A UN panel's inquiry report, first leaked to the New York Times, on Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish ship, Marvi Marmara, in international waters that left nine human rights activists dead, is patently biased and a mockery of the world body's own charter.
The ship, it may be recalled, was a part of a humanitarian aid flotilla which had attempted to break illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza in May '10. Immediately after the attack on the aid convoy, Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel, suspended joint military exercises, and barred Israeli military aircraft from Turkish air space. Ankara was clearly stung by Israel's refusal to make a formal apology and pay compensation to families of the dead.
On Friday, Turkey expelled Israel's envoy and froze military co-operation with Tel Aviv after a UN report on the deaths of nine Turks failed to trigger an apology. The western powers dominating the UN would have completely ignored such demands from any other country. But Turkey being a Nato member and an increasingly influential regional power had to be given some sort of a sop, even if a blatantly flawed one.
It is worth noting that the inquiry panel, headed by former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer, was to release its findings back in February, but it delayed the release several times to bring about reconciliation between Turkey and Israel. Which shows the intention was never to lay the blame where it belonged but to cool down frayed tempers in Turkey. But Ankara had refused to forget or forgive unless Israel apologised for the killings and pay compensation to the families of the dead. That, of course, did not happen. The present report endorses Israel's own inquiry which had declared that the raid was legal under international law.
It has termed the naval blockade of Gaza "legal" and "appropriate" saying it was aimed at preventing the import of weapons by sea. The closest the report comes to disapproving Israel's aggressive behaviour is to say "Israel's decision to board the vessels with such substantial force at a great distance from the blockade zone and with no final warning immediately prior to the boarding was excessive and unreasonable." But this censure too is neutralised, as the report goes on to justify Israeli commandos' action saying they were met with "organised and violent resistance", when they boarded Marvi Marmara.
What this report prepared under the UN banner conveniently ignores is the fact that the UN Charter gives the besieged Gaza Palestinian the right to fight against alien domination in order to attain freedom. As per Article 51 (6) of the Charter "a state which forcibly subjugates to colonial or alien domination is committing an unlawful act as defined by international law, and the subject people, in the exercise of its inherent right of self defence, may fight to defend and attain its right to self-determination." Clearly, Israeli subjugation of the Palestinian people, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution-242 and several other UN resolutions, is an unlawful act under the international law. And the Palestinians have every right to fight Israeli domination. They, of course, cannot fight Israel's military might with bare hands; they need weapons. Hence import of weapons from the sea or whichever source is both legal and appropriate. The UN panel's report has proven once again that when it comes to their own interests, Western nations use the UN to flout the world body's own charter and covenants. The clean chit it gives Israel may have absolved that country of a grave crime, but it has undermined UN's own credibility to conduct impartial inquiries.