Tuesday, 28 September 2010
UN Fact-Finding Mission Says Israelis "Executed" US Citizen Furkan Dogan
The report of the fact-finding mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla released last week shows conclusively, for the first time, that US citizen Furkan Dogan and five Turkish citizens were murdered execution-style by Israeli commandos.
The report reveals that Dogan, the 19-year-old US citizen of Turkish descent, was filming with a small video camera on the top deck of the Mavi Marmara when he was shot twice in the head, once in the back and in the left leg and foot and that he was shot in the face at point blank range while lying on the ground.
The report says Dogan had apparently been "lying on the deck in a conscious or semi-conscious, state for some time" before being shot in his face.
The forensic evidence that establishes that fact is "tattooing around the wound in his face," indicating that the shot was "delivered at point blank range." The report describes the forensic evidence as showing that "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."
Based on both "forensic and firearm evidence," the fact-finding panel concluded that Dogan's killing and that of five Turkish citizens by the Israeli troops on the Mavi Marmari May 31 "can be characterized as extra-legal, arbitrary and summary executions." (See Report [.pdf] Page 38, Section 170)
The report confirmed what the Obama administration already knew from the autopsy report on Dogan, but the administration has remained silent about the killing of Dogan, which could be an extremely difficult political problem for the administration in its relations with Israel.
The Turkish government gave the autopsy report on Dogan to the US Embassy in July and it was then passed on to the Department of Justice, according to a US government source who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the administration's policy of silence on the matter. The source said the purpose of obtaining the report was to determine whether an investigation of the killing by the Justice Department (DOJ) was appropriate...
Continue reading
Gareth Porter @'truth-out'
Monday, 27 September 2010
Netanyahu urges talks as Israel settlement freeze ends
Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu has urged the Palestinians to continue peace talks despite an end to Israel's ban on West Bank settlement-building.
In a statement moments after the end of the 10-month partial freeze, he asked Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to continue seeking a "historic" deal.
Hours later, bulldozers were reported to have begun work in two settlements.
Mr Abbas had warned that peace talks would be a "waste of time" unless the freeze was extended.
Construction work
Israeli media said bulldozers had started levelling ground for 50 homes in the settlement of Ariel in the northern West Bank.
However, construction work was expected to be slow because of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.
Similar activity was also reported in the settlement of Adam.
Meanwhile, the US renewed calls for Israel to maintain the construction freeze, saying its position on the issue remained unchanged and the US state department was staying "in close touch" with all parties.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke to Mr Netanyahu and also to Tony Blair, the representative of the Middle East Quartet (the EU, Russia, the UN and US), as the end of the construction freeze neared, a spokesman said.
Israel says the settlements are no bar to continuing direct talks on key issues, and US negotiators have been working intensively to secure a deal.
On Saturday, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told the BBC he would attempt to convince government colleagues of a compromise deal, said the chances of a deal on the issue was "50/50".
Gun attack
The freeze on building in the West Bank expired at midnight local time on Sunday (2200 GMT).
Earlier in the evening, a pregnant Israeli woman and her husband were lightly wounded in a gun attack in the West Bank.
Israeli police said Palestinian gunmen opened fire on their car south of the city of Hebron. The woman later gave birth in hospital.
Meanwhile, some Jewish settlers started celebrating the end of the construction ban.
At the Jewish settlement of Revava, near the Palestinian town of Deir Itsia, reports said they released balloons and broke ground for a new nursery school before the moratorium expired.
The Israel prime minister called on the Palestinians to continue peace talks, which recently resumed after a 20-month pause and have the strong backing of US President Barack Obama.
"Israel is ready to pursue continuous contacts in the coming days to find a way to continue peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority," Mr Netanyahu said in his statement.
It was possible "to achieve a historic framework accord within a year", Mr Netanyahu said.
However, his statement did not directly mention the issue of the settlement freeze.
He had earlier urged settlers "to display restraint and responsibility".
'Waste of time'
On Sunday, Mr Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, warned that the peace talks renewed earlier this month would be futile unless the ban continued.
"If Israel does not continue the settlement freeze, the peace process will be a waste of time," the AFP news agency quoted him as saying during a visit to Paris.
However, Mr Abbas suggested that he would consult with other Arab leaders before any decision was taken. A meeting is expected in Cairo within the next 10 days.
The BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says the Palestinian leader is in a difficult position, with Israel offering few concessions, at least publicly.
If he continues negotiations, he will face accusations from his own side that the Palestinians will have backed down in the face of Israeli intransigence, our correspondent says.
It is estimated that about 2,000 housing units in the West Bank already have approval and settler leaders say they plan to resume construction as soon as possible.
The partial moratorium on new construction was agreed to by Israel in November 2009 under pressure from Washington.
It banned construction in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since the Middle East war of 1967, but never applied to settlements in East Jerusalem.
US President Barack Obama has urged Israel to extend the moratorium, saying it "made a difference on the ground, and improved the atmosphere for talks".
Nearly half a million Jews live in more than 100 settlements built since Israel's 1967 occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They are held to be illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.
Leaving Your Mark
No, this isn’t some fancy Photoshop trick, these are real human footprints ingrained in a hardwood floor.
70 year-old Buddhist monk Hua Chi has been praying in the same spot at his temple in Tongren, China for over 20 years. His footprints, which are up to 1.2 inches deep in some areas, are the result of performing his prayers up to 3000 times a day. Now that he is 70, he says that he has greatly reduced his quantity of prayers to 1,000 times each day...
More
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
