U.N. experts: Israel flotilla raid broke int'l law

gimmesometruth27

ok, so now we have that ruling...a little late...so now what are they going to do about? most likely nothing :twisted:

U.N. experts: Israel flotilla raid broke int'l law
Panel says the Israeli military response to flotilla was 'disproportionate'
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39311860/ns ... tn_africa/

GENEVA — A report by three U.N.-appointed human rights experts Wednesday said that Israeli forces violated international law when they raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla killing nine activists earlier this year.

The U.N. 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.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry responded late Wednesday by saying the Human Rights Council had a "biased, politicized and extremist approach."

Israel has maintained that its soldiers acted in self-defense when they shot and killed eight Turkish activists and one Turkish-American aboard the Mavi Marmara on May 31.

"The Human Rights Council blamed Israel prior to the investigation and it is no surprise that they condemn after," said Andy David, a spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, referring to the 47-member body's resolution in early June condemning the raid.

Israel refused to cooperate with the panel, preferring instead to work with a separate U.N. group under New Zealand's former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe that is also examining the incident but has yet to publish its findings.

"Israel is a democratic and law abiding country that carefully observes international law and, when need be, knows how to investigate itself," the Foreign Ministry statement said. "That is how Israel has always acted, and that is the way in which investigations were conducted following Operation Cast Lead, launched to protect the inhabitants of southern Israel from rockets and terror attacks carried out by Hamas from Gaza."

Fawzi Barhoum, spokesman for the Islamic militant group Hamas that controls Gaza, said the report emphasized that Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories violates human rights "not only against Palestinian people but against innocent people who came to show their sympathy."

"Now it's required to be a mechanism in order to translate this report into action and to bring the occupation commanders to trial for the crimes they committed," Barhoum said.

The Human Rights Council's report was compiled by former U.N. war crimes prosecutor Desmond de Silva, Trinidadian judge Karl T. Hudson-Phillips and Malaysian women's rights advocate Mary Shanthi Dairiam. It is scheduled to be presented to the council on Monday.

Commy

Israel acts in violation of international law.


typical.

this case is especially shitty. the people in that flotilla were only trying to help, and Israel gunned them down anyway.

gimmesometruth27

Commy wrote:

Israel acts in violation of international law.


typical.

i wonder what the outcome of their own investigation will be? perhaps that they were well within their rights to attack and board that ship in international waters? it will be interesting to see how this turns out. to me the take home quote is that the UN called the blockade illegal as well...

"The U.N. 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."

redrock

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

"Israel is a democratic and law abiding country that carefully observes international law .....

Of course.... :roll: I can't understand how they can make such statements keeping a straight face.

yosi

I don't know how anyone can take the UN Human Rights Council seriously and keep a straight face. Seriously, the UN's human rights bodies have been a joke or worse for years. When you have a body comprised of some of the worst human rights abusers on the planet tasked with upholding and defending human rights, something is very wrong.

Byrnzie

yosi wrote:

I don't know how anyone can take the UN Human Rights Council seriously and keep a straight face. Seriously, the UN's human rights bodies have been a joke or worse for years. When you have a body comprised of some of the worst human rights abusers on the planet tasked with upholding and defending human rights, something is very wrong.

Care to elaborate?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nat ... il#Members

UN Human Rights Council Mmbers:

2010 Group

* African States: Madagascar, South Africa, Angola, Egypt.
* Asian States: India, Indonesia, Philippines, Qatar.
* Eastern European States: Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
* Latin American & Caribbean States: Nicaragua, Bolivia.
* Western European & Other States: Netherlands, Italy.


2011 Group

* African States: Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Zambia.
* Asian States: Bahrain, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea.
* Eastern European States: Slovakia, Ukraine.
* Latin American & Caribbean States: Argentina, Brazil, Chile.
* Western European & Other States: France, United Kingdom.

Byrnzie

yosi wrote:

I don't know how anyone can take the UN Human Rights Council seriously and keep a straight face. Seriously, the UN's human rights bodies have been a joke or worse for years. When you have a body comprised of some of the worst human rights abusers on the planet tasked with upholding and defending human rights, something is very wrong.

I'm sure that anyone who takes a look at the history of Israel's human rights abuses will place the above in it's proper context. Just in the past year alone it's been charged by every human rights organization, along with the U.N, of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

But then the U.N is anti-Semitic, Amnesty international is anti-semitic, Human rights Watch is anti-semitic, Physicians for Peace is anti-semitic, the U.N is anti-semitic, and every country that supports U.N 242 (every country on the planet except the U.S) is anti-semitic, right?

yosi

B, what is it with you and antisemitism? You just can't stop talking about it.

Commy

that label has been thrown around a lot on this board lately.

yosi

Actually, I don't think it has. Yes, antisemitism is mentioned very often on this board, but aside from the one thread that was locked, virtually all of the mentions have been in the context of people complaining about being branded antisemites, or accusing others of silencing dissent through bad-faith claims of antisemitism, without anyone ever actually calling anyone an antisemite.

Commy

you're right actually, instead its always backhanded comments and snide remarks about "true feelings" and similar. no one has the balls to actually come out and say it, instead they insinuate, and make backhanded comments, and post things that hint criticism is actually hiding antisemitism.

yosi

Again, I don't think that's true. Even granting that one "true feelings" instance (which, again, I don't read the same way you do) there are far and away more accusations of accusations of antisemitism then there are actual accusations of antisemitism.

catefrances

yosi wrote:

Again, I don't think that's true. Even granting that one "true feelings" instance (which, again, I don't read the same way you do) there are far and away more accusations of accusations of antisemitism then there are actual accusations of antisemitism.

probably.

TriumphantAngel

yosi wrote:

Actually, I don't think it has. Yes, antisemitism is mentioned very often on this board, but aside from the one thread that was locked, virtually all of the mentions have been in the context of people complaining about being branded antisemites, or accusing others of silencing dissent through bad-faith claims of antisemitism, without anyone ever actually calling anyone an antisemite.

that's not true. actually that's a lie.

prfctlefts has accused me personally of it on at least two occassions.

rafie has openly stated it.

rafie wrote:

I think that as long as there is Antisemitism in the world (it even exists on this forum with certain members)

and you have said this in the past, i can search some more if you like, those only took me two minutes.

yosi wrote:

That is not to say that criticism of Israel is invalid, only that not everyone who is criticizing is doing it for noble reasons. Is this really that hard to understand? Triumphant, I do not think you are an antisemite. Period. But I would not be surprised if some of the other people on this thread are. They may not even be aware of how their views are shaped by prejudice. But to my ear the criticism of Israel by certain people on this thread sounds at times so shrill and hysterical that I can't help but wonder what is going on.

yosi wrote:

I haven't accused everyone who disagrees with me of being an antisemite, as is clear from the multiple times I have explicitly said as much. And I have not made accusations of antisemitism BECAUSE anyone disagreed with me. I have made these accusations (and really I've tried to be clear that they are more suspicions than accusations) because I believe them to be (possibly) true.

gimmesometruth27

it seems that everybody critical of israel's government and policies is labeled or has been labeled anti semitic on this forum at one point or another....does that label apply to the "self hating" jews that people talk about as well??

am i antiamerican because i criticize my own country's policies?

the bottom line is that the international community has found the blockade and the raid on the flotilla to be against international law. that is not antisemitism, that is anti blatantly breaking international law...

catefrances

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

it seems that everybody critical of israel's government and policies is labeled or has been labeled anti semitic on this forum at one point or another....does that label apply to the "self hating" jews that people talk about as well??

am i antiamerican because i criticize my own country's policies?

the bottom line is that the international community has found the blockade and the raid on the flotilla to be against international law. that is not antisemitism, that is anti blatantly breaking international law...

not saying that i havent but i cant remember having the antisemitic label aimed at me personally.

polaris_x

sooo ... yosi - are you going to dismiss these findings because you think the countries that make up this council are hypocrites?

yosi

I'm going to wait and see what the investigation that actually has access to Israel's side of the story, and that isn't acting on behalf of a body that condemned Israel before even launching its investigation, has to say.

gimmesometruth27

yosi wrote:

I'm going to wait and see what the investigation that actually has access to Israel's side of the story, and that isn't acting on behalf of a body that condemned Israel before even launching its investigation, has to say.

nice deflection..

yosi

Unlike some I try not to jump to conclusions.

gimmesometruth27

yosi wrote:

Unlike some I try not to jump to conclusions.

well i think i would be more inclined to believe the UN investigation over a seperate one consisting of 3 countries, one of which being the country accused of breaking international law....

when i read statements from israeli government officials in the days leading up to the raid on the ships stating that "the flotilla will not reach it's destination" it gives me pause and tells me of their intentions all along....

also it was concluded that not only the flotilla incident, but the blockade as a whole were both against international law. of course israel is going to conclude that the blockade is legal and their flotilla raid was justified. the legal wrangling to defend this is going to be so outrageous it will be like watching johnny cochran defending OJ.