UN calls for 'impartial' investigation into flotilla attack

The UN Security Council’s emergency meeting last night, the Palestinians and Arab nations, backed by a number of council members including Turkey, called for an independent and impartial investigation and the lifting of the blockade on Gaza.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Conflict Issues said the flotilla raid had caused “indescribable pain” to the families of those killed and “provoked anger around the world”.

Three British MPs co-chairing the group – Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes, Labour’s John McDonnell, and Conservative Gary Streeter – released a statement urging all sides to renounce violence.

They said: “As long as this long-running dispute remains unresolved, we fear that many more lives will be lost on all sides, resulting in even more pain and further deepening the hatred and distrust between all those involved.

“Therefore, as firm believers in the power of sincere, honest and open dialogue to transform even the most seemingly intractable conflict, we urge all sides in this dispute to renounce all violence, including the indirect violence of the blockade of Gaza, to commit themselves to wholly non-violent means to resolve this conflict, and to seek out and employ the proven methods – and experienced practitioners – of non-violent conflict resolution to help end and heal the decades of death and suffering between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples.

“Conflict resolution has been successfully used to end conflict in other parts of the world – now it’s time for the Israel-Palestine conflict to be resolved, for good.”

Ron Prosor, Israel’s Ambassador to Britain, said the storming of the aid flotilla had not been a success.

He told the Today programme: “It’s obvious – and I won’t beat around the bush on this – that this wasn’t successful and I think it clearly took up an issue that should have been solved differently.

“But they were also, on the other side, really trying to do everything in order to provoke and confront and those militant elements rendered something which was supposed to be a humanitarian issue way out of proportion.

“So I think, yes, we take a lot of things back with us and we check that as we do. As you know, Israel is a vibrant democracy and the discussions are already beginning in Jerusalem.”

When activists set sail for the Gaza Strip on their latest aid operation, their mission was in part designed to draw international attention to the plight of Palestinians living in the area.

The Free Gaza Movement – along with human rights activists and pro-Palestinian groups – has been attempting to land supplies in the region since 2008 to counter the “increasing stranglehold” of Israel’s “illegal occupation”.

This latest attempt to bring resources to 1.5 million people living there was designed to highlight the “prison-like closure” of the Gaza Strip while heaping pressure on the international community.

A blockade on the war-torn zone was imposed by Israel in 2007 after the militant group Hamas seized control of the territory.

But it has been termed a “collective punishment” for those living there by the UN.

Although essential humanitarian aid is brought into Gaza on a weekly basis - including food, medicine and clothing – campaigners believe those in desperate need require far more.

The latest convoy of ships – the largest to date – sought to counter the blockade by bringing in extra supplies.

In its mission statement, the Free Gaza Movement said: “We have not and will not ask for Israel’s permission.”

Rosemary Hollis, a Middle East expert at London’s City University, said: “There are weekly truck loads of aid going into Gaza from Israel. The Israelis’ argument is that they are preventing people from starving.

“They want them to not starve but to suffer until there is a political change. The point of the Free Gaza Movement is to raise awareness of the continuing situation and to challenge the Israeli blockade.”

But she said those who did so – by means of the flotilla – would have expected resistance.

“They would have had to have contemplated that it wouldn’t all go smoothly,” she said.

“When you have a non-violent resistance to a military force, I’m sure you are going to have to consider the possibility that fighting will break out.”

But she said organisers, who had been warned Israeli commandos might board their ships, would have in part achieved their goals.

“They will have succeeded in so much that it will now be difficult for people to go back to the status quo.

“There will now be many more demands for a resolution of this blockade issue.”