No Surprises in UN's Biased Flotilla Report
The UN Human Rights Council’s latest report into the Gaza flotilla incident has proved yet again that when it comes to Israel, its conclusions are pre-determined against the Jewish state.
On Wednesday, a panel appointed by the UNHRC to conduct a fact-finding mission into the flotilla found that Israel violated international law when they raided the flotilla earlier this year, an action in which 9 passengers were killed. The panel concluded that the raid by the Israelis “was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence.” It went on further to say that the raid “betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality.”
When reading the UNHRC Report, it is well worth remembering that this is the same committee that on 2 June, first “condemned in the strongest possible terms the outrageous attack by the Israeli forces”, and only after sought fit to call for a fact finding mission. The conclusions of the report should therefore come as no surprise given that the outcome was already pre-determined.
A closer examination of the UNHRC report reveals that:
1) It completely fails to recognize that the main reason for the naval blockade was to prevent the shipment of weapons reaching Hamas in Gaza, and that notwithstanding ongoing rocket attacks from Hamas, Israel continued to facilitate the regular transfer of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
2) Despite ample evidence that one of the lead organizers of the flotilla – the IHH is an extremist Islamic terrorist group which is backed by Turkey and has links to Hamas and Al Qaeda, the UNHRC nonetheless referred to it as a “Turkish humanitarian organization”, as if it were the Red Cross.
3) The UNHRC completely disregarded the fact that many of the so called ‘peace activists’ came on board armed with machetes, knives, metal bars and other weapons, which they used to full force in the brutal lynching of the Israeli soldiers. In fact, the report stated that: “it was not generally contested that...the ships were carrying cargos of a humanitarian nature”. That is certainly an odd way to describe humanitarian cargo.
Further, the UNHRC report also overlooked the fact that Israel has launched numerous investigations of its own into the flotilla, including the Turkel Committee, an independent panel headed by a respected former Israel Supreme Court Justice, together with international observers. This committee is still continuing its investigations.
Following the release of the UNHRC report, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “in view of the biased, politicized and extremist approach of the same Human Rights Council that initiated the skewed Goldstone Report, Israel sees no reason to cooperate with this commission.” In light of the outcome of the Commission’s findings, it is easy to understand why. Notwithstanding, Israel is however cooperating with a separate UN enquiry established by UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon and headed by New Zealand's former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer. This commission has yet to finalize and publish its findings.
The latest distorted UNHRC report is yet another illustration that when it comes to Israel, the UNHRC is simply incapable of demonstrating even a semblance of balance or objectivity. It is no wonder therefore that Israel refuses to cooperate with the UNHRC. The question must now also be asked, why anyone should cooperate with the UNHRC when it clearly has such a fatal credibility flaw.