The man who ordered the attack on the aid flotilla to Gaza, set up the inquiry, chose its members and determined its mandate, has announced its outcome even before it has started. Binyamin Netanyahu’s beaming smile showed an Israeli prime minister confident that he had faced down international protestations over the Israeli attack on the Gaza aid flotilla, buying off the pressure with an inquiry that even the Israeli newspaper, Ha’aretz, described as a farce.For those without crystal balls, Netanyahu helpfully told us that the inquiry will show that Israel took “appropriate defensive actions in accordance with the highest international standards”. Well, it will say that, we can be sure.Is this a rerun of the Widgery inquiry into Bloody Sunday that falsely found that civilians opened fire on British soldiers first? (Israel stated that it was the civilians who attacked first, as if the boarding of the ships never happened). Let us hope that it will not take 38 years to find a Saville, unearth the truth and for someone to apologise for this Bloody Monday massacre as well as others.The inquiry chairman, Jacob Turkel, has stated that holding people to account is a marginal issue. Israeli soldiers will not testify at the inquiry. Would any of the activists co-operate with or trust this kangaroo court? Would an activist beaten up by Israeli soldiers, who has seen their friends and colleagues killed and shot, feel safe going back? Will all their photographs and video footage be released intact after having been illegally confiscated by the Israeli authorities? Israel was very fast to release its own carefully edited selected footage.Turkey has understandably dismissed this inquiry. A valid inquiry requires Turkey’s co-operation to share the findings of the post-mortems into the nine Turkish citizens killed. They reportedly show that one victim was shot five times from less than 45cm.Netanyahu has hand-picked two international observers including Lord Trimble who on the day of the attack on the flotilla was starting a “Friends of Israel initiative”. They will not be allowed to vote on the inquiry’s conclusions. In case of need, the commission can hold closed sessions as it sees fit.Do not expect the inquiry team to be so naive as to produce a report that will totally exonerate Israeli actions. No doubt there will be references to alternatives that should have been used, operational shortcomings, grey areas in international law and lessons to be learned.If Israeli actions were legitimate, and if their soldiers did act properly and legally, then what has Israel to fear? If it wants to restore its image then only a proper international, independent inquiry reporting to the UN Security Council would suffice. Such an inquiry would have to have full powers making it mandatory on all parties to co-operate including Israel, Turkey and the activists. Any party found responsible for illegal actions should then be held to account.The Israeli record of investigating itself is shockingly poor. Even when the Kahan Commission into the Sabra and Shatila massacres found Ariel Sharon to have “personal responsibility”, he still retained ministerial office in Begin’s cabinet, and before long became foreign minister and ultimately prime minister. The Shamgar commission set up to investigate the massacre of 29 Palestinians at the Ibrahimi mosque in Al-Khalil in 1994 exonerated both the army and the settler leadership of all responsibility, and recommended the partitioning a site that had been a mosque for nearly 1,400 years.The Landau commission investigating Israeli interrogation techniques, not only took no action but deemed Israel had the right to “use moderate physical pressure” – torture to the rest of us. It even outlined in a secret part of the report exactly how this should be done. Torture continues today, with recent reports of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy threatened with torture by use of car battery leads on his hands and genitalia.While a UN inquiry into Israel’s assault on Gaza found evidence of potential war crimes and crimes against humanity, the initial Israeli investigation only prosecuted one soldier – for the use of a stolen credit card. History repeats itself, as it seems a credit card of one of the activists, taken by Israeli security ended up being used in Tel Aviv.Impunity also extends to soldiers and settlers in the occupied territories. The Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem has reported for years on how settlers are never held to account for their crimes. Rabbi Moshe Levinger, a Al-Khalil settler leader, was given a five-month sentence for killing a Palestinian, reduced to only four. While Western fatalities attract more attention from the Israeli authorities and international media, justice rarely ensues and the families of Rachel Corrie or Tom Hurndall, both killed by Israeli soldiers, still await the truth of what happened to their loved ones even today.How can a government that uses overwhelming force against civilians, torture, detains children without trial, steals land and resources of another people, demolishes their homes and property, and has violated so many laws and conventions it would be difficult to list them on one page, seriously be expected to hold itself to account?Sadly, British ministers have already welcomed the inquiry despite its shortcomings and lack of independence. Suspicions have been aroused that acceptance of this charade was in return for a cosmetic easing of the blockade of Gaza, and not what is needed, its full and final lifting.The international community, and in particular the United States, never says enough. Like a spoilt child, Israel can do as it pleases. Should we be surprised that Israel uses fake British passports to assassinate people in third countries? The impact of this lack of accountability was highlighted in the report of the UN fact-finding mission on the Gaza conflict in 2009 arguing that this only led to further crimes.Stitching up an inquiry will be a Pyrrhic victory for Israel, just as Widgery did not help the British. The blockade of Gaza is unravelling, its barbaric siege and imprisonment of Gaza further exposed to a horrified world, with more flotillas prepared to run the gauntlet of Israeli gunboats and boarding parties. Hamas gets stronger as do more elements in Gaza. Israeli leaders are not asking the right questions. Only a root-and-branch change in their policies and actions towards the Palestinians will bring them both security and international acceptance that they crave.
The bloody ending to the high-profile mission to deliver supplies to the besieged Gaza Strip plunged Israel into a diplomatic crisis on the eve of talks between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
As Israel pointed the finger of blame at passengers for initiating the violence, accusing them of using deadly force, activists from the ships countered with their own descriptions of how events unfolded in raid which took place in international waters at around 5:00 am.
Live footage taken from the Turkish passenger boat, which was posted all over the Internet, showed black-clad Israeli commandos rappelling down from helicopters and clashing with activists, as well as several wounded people lying on the deck of the ship.
“Under darkness of night, Israeli commandos dropped from a helicopter onto the Turkish passenger ship, Mavi Marmara, and began to shoot the moment their feet hit the deck,” according to a report on the website of the Free Gaza Movement.
The shaky footage shows scenes of chaos, with the dark profiles of Israel missile boats looming in the background.
Senior Pakistani journalist Talat Hussain, another Pakistani journalist Agha Raza and a Pakistani NGO worker were also on board one of the ships. So far, they had not made contact.
The Israeli army insisted its troops opened fire only after they were attacked with knives, clubs and even live fire.
“As a result of this life-threatening and violent activity, naval forces employed riot dispersal means, including live fire,” an army statement said, adding that it appeared as if the passengers “were planning to lynch the forces.”
Israel had a blunt response to the bloodshed, pinning the blame squarely on the activists.
“They initiated the violence,” Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev told AFP.
“We made every possible effort to avoid this incident.
“Unfortunately they were attacked with deadly force by the people on the boats — with iron bars, knives and live fire.”
Israel's Channel 10 TV said 19 passengers were killed and 36 wounded in the raid.
The army confirmed more than 10 people had died in the operation and said between 15 and 30 passengers were wounded.
Five naval commandos were also wounded, two of whom were said to be severely injured, while another three were in moderate condition.
A Turkish charity involved with the flotilla claimed at least 15 people were killed, most of them Turkish nationals.
As details of the bloody confrontation emerged, an Israeli military boat could be seen escorting a large white boat and a smaller yacht-type craft into the southern Israeli port of Ashdod, an AFP correspondent said.
Black-clad naval officers could be seen on the deck of the larger boat which appeared to be a passenger vessel, he said.
Media reports also said that senior Arab Israeli leader Raed Salah had been injured in the clashes.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas slammed the navy raid as “a massacre” and announced a three-day mourning period.
“We will have to take some difficult decisions this evening,” an official from his office told Palestinian television, without giving further details.
The Palestinian Authority also called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council “to discuss the piracy, the crime and the Israeli massacre,” said top negotiator Saeb Erakat.
Israel's Arab community called a general strike in response to an Israeli naval operation and called for protests across the country.
In response, hundreds from across the political spectrum flooded onto the streets of the northern Arab Israeli city of Nazareth to protest against the bloody attack.
Hamas reacted angrily to the raid.
“We call on the Palestinian Authority to halt negotiations, direct or indirect, with Israel because of this crime,” said Ismail Haniya, Hamas’ prime minister in Gaza.
The ships, carrying more than 700 passengers, were on the last leg of an aid mission to deliver some 10,000 tonnes of supplies to Gaza, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade since 2007.
Israel had warned the attempt to break the Gaza blockade was illegal and that it would intercept the ships, tow them to the Ashdod port and detain the activists before deporting them.
It labelled the convoy a media stunt, insisting the humanitarian situation is stable in Gaza despite reports to the contrary from aid agencies.
At least 17 people were wounded early Wednesday in a pair of airstrikes launched by the Israel Defense Forces in retaliation for mortar shells fired into Israel from Gaza.
No injuries were reported in an airstrike near Gaza International Airport in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Hamas police said, but a medical source at Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in northern Gaza said 17 people were wounded in a second strike in the city of Beit Hanoun in the northeast of Gaza.
Five of the injured were militants and two of the 17 were critically wounded, the source said.
The IDF said the airstrikes targeted two tunnels used by militants. Both were a kilometer away from the security fence that separates Israel and Gaza. The strikes, the IDF said, were "in response to the firing of two mortar shells" into Israel.
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