Let’s let British Petroleum conduct an investigation of what it did wrong in the Gulf of Mexico.
One has to wonder what kind of fool would suggest this. But the Obama administration and Congress have agreed to let Israel investigate its own attack on a group of ships bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza on May 31st — an attack that killed one American citizen and took control of an American ship and affected citizens from numerous countries.
The Associated Press report which most Americans saw, reads:
The White House backs Israel’s inquiry into its deadly raid last month on a flotilla trying to break a blockade against Gaza, saying the independent public commission is “an important step forward.” … Press Secretary Robert Gibbs says Israel’s panel can meet the standard of a “prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation.”
The McClatchy News Service ran a similar article, titled “Israel plans impartial inquiry of its deadly attack on aid flotilla,” by Jerusalem-based reporter Shera Frenkel.
Not only are we getting a whitewash, it’s being packaged as an “independent” and “impartial” investigation.
If citizens of the 40 countries whose citizens were hijacked, beaten, or killed by Israel are content that at least “some kind” of investigation is being conducted, think again. A whitewash is under way. Whatever Israel’s own probe concludes – and Prime Minister Netanyahu has promised that it will exculpate Israel – the world must keep pressing for a credible, independent, international commission to investigate the flotilla attack.
With US approval, Israel appointed a commission to investigate itself composed of chairman Yaakov Tirtel, 75, a retired Israeli Supreme Court judge who still serves on a military appeals court; member Shabtai Rosen, 93, who worked on maritime law issues while at the UN; and member Amos Horev, 86, a retired major-general in the Israeli army, former president of the Technion, and an advocate for the Israeli defense industry.
Besides old guard members of Israel’s military-industrial complex, Israel appointed two “international observers” without voting rights. Neither of the men hastily chosen, a Canadian general who may have looked the other way on human rights abuses in Afghanistan and a Loyalist politician once associated with Ian Paisley and British colonial abuses in Ireland, is likely to stand up to much scrutiny.
Ken Watkin, the Canadian, was implicated in the Canadian Afghan detainee issue, in which several detainees arrested by Canadian Forces disappeared or were tortured following transfer to the Afghan National Police. According to a report in the Toronto Star, while acting as the Judge Advocate General, Watkin refused to answer questions when testifying in Canada’s House of Commons about whether he had been told to authorize the transfers or knew of the torture, and claimed attorney-client privilege in refusing to answer the House’s questions.
Irish Loyalist David Trimble, the second Israeli observer, is known for his association with Ian Paisley and British suppression of the Irish independence movement. Trimble is a neoconservative who supports interventionist foreign policy, as his membership in the Henry Jackson Society indicates. Trimble opposed the appointment of former US Senator George Mitchell as chairman of multi-party talks which resulted in the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement (GFA) of 1998. He recently founded the “Friends of Israel Initiative” to combat “international delegitimization” of the Jewish state. Trimble also has been quoted as saying, “One of the great curses of this world is the human rights industry.”
With an investigative body like this, don’t get your hopes up. My guess is the whitewash has probably already been written. Israel’s forthcoming report should be ignored and, instead, there must be a truly credible, independent, international investigation of the flotilla attack. As a recent Ha’aretz editorial concludes:
… both its puzzling membership and weak mandate – bodes ill for Israel. A committee whose makeup and authority are perceived as predetermined will be unable to satisfy international leaders and their constituencies abroad who demanded the inquiry in the first place. It would therefore have been better if the Turkel committee had never been born, sparing us the deceptive appearance of a real investigation.
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