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Israel to participate in UN inquiry on Gaza raid

"Israel has nothing to hide," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after talking to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, according to an e-mailed statement from his office.

  • Bloomberg
  • Published: 00:00 August 3, 2010

  • Image Credit: Gulf News

Occupied Jerusalem: Israel will cooperate with a United Nations-backed investigation led by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer into its raid on an aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

"Israel has nothing to hide," Netanyahu said after talking to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Monday, according to an e-mailed statement from his office. "It is in the national interest of the state of Israel to ensure that the factual truth of the overall flotilla events comes to light throughout the world."

Israel's decision is a reversal of its previous refusal to cooperate with any external probe of the incident. "Israel has the ability and the right to investigate itself, not to be investigated by any international board," Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the US, told Fox News on June 7.

Ban announced on Monday that the investigating panel will include Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a member from Israel and one from Turkey. The panel will begin its work on August 10 and submit its first progress report by mid-September, the UN said.

US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said in a statement she welcomed the development and the US hopes it can lead to eased tensions between Turkey and Israel that can "repair their strong historic ties."

Turkey's reaction

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Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called the UN probe "a very important step," saying in an interview with state news agency Anatolia that the investigation "demonstrates that every UN member is accountable for its actions."

Ban said in a statement that he thanked the leaders of Israel and Turkey "for their spirit of compromise and forward-looking cooperation."

He said the panel will "also give me recommendations for the prevention of similar incidents in the future." He expressed the hope that the agreement of the parties will "impact positively on the relationship between Turkey and Israel as well as the overall situation in the Middle East."

Ban was told by Netanyahu that Israel would take part in the UN panel "in the wake of diplomatic contacts that have been held in recent weeks in order to ensure that this was indeed a panel with a balanced and fair written mandate," the Israeli government statement said.

The UN panel will receive reports from the Israeli probe headed by retired Supreme Court justice Jacob Turkel.

Numerous warnings

Israel said it issued numerous warnings to the Gaza-bound flotilla to change course for the port of Ashdod and unload there. It said its soldiers were attacked with knives and clubs and seven were wounded, including by gunfire, after people aboard one of the ships managed to grab Israeli firearms.

Nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists were killed in the incident. Activists said they threw the firearms into the sea and that the Israelis instigated the violence.

Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade of Gaza after the Islamic Hamas movement ousted forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group and seized full control of the territory in 2007. Hamas, which won Palestinian parliamentary elections the previous year, is considered a terrorist organization by the US, the European Union and Israel.

Israel launched a three-week military offensive in Gaza in December 2008 that it said was meant to stop the firing of rockets by Hamas and other Palestinian militants into its territory. More than 1,000 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the conflict.

Strained relations

The raid and Israel's initial refusal of an international probe strained diplomatic and military relations with Turkey, once its closest ally in the region.

Also on Monday, Israel increased the number of trucks allowed to bring goods into Gaza by two thirds, further relaxing restrictions on access to the territory that it started to loosen in June.

Israeli officials will allow 250 trucks a day to unload goods at the Kerem Shalom crossing to Gaza, up from 150 in July and about 80 before that, Raed Fattouh, a liaison officer for the Palestinian Authority, said in a phone interview. Guy Inbar, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Ministry's Gaza coordination office, said the information was accurate.

Israel didn't participate in a UN panel led by former UN prosecutor and South African judge Richard Goldstone that investigated the 2008 Gaza war. Goldstone's panel accused Israel and Hamas of war crimes and called on them to investigate the charges.
 

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