UN Report: At least six of the Mavi Marmara killings "summary executions".

galway | rights, freedoms and repression | news report

Thursday September 23, 2010 18:08

by TD - Free Palestine Campaign

‎"Clear evidence" of wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment and wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health – all crimes under the Geneva Convention (Guardian)

Yesterday, the UN Human Rights Council issued, a 56 page damning indictment of Israeli actions on the night of May 31st last when the Gaza Freedom Flotilla was attacked in international waters resulting in the murders of 9 humanitarian activists and serious injuries to many of the other participants. The report recommends the prosecution of the Israelis concerned but led by the US and the Quisling Palestinian Authority, no doubt, the "international community" will be strenuously resisting this.? For as Arun Gupta brilliantly and witheringly puts it in his Indypendent article; The Victim that is Israel http://www.indypendent.org/2010/06/23/the-victim/

Image by Emily Henochowicz who lost her left eye after being shot in the face with an Israeli tear gas canister at the Qalandia Checkpoint near Ramallah

Excerpts
• On the basis of the forensic and firearm evidence, at least six of the killings can be characterised as extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions (page 39/section 172).

• Live ammunition was used from the helicopter onto the top deck prior to the descent of the soldiers ... The Mission has found no evidence to suggest that any of the passengers used firearms or that any firearms were taken on board the ship (page 27).

• According to forensic analysis, tattooing around the wound in his face (Furkan Dogan) indicates that the shot was delivered at point blank range.Furthermore, the trajectory of the wound, from bottom to top, together with a vital abrasion to the left shoulder that could be consistent with the bullet exit point, is compatible with the shot being received while he was lying on the ground on his back (page 30).

• One passenger, a Greek national, was severely beaten for refusing to provide his fingerprints to the Israeli authorities. The passenger was dragged along the ground for some distance and then surrounded by a large group of Israeli officials who proceeded to beat him severely, including the deliberate fracture of his leg. His cries for help were ignored, and one witness noted uniformed officials, both male and female, laughing at him. The passenger’s broken leg was not treated until after he had left Israel (page 43/section 190).

• Forensic evidence shows that he (İbrahim Bilgen) was shot in the side of the head with a soft baton round at such close proximity and that an entire bean bag and its wadding penetrated the skull and lodged in the brain. He had a further bruise on the right flank consistent with another beanbag wound. The wounds are consistent with the deceased initially being shot from soldiers on board the helicopter above and receiving a further wound to the head while lying on the ground, already wounded (page 30).