Monday, September 12, 2011

Richard Falk: Another UN Failure: The Palmer Report on the Flotilla Incident of 31 May 2010

by Richard Falk, Foreign Policy Journal, September 12, 2011
 
When the UN Secretary General announced on 2 August 2010 that a Panel of Inquiry had been established to investigate the Israeli attacks of 31 May on the Mavi Marmara and five other ships carrying humanitarian aid to the beleaguered people of Gaza, there was widespread hope that international law would be vindicated and the Israelis would finally be held accountable. With the release of the Palmer Report, these hopes have been largely dashed, as the report failed to address the central international law issues in a credible and satisfactory manner. Turkey, not surprisingly, responded strongly that it was not prepared to live with the central finding of the 105-page report reaching the astonishing conclusions that the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip is lawful and could be enforced by Israel against a humanitarian mission even in international waters.

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