Turkey to pursue legal action against Israelis for flotilla raid after relations downgrade

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

It now appears that the United Nations report which was supposed to repair ties between Israel and Turkey completely backfired by directly resulting in a major diplomatic relations downgrade and now the threat of legal action against those involved in the Gaza flotilla raid.

The report, leaked on Thursday and given to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday will soon be officially made public according to UN spokesperson Eduardo del Buey.  Due to the fact that the full text of the report has yet to be officially released to the public, del Buey and other United Nations officials have been avoiding comment.

Regardless, Turkish officials were quick to react to the report by first expelling the Israeli ambassador to Turkey, along with other Israeli officials. Second, a statement issued by the Turkish embassy in Washington D.C. revealed that, “Turkey will take legal actions against the Israeli soldiers and all other officials responsible for the crimes committed and pursue the matter resolutely.”

This raises the important question of where and how these legal actions will be pursued.

It is almost guaranteed that Israel will not extradite their own officials and commandos to Turkey for trial and I seriously doubt that the International Criminal Court would be interested in pursuing charges based on their track record of silence and bias.

To make matters even more difficult for Turkey in their pursuit of justice, the names of the IDF soldiers who participated in the raid on the Turkish flotilla ship which resulted in nine deaths and two summary executions.

This means that if Turkey follows through with their threats of legal action against the Israelis responsible, they would have to go after the ranking commanders who oversaw the operation and none of the soldiers themselves.

This would be highly problematic, given the fact that officers have a tendency to get away with atrocities committed under their supervision so long as they didn’t give the specific order to kill.

Therefore, if it turns out that the officers never specifically ordered the soldiers to execute the human rights activists on the Mavi Marmara ship in 2010, the officers could walk away scot-free.

Another mitigating factor worth taking note of is the lack of transparency in the IDF and their history of swinging investigations to favor their own.

Take, for instance, the recent investigation into the deaths of the Egyptian security forces in the Sinai during a firefight between IDF forces, militants, and Egyptians.

The people of Egypt were quick to blame the Israel Defense Forces for the deaths, but of course the IDF conducted an investigation into the matter immediately. This investigation involved only the IDF and no Egyptians were brought into the fold before coming to the decision that the Egyptian deaths were a result of friendly fire.

Obviously if Turkey is actually able to pursue legal action against the officers, the IDF will do a bang-up job of mopping up the evidence and closing up any holes which could result in Israeli culpability.

The fact that Israel cannot even muster the decency to apologize for the deaths is just proof-positive of this exceptionalist mindset that makes the IDF and Israeli officials believe they can do whatever they please without being held accountable.

The unfortunate reality is that Israel can get away with just about anything and the weak United Nations report just confirms this.

The report, known as the Palmer Report due to the fact that the former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Geoffrey Palmer was put at the helm, is not regarded as a “consensus document” according to one United Nations official quoted by Israeli news outlet Haaretz.

Turkey seems to be finally taking a strong stance in this case and refusing to back down in the face of international and Israeli pressure.

The Turkish embassy in Washington also revealed that “Turkey challenges certain conclusions of the Palmer Report, which we believe will not serve the goal of stability and peace, particularly in our region. Turkey also reaffirms that relations between Turkey and Israel will not normalize as long as Israel does not apologize and refuses to pay compensation for what it has done.”

This brings up another important question: will Israel ever apologize and compensate Turkey for the raid on the Mavi Marmara? Personally, I think this is very unlikely.

Just like in the case of the deaths of the Egyptian forces, Israel once again is saying that they “regret” the loss of life but yet they have made it clear they refuse to apologize for the murders that took place during the raid on the Gaza flotilla.

Former head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Joseph Ciechanover, released a statement today which presented some of the Israeli objections to the Palmer report.

Among these is the rejection of “report committee’s theory that the decision to board the ships was made in an excessive and unacceptable manner” because Israel “supplied the committee with evidence of the repeated warnings given the ships on Israel’s intentions to board their vessels” and because “the committee didn’t consider the operational considerations dictating the way the ships were boarded, including the need to for a covert takeover intended to minimize the risk of resistance on the ship.”

This statement failed to explain how two summary executions were at all necessary or justified. Apparently the slaughter of nine activists is not only acceptable to Israel but also not in any way excessive. I find this notion ridiculous.

Let’s briefly examine another of Ciechanover’s ludicrous statements about the Palmer Report and the events that occurred on May 31st, 2010 on the Mavi Marmara.

He says that, “Under these circumstances, the Israeli soldiers clearly acted out of self defense and responded reasonably, under restraint, using non-lethal weapons, when possible. The description of the circumstances leading to the killing of the Turkish activists doesn’t adequately take into account the complexity of what was a chaotic state of fighting. Under the circumstances of face-to-face combat that took place on the vessel, short-range injuries aren’t indicative of misdoing on the part of the soldiers.”

The Turkish activists were not armed with anywhere near the weaponry which would justify the claim of self-defense. Shooting people with live ammunition for attempting to defend themselves with chains, pieces of metal picked up off of the deck of the ship and a few knives is not self-defense.

Furthermore, the notion that two summary executions is a responsible, restrained action is nothing short of laughable. Well, I guess that reveals a great deal about how Israeli governmental officials have warped their thinking to justify the treatment of others while giving Israelis an exceptional position in the world in which they are perpetually victims and never guilty of any wrongdoing.

Also, the assertion that they used “non-lethal weapons, when possible” is quite absurd. This is essentially like saying that we attempted to use non-lethal weapons, when possible against Hiroshima and Nagasaki but when that wasn’t possible, we just dropped nuclear bombs. But, since we tried to use non-lethal weapons, when possible, it is okay.

No, it is not okay and this type of thinking is fallacious and dangerous. You can’t justify murder by saying you were “using non-lethal weapons, when possible.” You still killed people.

The most insane part of this entire fiasco is that if an Israeli ship was boarded by Turkish commandos and nine Israelis were murdered, two of which were summarily executed, you could bet your life savings on the fact that Israel would retaliate militarily and be decrying it as an attack on the state of Israel.

I refuse to allow myself to carry these double standards. No human life is more important than any other and the fact that Israel displays this belief on a regular basis is a bit disturbing to me and likely any other human being on earth that believes in the sanctity of life and the right for every man, woman and child to life a full, happy and pain-free life free from fear and violence.

However, Israel seems to be perpetually pushing the belief system that only Israelis are entitled to this and anyone who gets in their way has lost their status as an equal human being. This can be seen in their treatment of Palestinians and most recently Egyptians and Turks.

I refuse to be party to any such belief system and thus I condemn Israel for their attack on the Mavi Marmara and even more thoroughly condemn the way they are handling the findings of the Palmer Report.