Nakba Day 1: My Grandparents are Refugees too!

Today, the Palestinians (and in turn the Arab world) mention Nakba Day. Because 64 years ago today (by the Gregorian calendar), the state of Israel was formed. So they’re mentioning the catastrophe and disaster of Israel’s establishment.

The truth is, that while this day is used mainly for incitment and perpetuation of distortions and half-truths, Israel was the side that accepted the UN’s resolution of two states for two people, while it was the Arab world that rejected it and started offenses and war. The outcome of which was one state and the so-called refugee issue.

Here’s the thing though – The only issue here is why has the Arab world made cynical use of these refugees in the war against Israel? The Palestinians themselves, I can understand how it’s easy for them to not blame themselves for anything, and assume Israel is 100% at fault. But here’s the thing – you have refugees living in Syria, Lebanon and all over the region, and these countries that host them refuse to give them any kind of rights, even after 64 years of living on their territory, because their status is good for the war on Israel.

Did you know? Every real refugee in the world is treated by a UN agency called UNHCR. However, the Palestinians and only the Palestinians are treated by a seperate agency called UNRWA, which is a slap and a repeated spit in the face of real refugees.

You see, UNHCR helps people find a new home and rebuild their lives. That’s what it did after World War II, after the Yugoslvia war, and many other locations around the world. UNRWA, on the other hand, only tries to get them by on a daily basis, helping them stay in worse conditions, in order for them to remain refugees and incite against Israel.

In fact, unlike UNHCR, UNRWA gives offsprings the status of refugee as well. So pradocially enough, 64 years after the war, the 750,000 refugees became over 11 million! Have you ever heard of such atrocity?

And the thing is, the status is never lifted! If a Palestinian has been granted citizenship anywhere around the world – UNRWA still considers him a refugee! Bashar al-Masri, is a successful businessman around the world, wealthy, living in a big mansion and UNRWA calls him a refugee!! And he’s not the only one.

Now i’m not going to say most Palestinians live in great conditions. But the duplicity of the issue is that UNRWA keeps them in that situation and the Arab world gives them absolutely no right, even though they’ve been “hosting” them for over 60 years now!

The truth is, during the 1948 war, both sides hurt each other, and you might even go as far as saying both sides comitted atrocities towards each other. But the Palestinians (mostly their leadership and dependance on the Arab world) refuses to better their situation, or help them.

On the other side of the equation, while 750,000 Palestinian refugees was the result of the war, nearly 800,000 Jews where left with no choice but to leave their homes and posessions in Arab Countries.

64 years ago, my grandmother was living with her family in Syria. They were quiet wealthy. The day Israel declared independance, with according to the UN’s partition plan, they rounded all the men and put them in prison. Took their possesion. Her father’s shop was nationalized. When life became unbearable and her family was practically left with no choice but to leave, they had to escape overnight, pay Druzes to help them cross the border from Syria to Lebanon and from Lebanon to Israel. Their entire possesion was left behind. Everything they owned, except for the clothes on their backs, was nationalized as well. Today, many refugees from Sudan, Eritrea and many other African refugees, are doing the same on a daily basis. But nobody calls my grandmother a refugee. Not once. Not ever. And my grandmother is only one of over 800,000 who had to leave their homes.

My grandparents of my dad’s side, like many non-Jewish European, were left without homes or shelter after the end of World War II. From 1945 to this day, not on them, my grandparents (R.I.P), or the Europeans dealing with the outcome of war, are called refugees today. UNHCR helped them rebuild their lives and have new homes. My grandparents received a life here in Israel. Their entire posession and life from before the war was gone. Yet from 1948 to this day, all Palestinian refugees are still refugees.

Why is that? Why are the Palestinians the only people around the world the UN doesn’t help to rebuild their lives? Or at the very least, to lift the status of “refugee” from them and their children when they have? Why is the UN doing nothing for the Palestinian refugees living in camps in Syria and Lebanon? And why are the Palestinians receiving such special treatment, even in this matter.

Because, you see, until they’ll be treated equally by the world, until this conflict will get the proportion it truly has and not the blown-up kind it has gotten, maybe… maybe the Palestinian could acknowledge their part, their fault, in the conflict. And maybe they can acknowledge that they’d have to make concessions too for peace. And then maybe… maybe peace will finally be possible. But until that’ll happen – peace will never be acheived. Calm will never come. Not until the intertional bodies start treating this conflict as they do any other. No special treatment.

UN Refuses to Fire Bias Employee, Taking Part In De-legitimizing Israel

Now this is a truly enraging story!

During the last escalation round between Israel and Gaza militants, in which over 200 rockets were fired upon Israeli civilian population, a UN employee – whose job description mandates her to be objective and unbias – turned her tweeter account against Israel, filling it with false propaganda and heinous lies.

Khulood Badawi is still the information and media coordinator for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanatarian Affairs. On March 10th 2012, she tweeted on her account a picture of Palestinian girl bleeding, while being held by her greiving father (I chose to not post this picture – Israel has nothing to do with this little girl’s death, but it’s still a horrible picture to post). The tweet said:

Palestine is bleeding… another child killed by #Israel… another father carrying his child to a grave in #Gaza

This tweet was re-posted over 300 times!

However, not only was the picture not from the latest round of escalation, it has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with ISRAEL!

This little girl, as another tweeter member (Avi Mayer) revealed, has been dead for at least five years – The image was taken by Ruetuers newsagency in 2006. The little girl died in a car accident. Israel had nothing to do with it!

It should be noted that in the latest escalation round in Gaza, as well as in previous, Israeli aircarfts took great majors in attempting to minimize the hurting of innocent Gazans (which comes in contrast to the agenda of fanatic militants who use death of innocents for political fortune as well as an execuse to keep taking the population of Gaza hostage in its’ illogical war against Israel). True, some civilians suffered injures (as well as on Israeli side), and there were even a few unfortunate deaths of innocents, however the numbers speak louder than words about Israel intent to not harm civilians as much as it could – 20 out of 23 Palestinian killed in the latest escalation round were militants (by Palestinian’s own reports!).

Back to the fake photo, though – Israel took this matter very seriously, and its’ investigation should that the same employee, who is supposed to be unbias, took part in 2008 in anti-Israeli demonstrations and has publicly called Israel’s Defense minister “a war criminal” and “a children’s murderer”. Objectiveness is obviously not one of her strong suits.

Israel’s UN ambassador, Ron Prosor, issued an acute letter to Badawi’s supervisor, Valarie Amos, saying:

It is unacceptable that for 4 years, the UN would employ someone who doesn’t live up to its’ most basic standard, required of any employee.

Prosor demanded Badawi will be fired. Her supervisor declined, only citing that Badawi’s personal views do not reflect on the UN or keep it from being objective, which personally sounds like a pretty ridiculous excuse. She also noted that an internal investigation has been opened (I’m not holding my breath of it yieling something) and that the UN worker had no idea that he job required her to maintain restrain.

I can’t help but wonder what if the shoe was on the other foot? If a UN worker would post a false picture about a kid being hurt in a suicide attack or a by rocket, when in fact he or she too were simply killed in a car accident, would the UN be so forgiven and understanding there? The realist in me believes this would have been handled much differently.

European UN Ambassadors Help… Kill the Peace Process

Two months ago, I’ve written a lengthy post detailing what I believe is the obstacle for peace in the Middle East (meaning, between the Israelis and the Palestinians). In case you haven’t gotten through it, let be give you the abbreviated bottom line –

The main obstacle for peace is the special treatment the Palestinians receive from the international community. I’m not talking about the whole seperate UN refugee agency that makes a mockery of real refugees around the world and lives to perpetuates this conflict, rather than helping put an end to it. I’m talking about accepting their ridiculous demands. I’m talking about not condemning them when needed. I’m talking about one-sidedness that seems to only present itself in such an ugly form when it comes to this conflict.

Before the Palestinians attempted to yet again circumvent negotiations, I’ve written a post detailing what they have done in the previous year in order to not bring forth a peace settlement, to not end this conflict. And I’ve said in that post, more times than I’d like to bare or count, the Palestinians get away with it. No one seems willing to condemn them for anything. To the contrary, when they were putting up demands and making it difficult to even discuss the possibility of a peace agreement, countries such as Ireland, Norway and even the United States awarded them with upgrades of status to their envoys.

This week, four ambassadors proved this point exactly. The Ambassadors to the UN of the four European countries currently holding a seat in the security council – France, Britain, Germany and Portugal – issued a one-sided condemnation to Israel. For what? Issuing a bidding for house settlements in East Jerusalem (a cabinet response to the Palestinian’s unilateral move in UNESCO that started coming to frution this week) and for its’ inability to stop and persecute the perpetrators of Price Tag operations (which stems from Israel being a democracy, Irnoy of all ironies – but more on that in a later post).

Fact Check: November 29th 1947 – The Partition Plan Approved

With so many distortions of history in the past year that have recieved no condemnation or any kind of reference around the international community, I find it important to set the record straight today, on the 64th anniversary of the approval of the partition plan which effectively formed Israel and another grave milestone in what has been known as The Middle-East Conflict.

In his speech before the United Nations’ General Assembly, in his op-ed article in The New York Times (published May 17th 2011), Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has significantally distorted the facts and the truth. The same actions of lies and distortion is one of the main reasons why generations of Palestinians, of Muslims and Arab around the region, hate Israel from birth. I’m here to set the record straight.

I encourage you to check various reliable sources and verify the FACTS below. As a person who lives in a democratic society that encourage free mind and knowledge seeking. Given my full disclosure, I encourage you to discover that what I have written here is the truth.

A little background if you will…

In 1888 a Jewish movement seeking to restore the Jewish State where it once stood over 2000 years ago, began one of five large immigrations to the area, then in control of the Ottoman Empire. They have joined generations of Jewish people who have lived on the land for thousands of years, as well as many other religions, most of which are Arab (Muslim and Christians) who were living as part of the Empires that conquered and ruled the middle east. Taking a wasteland, the Jewish immigrants started modernizing the land (Draining swamps, building infrastructures such as running water and so on).

In 1917, as both the British and French Empire conquered parts of the middle east during World War I, They signed an agreement dividing the area between them after the demise of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1917, The British Foreign Minister released the Balfour Declartion asserting that part of that land is now obtained would be given to the Jewish Community and its’ efforts to reclaim its’ home.

In 1920, The League of Nations authorized The British Mandate of Palestine and have states its’ goal of forming the national home for the Jewish people.

In 1922, The Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill released a document stating that Britian would not complete its’ task in full – The land east of the Jordan River was handed to an Arab Monarchy and is today known as the state of Jordan while only on the west side of the river would form the Jewish homeland.
This is the territory PA President Abbas refers to as “our natrual homeland”. Actually, this is just the territory Britian decided it was not given to the son of Hussein ibn Ali and the only territory in the region not given to other Arab / Muslim entities.

In 1930, following acts of terror, Colonial Secretary Passfield released another document that almost complete abolished the idea of a Jewish State.

In 1939, following a three-year round of terror, Colonial Secretary Macdonald released a third document announcing Britian would form a Bi-national state with an Arab majority and complete abandoned the idea of a Jewish homeland.

UNESCO passes a political resolution and accepts “Palestine”

Note: You can read more about the politics and anti-Israeli actions of UNESCO in my earlier post.

---

Well, not really a surprise, but it happened. The none-political organization passed a political decision to accept as a full-member state… a state which does not exist. A state whose political status has yet to be decieded by the roof organizations, the UN Security Council itself.

While the Israeli ambassador recieved laughter in his speech, the Palestinine foreign minister recieved appluase. I’m glad to see this is the kind of culture and education the international body in charge of education and culture projects.

UNESCO passed yet another resolution against Israel and has accepted “Palestine” as its’ member. Why the quoatation marks? Because I’m presonally not really sure what Palestine is. Maybe the 107 countries that voted for this resoltuion can answer either of the following questions:

• What are the borders of this newly-accepted state?
  (There’s a difference between “based on the 1967 borders” and the actual final borders which should have been decieded in a bilateral move, meaning negotiations, rather a unilateral move).
•  A follow up – What is its’ jurisdiction?
  (For example, when it comes to East Jerusalem – a contention point full of holy places to all faiths and to where Jewish people as a whole were deined access before 1967 – should it be decided through negotiations what happens with the cultural places of this area?)
• Does the education and culture that UNESCO wishes to promote involved the blind fire-rocketing of hundreds of rockets into civilian unarmed populations with the intent of killing and harming civilians? Is it to encourage terror? FOUR rockets have been fired today into Israel… so far!
• Who represents this state of “Palestine” in UNESCO?
  (Fatah has no real control in Gaza, Hamas has limited control over the West Bank. True, there is this fake and farcical unity agreement, but no government or representations agreed upon by both sides have been agreed upon since MAY. Should the fact that the Fatah memeber was speaking in UNESCO means Gaza is no longer a part of this Palestine? Or are we just getting back to borders and security issues which were not agreed upon by any side or in any kind of negotiations?)
• How does this help promote peace and dialgue between Israel and the Palestinians? Or is UNESCO simply advocating war? (It certainly seems to advocate for terror – see the above).

And the list goes on… I can ask many more questions. For instance the claims on Amnesty reports on journalists (eight in numbers) who are tortured in Palestinian prisons – a big “no-no” in UNESCO‘s own charter.

Congratulations! Another win for terror, another blow to Israel and another day where peace can be officialy deleted from the UN’s to-do list. This is what the body responsible for education around the world wants to educate.

As for the Palestinian people themselves – your [West Bank] leadership has now committed to funding a UN organization. Can your fiscal status really afford it? Most of your economy is still dependant on donations, the unemployment rate is nothing to brag about and you consider yourself refugees. So why is your leadership so eager to be sending the money elsewhere?

---

And a good word to the countries with conscience who wanted to give peace a chance – United States, Israel, Canada, Australia, Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Sweden, Panama, Samoa, Palau, Vanautu and Solomon Islands.

Among the countries who just painted their hands with thick red and should not search for nice comforting words to conceal that fact are France, Spain, Belgium, India and many more (most of which are none-democracies so there was no real point in mentioning them).

Will UNESCO accept “Palestine” as a State?

Tomorrow, Monday October the 31st, is possibly a scary day. Not just because in the Christian faith is marks All Halloween’s Eve, a day notorious for its’ tacky costumes and “Trick or Treat”s. Tomorrow, UNESCO‘s [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization] own general assembly will decide whether or not to accept the non-existing state of Palestine as its member.

Don’t get me wrong – personally I believe in a resolution that will end the Israeli-Palestine conflict and will result in the birth of a Palestinian state. But as of tomorrow, Monday October the 31st 2011, such a state does not exist. Such a state cannot exist until the Palestinians sit down and work out a resolution with Israel. A resultion to end this conflict. To stop the demands. A resultion where both sides made concessions, not just shouting at Israel to go back to the [indefensible] 1967 borders, which they’ve proven to be indefensible. Not until terror, the same kind that continues to attack people and that only yesterday killed an innocent 56 year old man in Ashkelon, Israel, will stop.

Much like any other UN body, UNESCO too now has very little to do with its’ mission statement and much to do with politics. More specifically, Anti-Israeli politics. This is why this ridicolous request is even being considered. If not for political reasons, this wouldn’t be an issue. UNESCO is not supposed to be a political body that recognizes one entity or another as a state. And the UN haven’t even discussed the Palestinian request yet, let alone its’ Security Council. The request is still in committee and is supposed to be brought before the Security Council around Novermber 11th. It is expected to not pass (as it seems now, without the need for an American veto).

Yet, as they’ve done in the past years, the Palestinians (meaning their leadership – the “moderate” faction Fatah, only in control of the West Bank) continue to work towards unilateral moves, than to actually negotiate a resolution, an end to this conflict. They much rather perpetuate it. Not make any concessions. Attack Israel with diplomatic terror, the one they enjoy because of the automatic Anti-Israel and Anti-American majority at international bodies. When will they finally sit down and attempt to talk peace instead of always trying to circumvent it??

UNESCO has long become a political power play in the hands of the anti-Israelis. The Palestinians are preparing to use that once they become members. They plan to have UNESCO officialy declare sites sacred to the Jewish faith and residing inside their claimed territory (mainly the West Bank) as exactly the opposite. They’re planning, announcing their intention, to attack not just Israel, but the Jewish faith as a whole, but having various locations declared “world heritages”.

This is a process already in the making. A year ago, on October 21st 2010, UNESCO adopted five anti-Israeli resolutions. Among them, they’ve denounced any right or connection Israel or the Jewish people have to two of the holiest sites in the Jewish religion, sites considers holy for over 4,000 years – Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

The countries boycotting Durban 3 Conference

Today, as the 66th United Nations General Assembly is gaining momentum, and with the shadow of the Palestinian unilateral move away from peace , the third Durban Conference takes place in New York. Originally a conference aimed to combat world racism, Durban has become nothing more than another global event designated to the de-legitimization campaign against Israel. A conference that has no place for facts or truths, but promotes hate, racism, antisemitism, the denial of the holocaust and much more.

Today, at an event marking more than anything the extreme countries taking part in it, many countries around the west side of the world took an important powerful stand to boycott the conference. These countries are:

• United States
• United Kingdom
• France
• Germany
• Australia
• Canada
• New Zealand
• Austria
• Italy
• Bulgaria
• The Czech Republic
• The Netherlands
• Poland

And of course Israel itself. Go here to read more about my account on the so-called “anti-racism” conference.

By the way, about 25 of NGOs, led by UN WATCH organization, are holding today a counter-summit in New York called  We Have a Dream: Global Summit Against Discrimination and Prosecution. It’s goal is to present an alternative to bias UN bodies and talk about real issues of racism and oppose the participation of countries such as China, Cuba, Iran, Saudi Arabia and more in the UN human rights various forums. It’s intent into bring awareness to the flawed UN system which fails to truly regulates human rights violation around the world.

Another summit Perils of Global Intolerance will take place today in New York, led by Holocaust survivor and Noble peace prize winner Elie Wiesel, is also meant to serve as a counter to Durban 3 and address UN hypocrisy and the ways in which Durban “legitimizes hate speech on a global scale”. Also, StandWithUs is holding a demonstration against the event as well.

2 weeks countdown to the Palestinian unilateral move: The settlement freeze is a hoax

Note: This is an abbreviated post summary focusing on one of five arguments I’ve made earlier to why the UN should, had it been interested in promoting peace, decline the Palestinian unilateral move this September. Click here to read the original full post.

---

Yesterday, though it surprised no one, the Palestinian Authority has issued a letter to the UN secretary-general, asking to be accepted to the UN as a new country to be taken upon vote in the coming 66th General Assembly. Surely, this resolution will pass. It should be noted that only the Palestinian Authority, in control of the West Bank, has issued the letter and not Hamas who violently controls the lives of over 1.5 million Gazans. While a farcical unity has been reached between Hamas and The Palestinian Authority, supposedly ending their long blood-filled feud, Hamas remains committed officially not to peace but to war, bloodshed and death. Hamas is an entity declared a terror organization by the Quartet (which the UN is a member of).

For the past two years, the Palestinian Authority refused entering negotiating with Israel. One could be surprised how a leadership screaming constantly at its’ own people’s agony would continually refuse entering negotiations to end such suffering (The answer is of course the shower of gifts raining upon them from all around the world, this unilateral move only one out of many, without them having to make a single concessions in term of negotiations). Their excuse has been that Israel continues to build settlements in the West Bank, which renders them unable to talk peace. FALSE! This is merely an excuse, one that has worked well in their benefit, but only that. An excuse.

It could be that the Palestinians refuse to sit down with the current Israeli government (who has made several public announcements to its readiness to a two-state solution and negotiations, starting with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Bar-Ilan speech). If that is the case, then the Palestinians should know that you don’t get to choose your partner in peace, but if you desire peace, you make an honest effort despite that. A negotiation on a peace deal so complicated and on a conflict lasting so long is not about to be resolved easily no matter what. You don’t start by agreeing on all issues, but you start on agreeing that you want to go somewhere. That agreement has been lacking.

If for you’re unaware of what a settlement freeze is, let me explain. Israel has froze building of settlements in the west bank for 10 months (starting November 26^th, 2009) in an attempt to get the Palestinian to sit down to talk to them (this was done due to international pressure, mainly by U.S. President, Barrack Obama, but nevertheless – the settlement freeze happened). During most of these ten months there we no peace talks. The Palestinians refused to see this as a trust-building step and did not agree to start direct negotiations with Israel. The U.S. tried to sponsor indirect talks during that time, but that failed as well.

Turkey expels Israeli Ambassador, worsens ties

Today at noon, in response to the publication of the Palmer Report (UN inquiry on the 31 May 2010 Flotilla Incident),  Turkey has announced it is worsening its’ diplomatic relations with Israel and a series of steps regarding that worsening. Turkey has completely disregarded the findings of the report, a report which completely contradicts all of their claims towards Israel, the blockade on Gaza and its’ operation to intercept the flotilla.

Before I elaborate on the Turkish response, here are the reports’ main findings (who favor Israel’s narrative):

• “Israel faces a real threat to its security from militant groups in Gaza. The naval blockade was imposed as a legitimate security measure in order to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea and its implementation complied with the requirements of international law.” (Summary, Facts, Circumstances and Context of the Incident, ii)
• “Although people are entitled to express their political views, the flotilla acted recklessly in attempting to breach the naval blockade [..] there exist serious questions about the conduct, true nature and objectives of the flotilla organizers, particularly IHH. The actions of the flotilla needlessly carried the potential for escalation.” (Summary, Facts, Circumstances and Context of the Incident, iv)
• “The incident and its outcomes were not intended by either Turkey or Israel.” (Summary, Facts, Circumstances and Context of the Incident, v)
• “Israeli Defense Forces personnel faced significant, organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers when they boarded the Mavi Marmara requiring them to use force for their own protection.” (Summary, Facts, Circumstances and Context of the Incident, vii)
• “Three soldiers were captured, mistreated, and placed at risk by those passengers.” (Summary, Facts, Circumstances and Context of the Incident, vii)
• “Attempts to breach a lawfully imposed naval blockade place the vessel and those on board at risk.” (Summary, How to Avoid Similar Incidents in the Future, General, viii)

Many claims of Turkey are refuted as well throughout the report, such as the claim that Israeli soldiers fired from a helicopter towards the activists. The report finds that Israeli soldiers only opened fire once they were attacked and did so to protect their lives. Also, the report finds that three soldiers were in fact kidnapped by activists, and NOT as Turkey tried to portray it “for medical care”.

Turkey’s playing chicken

Unless there are (again) any last minute changes, Tomorrow (Friday, September 2nd) the Palmer Report will be submitted and handed to the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon. The Palmer Report is a summary of a UN inquiry into the flotilla incident at the end of May 2010 (where Israel’s Navy boarded a flotilla of ships sailing to break its’ naval blockade on Gaza and the erupted violence ended with the deaths of nine Turkish activists on board). After a long strain in relations, the flotilla incident marked the biggest rupture in Israeli-Turkish relations. The Palmer Report is an attempt by Secretary-General Moon in conducting an objective investigation of the incident (seeing as how the so-called “Human Rights Organization” in Geneva is controlled by a majority of anti-Israeli countries and holds a clear bias towards it). It is also an attempt to recover the relations between Israel and Turkey. That is one of the reason why the publishing of the report has been postponed time and time again since June 2011. It should be noted that this an agreed inquiry, the first of its’ kind, that had both an Israeli and a Turkish representative.

Turkey’s demands

Turkey claims that Israel has acted illegally. In its’ view, Israel assaulted civilians and peace activists sailing freely to Gaza in an attempt to break what they perceive as an illegal blockade. To Turkey’s narrative, Israel violated international law when it attacked the flotillas in international law and its’ soldiers boarded the ships with the intent of killings activists in order to deter future flotillas. It demands an Israeli apology to the incident and pay compensations to the families of the “victims”.

It should be noted that flotilla was not sailing under a Turkish flag, but rather the flag of the Comoros island. Nevertheless, its’ origin was well-known.

Israel’s narrative

Israel has a different view on things – first of all, this wasn’t the first and it wasn’t the last flotilla attempting to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza. It was, however, the biggest. In only one out of six ships, there were casualties. Israel views its’ blockade on Gaza legal and a legitimate method of war against Hamas who took over the Gaza Strip by violence in 2007 and has declared war and terror against Israel’s civilians. The blockade is a method to stop large shipments of weapons that can from reaching Hamas and the other militants in Gaza. Such flotillas who has humanitarian aid cover large quantities of weapons and ammunition have been found in the past on “Karin A”, “Francop”, and last March on “Victoria”.

Israel’s narrative is that it gave the ships sufficient and numerous warning that they were about to enter a blockaded area and have been responded that they ships do not intent to change their course and that they are headed the blockaded Gaza. That is when Israel sent its’ Navy to stop the ships by boarding and seizing control over it. To Israel’s narrative, while the flotilla had over 600 activists, a group of a few dozens, boarded separately when the flotilla was docked in Cyprus (at a Turkish port, it seems). These were not peace-activists but terrorists with the sole intention of inciting, creating violence and harming the soldiers that would board the ship (Israel has noted that it will do so to any ship attempting to break its’ blockade and has done so in the past). Due to lack of intelligence, the soldiers were prepared to only except mild resistance and not head-on violence. It was then that they opened fire and in resulting battles the none-peace activists were killed. Also, during the confrontation, 4 soldiers were abducted by the activists, one managed to break free and jumped ship.

Regarding the claims of international waters, Israel maintains that since the destination of the flotilla was known and since its’ blockade is legal, it had every right to intercept the ships in international waters, a few miles off the waters of Gaza. It did so because the flotillas were sailing slow (in order to have the confrontation be at broad daylight), and wanted to intercept the ships at night. Israel refuses to the apologies for what it perceives as no more than a provocation and an attempt to harm its’ soldiers, as well as de-legitimize it. Israel’s official stand is that it refuses to pay compensations (although there were reports of it willing to pay through a third-party fund).

The Palmer Report

The Palmer report’s main points have already been leaked to the media before its’ initial publication date – June 2011. The most recent leak was posted by The New York Times today. Turkey has called the commission’s’ first draft “a difficult” one. It is known to say:

1. Israel’s blockade of Gaza is legal and adheres all international laws and principals regarding the imposing of a naval blockade.
2. Israel’s interception of the flotilla in international waters was legal.
3. However, there was a disproportionate response and soldiers took grave measures to protect themselves (The report finds that the Israeli soldiers were in danger and met great violence on board but their response was extremely harsh and disproportionate). The report is set to have eye-witnesses who claim to have seen soldiers firing live ammunition in many accounts. Israel has responded that it can give answer to any event. Its’ independent Turkel commission’s report have pointed out that it found 133 incidents of confrontation (among them three involving live ammunition being used and three others with physical force being used). It found 127 incidents, including those mentioned specifically (live ammunition and physical force) to be just and marked six others as not having enough evidence and material to determine either way.
4. The report is highly critical of the organizers, the Turkish IHH organization, and has found that it made preparations for violence and has in fact organized a violent resistance.
5. The report alludes to Turkey’s responsibility and spurring of the events, saying it did not make enough efforts to stop the activists.
6. The report does suggest that Israel apologizes for the results of the interception and will find some way to compensate the families, but does not demand it or find it a necessity under international law.