A Tale of Two Gaza Flotilla Reports

In an article headlined "Report Finds Naval Blockade by Israel Legal but Faults Raid" the New York Times reported yesterday on the release of the UN Secretary General's Panel of Inquiry into the events surrounding the Israeli attack on the flotilla on May 31, 2010. It also leaked a copy of the report.

The report has been sensationalized for some time -- it has been delayed in its release, having been completed in July 2011 -- due to the effect it would have on relations between Israel and Turkey. In fact, today Turkey expelled Israel's representative and "decided to downgrade its diplomatic ties with Israel to the lowest possible level" as a response to the report.

Due to the impact of the Goldstone Report on Israel's Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, it is only natural that this report will be seen through the prism of the Goldstone experience and in comparison to it. But in reality, this Palmer Report (named for the leader of the inquiry Sir Geoffery Palmer) and the Goldstone Report are two very different things.

The Goldstone report was the outcome of a fact-finding mission initiated by the UN Human Rights Council which was mandated to investigate violations of international law and human rights during the 23-day Israeli campaign in Gaza. The Palmer report was NOT the outcome of a fact-finding mission, nor was it initiated by the UN Human Rights Council. A report like that on the flotilla had already been initiated and completed a year ago, and can be found in its entirety here.

It is important to note the differences between the two reports, not only because of their starkly contrasting conclusions about the events on the flotilla and the Israeli blockade, but also because of their methodologies and intentions. Below, I enumerate some important differences between the newly released Palmer Report and what I will refer to as the Hudson-Phillips report for consistency and expediency.

1. Origins- The Hudson-Phillips report originated from a June 2nd (two days after the flotilla attack) resolution in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) which called for an "independent international fact-finding mission." The Palmer report did not originate from the UNHRC and instead was initiated by the UN Secretary General on August 2nd (two months after the flotilla attack). While the Hudson-Phillips report was tasked with:

"investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding the boarding by Israeli military personnel of a flotilla of ships bound for Gaza and to determine whether in the process violations occurred of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law"

The Palmer panel, which the UN Secretary General called an "unprecedented development" was aimed at what the Secratery General hoped would effect "positively on the relationship between Turkey and Israel"

2. Composition- The UNHRC appointed to the fact-finding mission:

Judge Karl T. Hudson-Phillips, Q.C., retired Judge of the International Criminal Court and former Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago, to be chairman and to head the mission. The other appointed members were Sir Desmond de Silva, Q.C. of the United Kingdom, former Chief Prosecutor of the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone and Ms. Mary Shanthi Dairiam of Malaysia, founding member of the Board of Directors of the International Women’s Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific and former member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

As for the Palmer report, the panel of inquiry was composed of Sir Geoffery Palmer, former Prime Minister of New Zealand as chair and the former President of Columbia, Alvaro Uribe as vice-chair. The inquiry also included a representative from Turkey and a representative of Israel. The appointment of politicians instead of jurists to the Palmer inquiry suggests strongly that political and diplomatic considerations were more important than fact-finding or law.

3. Methodology: The Hudson-Phillips report is explicit about its methodology in paragraphs 18-25. It directly collected and evaluated evidence and in the process interviewed 112 witnesses. In contrast, the Palmer report interviewed ZERO witnesses and instead relied on the reports of Israel and Turkey. The Palmer report states clearly that:

The Panel enjoyed no coercive powers to compel witnesses to provide evidence. It could not conduct criminal investigations. The Panel was required to obtain its information from the two nations primarily involved in its inquiry, Turkey and Israel, and other affected States. The position is thoroughly understandable in the context of the Panel’s inquiry but the limitation is important. It means that the Panel cannot make definitive findings either of fact or law. But it can give its view.

And while the Palmer panel did get to view witness reports appended to the Turkish investigation, when discrepancies arose about accounts between the Turkish report and the Israeli report, the panel had no ability to independently substantiate witness statements or corroborate evidence. In cases where the Turkish and Israeli reports disagreed, Palmer and Uribe would just have to make a decision based on the reports from the two countries and not independently ascertained facts.

While the Palmer panel received direct input from both representatives of the states of Israel and Turkey, which allowed both states to promote their individual national interests, it featured no mechanism for direct input from the members of civil society which undertook the flotilla effort and were the direct victims of the Israeli attack. For its part, the Hudson-Phillips report made extensive efforts to garner information, but the state of Israel refused to cooperate with it.

4. Conclusions- Perhaps the most important difference between the two reports is their conclusions. The Palmer report largely vindicates Israel, calling its blockade legal, but criticizes the way in which the raid on the flotilla was carried out. The Hudson-Phillips report condemns the use of force against civilians on the flotilla, but is also very clear on the illegality of the blockage saying "any action in response which constitutes collective punishment of the civilian population in Gaza is not lawful in any circumstances."

Both reports should be read in their entirity to properly appreciate the differences between them.

So what happened here? How can two reports on the same events issued by the UN differ so drastically?

It seems what happened here is that Israel learned a very difficult lesson from the Goldstone Report: that it must ignore and marginalize any inquiries into violations it committed unless it can ensure a positive outcome for its reputation. This is not to say that Israel cooperated with the Goldstone inquiry, because it did not. And it seems Israel realized that the strategy of simply ignoring the inquiries and not cooperating will not guarantee that it won't suffer significant international condemnation as the result of a damning report that will be published with our without Israeli cooperation.

Instead, the best way for Israel to mitigate such condemnation was to cooperate with an inquiry, but only one in which they had a reason to expect a positive outcome. The illusion of impartiality created by the Palmer inquiry, because it included Israeli and Turkish representatives, is no substitute for a genuine fact-finding commission -- especially not for the families of the 9 dead civilians and the 1.5 million more civilians suffering from the Israeli siege -- but for Israel it accomplished the task at hand. Clearly, Israel participated in the Palmer inquiry with the same sort of confidence John Gotti had walking into court; evidence and justice didn't really matter and it knew the outcome would be a desirable one.

The Palmer report was never intended to ascertain what happened on the flotilla, why it happened and who is at fault. Rather, it accepted that both Israel and Turkey had a narrative of these events, and its job was to marry those narratives into something acceptable enough to both sides to get Israel out of the flotilla mess unscathed, and improve relations between the two nations.

Turkey is clearly incensed over this report. With 9 of its citizens dead and others badly injured in an act of civil disobedience against what Turkey and much of the international community considers an illegal blockade, it is unlikely Ankara will remain quiet about this. Still despite this, Israel could have apologized for the killings -- "most of the deceased were shot multiple times, including in the back, or at close range" -- but decided not to because it seems even an apology would be too incriminating for an state that has become paranoid about its perception internationally.

But Ankara seems to understand Israel's vulnerability to international isolation, and now, without Israel issuing an apology that could have mitigated a breakdown in ties, Turkey seems hell-bent on hitting Israel where it hurts: in the court of international opinion. The Turkish ambassador to the United States tweeted earlier today: "Israel should understand that no country is above the international law and that the Mediterranean is not a lake of its own." Its foriegn minister also declared that Turkey will initiate proceedings in international legal arenas on the legality of the Israeli blockade.

Israel's stubbornness at this stage reminds me of its stubbornness prior to the 1973 war when it ignored diplomatic efforts to secure minor withdrawals from Sinai that might have avoided the entire confrontation.

Here again, after a foray into the Palmer report with the purpose of mitigating further international marginalization, Israel only finds itself having angered Turkey more. In a revolutionary region where Israel is loosing what few autocratic friends it had rapidly, it once again finds itself barreling toward further isolation.

I can't say I'm surprised; that will continue to be the case as long as Israel's occupation and it's siege of the Gaza Strip continues.

read more...

JTA & the IDF: Making Men out of Boys in Gaza

Before the attacks in Eilat refocused the mainstream media's attention on the Gaza Strip (negatively of course) Gaza continued to face the regular violence inherent in siege and occupation.

One incident occurring this week involved a Palestinian who was shot 10 times in the chest and head in by Israeli soldiers for entering an Israeli declared 'buffer zone'.

Like most events of this nature, it received little coverage. Palestinians shot for being where the Israelis don't want them to be are a frequent occurrence and do not raise eyebrows anymore. Whether it is Palestinian farmers too close to Israel's 'buffer zone' or Palestinian fishermen too close to the Israeli Navy enforced blockade line, when Palestinians get shot for simply going about there daily lives they are part of the norm and not really newsworthy.

A few outlets did report on the incident, here is Ma'an News Agency's report:

Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager near the central Gaza Strip city of Deir Al-Balah late Tuesday, medical officials reported.

Medics said the Palestinian, who was not identified, suffered "more than 10" gunshots to the head and upper body after soldiers east of the Al-Masdar area opened fire.

Gaza health ministry official Adham Abu Salmiya told Ma’an that an ambulance crew transferred the teenager's body to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza.

Early reports focused on the age of the victim. Above the victim is identified as a teenager whose identity is not known.

After an investigation, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza found the following:

[A]t approximately 18:00 on Tuesday, 16 August 2011, Israeli soldiers stationed at the border northeast of Deir al-Balah opened fire at a Palestinian, who was nearly 400 meters from the border. As a result, he was wounded by 10 bullets in his head and chest. He was left wounded without being offered any first aid. After coordination was made with IOF, at approximately 19:20, medical crews were able to retrieve the body, which was then transferred to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. After four hours later, the child was identified as Sa'd Abdul Rahim Mahmoud al-Majdalwai, 17, from al-Nussairat refugee camp. He was hit by 10 live bullets mostly to the head. In his testimony to PCHR, the victim's father said that his son had been suffering from a mental disability and a speech impairment.

In short, Israeli soldiers shot a defenseless17 year old mentally disabled refugee boy. If anyone was paying attention, this highlight the cruel nature of occupation and siege.

The JTA had a, well, slightly different take (emphasis mine):

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man who entered a security zone near the Gaza-Israel border.

The man, 22, approached the border on Tuesday night between Israel and Gaza where, according to the Israel Defense Forces, terrorists often plant bombs or attack Israeli patrols. It is not known if he had any weapons or explosives with him.

The shooting death occurred less than a day after Israeli airstrikes hit four targets in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a rocket attack on Beersheba, killing a Palestinian man. The Israeli Air Force on Tuesday morning also struck a squad of terrorists preparing to fire rockets at Israel, thwarting the attack, the IDF said.

JTA referenced the IDF, added 5 years to the boy's age, made no mention of the absurd number of times he was shot and instead used language to insinuate he was likely a threat to armed soldiers on the other side of a border. Were any Palestinian sources checked with? Does it even matter?

Boys made into men. Victims made into perpetrators. Truth is the first casualty.

Another day in Gaza.

read more...

Palestinian Gandhis Part VII: Young Filmmakers

In the final post of our "Palestinian Gandhis" series, we come across two young artists, "Arab" and "Tarzan," whose peaceful resistance mainly takes the form of film, though their voices are also heard throughout Gaza in murals and street art. In this installment, they discuss their influences, their intentions, and their work.

Filmmaker Pam Bailey had this to say about them:

The power of art as a tool of resistance, cutting right to the heart of oppression and betrayal, is unleashed in the work of Mohamed ("Arab") and Ahmed ("Tarzan") Abu Nasser. The identical twin brothers are true "renaissance men" – they play the guitar, paint, sketch, write screenplays, direct and act. However, filmmaking is their favorite form of expression, despite the fact that Gaza has no film school, and no cinemas.

The brothers are at once boys at heart – acting younger than their 20 years – and ancient in their lived experience. In the video you are about to watch, you will see at one point a close-up of an anguished woman, painted in muted swirls of greens, blues, orange and black. The girl was Tarzan’s love, killed in the Israeli onslaught of 2009. The sketched portraits of a woman you will see strung across their room are of their mother.

There are very few art competitions or exhibitions in Gaza, but Arab and Tarzan took top honors in one of the few, sponsored by the Al Qattan Foundation. In their winning entry, they created a series of mock promotional posters, each one advertising a movie named after an actual Israeli military operation. The obvious violence depicted on the posters (as entertainment) creates a jarring juxtaposition to the idyllic names Israel gives to its invasions: "Summer Rain," "Autumn Clouds," "Colorful Journey."

In the companion film, for which the brothers wrote the script and acted, Arab and Tarzan take on a much more controversial topic: intra-Palestinian (Hamas vs. Fatah) fighting. The film, called "Colorful Journey" after an Israeli attack on the West Bank, is shot in Hollywood style, showing two Palestinians stalking each other, preparing to pounce and kill. The fact that the two men (Arab and Tarzan) look exactly alike brings home the point that their feud pits Palestinians against themselves. Just as it appears the "moment of truth" is at hand, a helicopter appears above, and it is clear – without being explicit – that the two have been killed by this new intruder. The helicopter represents Israel, and the message is loud and clear: Why are Palestinians fighting each other, when they face a common threat that will destroy them both?

These are risky subjects for such young men to take on. But when you grow up in Gaza, this is the stuff of survival.

read more...

Dramatic Spike in Settler Violence Sadly Predictable

For the past 18 months we've been working at the Palestine Center to analyze Israeli settler violence against Palestinian civilians and their property. We've put together the most comprehensive database of Israeli settler violence available and continue to add data to our records. In April of this year we presented an analysis covering the period of September 2004-February 2011, and at the time I noted an dramatic trend:

The important news is this. A very strong, noticeable increase in Israeli settler violence over the past five years, and mind you 2011 is on pace to beat 2010. We started with an extremely violent two months of 2011 and it shows no indication of slowing down.

And it didn't slow down. Now, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in the Occupied Territories is reporting a major increase in violence:

Settler-related incidents resulting in Palestinian injuries and damage to property are up by 57 percent this year, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which documents violence in the Palestinian territories...

Palestinians have been injured by settlers this year at double the rate of 2010... So far this year, 178 Palestinians have been stoned, run down or shot at by settlers, compared to a total of 176 for the whole of 2010. Three Palestinians have been killed by settlers this year.

It seems like we were right. The troubling part is that, when you study settler violence over time you realize that the most dramatic spike that comes on an annual basis is during the olive harvest season -- at the end of October. With a 57% increase in violence by July, the number of violent incidents against Palestinian civilians may well double last year's numbers.

The entire presentation is available here and you can also read through a number of posts we have authored on settler violence focusing on various aspects including, the Israeli state's failure to properly punish perpetrators of settler violence, how Palestinian livestock is threatened, how Hebron is ground zero for settler violence, how the media fails to cover settler violence and the use of different tactics by settlers like vehicular attacks and arson.

Interestingly, from 2006-2011 we have only seen increases in settler violence with each year topping the previous one. In fact, in the 5 years from 2006-2010 we have seen a 152% increase in settler violence incidents. During the same period of time, as reported recently by Obama administration officials to the Congress, "terrorist violence" from the West Bank is down 96%.

With such an inverse relationship between the numbers (and keep in mind settler violence doesn't include other methods of violence used against Palestinians by the occupation, mostly by the IDF) Palestinians have every reason to question who is really benefiting from PA-Israel security cooperation. The answer is simple and the numbers don't lie; it is definitely NOT the Palestinians.

read more...

Palestinian Gandhis Part VI: Breakdancing

Similar to the last segment in our profiles of "Palestinian Gandhis" which looked at "resistance Hip-hop" in the Arab World, the Camp Breakerz are using their love of breakdancing as their form of nonviolent protest. It's a way for them to take the negative energy stemming from the stresses of constant siege and turn it into an art form that they can show the world. They are putting their own spin on it, teaching it to the youth of Gaza, and starting a peaceful revolution of their own.

Here's what filmmaker Pam Bailey said about this excerpt:

Costanze once said, "dancing is like dreaming with your feet." And that’s what it is for the young men in the Camps Breakerz breakdancing crew. Ask one of the nine members, all from Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, why they like breakdancing (a type of hip hop, along with rap), and they will invariably tell you they feel "free" when they "break."

Breakdancing is a style of street dance that was created and developed as part of hip-hop culture among African Americans and, later, among Latino youths in New York City. For that reason, like rap, breakdancing is often ostracized in Gaza as foreign to the Arab culture. However, the Camps Breakerz have made the art very uniquely their own, while also giving other young people a productive outlet for their energy and frustrations.

The crew chose the name Camp Breakerz in part to advertise their pride in their origins. "People think (refugee) camps are just for poor people with no culture," says Ahmed, who danced until an Egyptian soldier shot him in the knee, and now serves as manager. "But in fact, the camps have talent."

Breakdancers are called b-boys, or b-girls. Unfortunately, because of the conservative culture in Gaza, breakdancing is not yet considered acceptable for girls, and certainly not in mixed company. However, the crew is committed to helping interested girls "dream with their feet" as well, and are looking for suitable sponsors and opportunities.

Sponsorship in general, however, is one of the Camps Breakerz’ biggest challenges. Like any organization, they need money, facilities and equipment to survive and grow. As a result, most available funds go to formal, and bureaucratic, NGOs (non-governmental organizations). The Camps Breakerz are forced to practice in Ahmed’s cramped home (the sports club in which they used to practice was destroyed in the last Israeli war), and they don’t have the mattresses, etc. needed to train others elsewhere. But now there is good news! Until recently, they have been unable to leave Gaza to perform or compete with other b-boys. Now, an Italian businesswoman is working to bring them to Europe in the fall. Although Egypt now has eased the restrictions on its border with Gaza, allowing much greater freedom of movement, men between the ages of 18 and 40 still require a visa from Egypt or another country to leave – often very difficult to get. Wish them luck!

read more...

Palestinian Gandhis Part V: Lyrical Resistance

Resistance Hip-Hop in the Arab world has taken off in recent years. Pioneers in this area include Palestinian groups like DAM who have used English, Arabic and Hebrew lyrics to convey messages of resistance through hip-hop. In this installment of our "Palestinian Gandhis" series, we introduce you to the DARG team, a Palestinian hip-hop group from Gaza that raps about resistance. In this video interview with the group, they discuss what hip-hop means to them and the struggles of being hip-hop artists under occupation and in Palestinian society. Filmmaker Pam Bailey explains further:

Hip-hop – which includes both rap and breakdancing – first gained prominence in American ghettos among inner-city youth, who inventively made “something out of little or nothing” to express their gritty reality. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that hip-hop spread to other regions where youth struggle to define their identity in the face of adversity. Rap is like spoken-word poetry, a torrent of free-association – with no filters or concern for political correctness. It’s this raw, “uncut” characteristic, its fans say, which allows rap to speak directly to the soul.

For all of these reasons, rap has taken root in the Gaza Strip as well – but not without a fight. Because of its Western roots, rap is scorned – and even condemned -- by many in the conservative, traditional culture of the Strip. In 2009, the Hamas government even shut a show down. But despite – or perhaps because of – this “go against the grain” attitude, rap is coming into its own in Gaza. And the band featured in this video – the DARG (Da Arabian Revolutionary Guys) Team – is starting to get attention internationally as well. Even if you don’t like rap, and few outside the “X Generation” in America do, I encourage you to watch this video. The youth of Palestine will largely determine its future since in Gaza they account for more than half of its population, and rap puts their hopes, dreams and angst into sharp focus.

Unlike most of the unsung heroes featured in this series, the DARG Team recently managed to leave the Strip and tour Europe. When I first met the band in the Winter of 2010, they had been trying unsuccessfully for months to leave Gaza to tour. The band had been “adopted” by filmmakers Nicolas Wadimoff and Beatrice Guelpa of Switzerland, when they visited Gaza the previous year to shoot their documentary, “Aisheen” (Still Alive in Gaza). When the two journalists returned home, they linked the DARG Team with rappers there and a partnership was born. That’s why I work so hard to persuade artists, businesspeople, teachers, etc. to travel to Gaza and elsewhere in Palestine; once they are face to face with the people, and discover the talent and energy there, they become champions. Not to be defeated, the DARG Team and their Swiss counterparts staged a “virtual concert,” which I was fortunate enough to observe. The team performed in Gaza City, the Swiss performed in Geneva, and the two were hooked together via satellite. The connection was a bit choppy at times, but it was strong in many other ways.

A year later, their European partners were successful, and the DARG Team got the necessary visas to get them out of Gaza. If you need any other proof of the transformative power of freedom, this is it. Prior to their six-month tour, the team’s lyrics were dominated by death and destruction – particularly after the 2008/9 war. (The song “23 Days” is featured in the video as an example of the team’s pre-tour lyrics.) Following the tour, when they readily returned to Gaza, their songs were about pride and identity. (It is a myth that all Gazans want to permanently escape. If they were allowed to come and go like most of us can, the majority would ultimately return home.) They had witnessed the solidarity of many others in the global community, and tasted what the world had to offer. The post-tour lyrics of "Heads Up" reflect that new, optimistic outlook. Listen for yourself:

read more...