. Israel’s “easing” of the blockade
in June 2010, following the raid on the Gaza flotilla, and its
announcement in December 2010 that certain limited exports would be
permitted, have failed to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where
80 per cent of the population depend on international assistance to
meet basic food needs.
The Public Commission to Examine the Maritime Incident of 31 May 2010
was established by an Israeli government resolution on 14 June 2010.
The Commission was chaired by former Israeli Supreme Court Justice
Jacob Turkel, and its other members included General Amos Horev;
Professor Shabtai Rosenne, who died on 21 September 2010; Ambassador
Reuven Merhav; and Professor Miguel Deutsch. Two international
observers, David Trimble, former First Minister of Northern Ireland,
and Ken Watkin, former head of Canada’s military judiciary,
participated in the Commission’s hearings and concurred with its
findings. The Commission’s report is available at
www.turkel-committee.gov.il/content-107.html
.
The International Fact-Finding Mission was set up after the President
of the UN Human Rights Council appointed Judge Karl T. Hudson-
Phillips, retired Judge of the International Criminal Court and former
Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago, to be its chairman. The other
appointed members were Sir Desmond de Silva, of the United Kingdom,
former Chief Prosecutor of the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra
Leone, and Mary Shanthi Dairiam of Malaysia, founding member of the
Board of Directors of the International Women’s Rights Action Watch
Asia Pacific and former member of the Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women. On 29 September 2010, the Human Rights
Council adopted a resolution endorsing the conclusions of the Fact-
Finding Mission’s report published on 22 September (
www2.ohchr.org/
english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/15session/A.HRC.15.21_en.pdf) and
calling for their implementation. It also requested that the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights report on the status of implementation
at the Council’s 16th session in March 2011, and recommended that the
UN General Assembly consider the report.
In its report, the Fact-Finding Mission concluded that “the right to
an effective remedy should be guaranteed to all victims” and that
victims should be “compensated adequately and promptly”. It also
called upon the Israeli authorities to return unlawfully seized
property and assist in the identification of perpetrators of serious
violations with a view to “prosecuting the culpable and bringing
closure to the situation”. Finally, the Fact-Finding Mission noted the
urgent need for a solution to the “deplorable” and “unsustainable”
humanitarian situation in Gaza resulting from the Israeli blockade,
which it found “amounts to collective punishment in violation of
Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law”.

 Amnesty International has condemned
Guarda che era chiaro come il sole.
Non serve Amnesty, pura farsa, come i tribunali dell'Aia del resto.