The UNHRC is a joke organisation, let’s not forget it was disbanded once and reformed; the second attempt is no better. I’m not saying that the Israeli action was legal or not, simply that this organisation is in no position to judge.

part of the reason it’s in no position to judge fully is because israel refused to cooperate with its investigation.

Oh not this again.

UNHRC is not concerned with human rights.
IHH is not a humanitarian outfit.
Israel often does itself no favours.

“A United Nations panel of human rights experts has accused Israel of war crimes through willful killing, unnecessary brutality and torture in its “clearly unlawful” assault on a ship attempting to break the blockade of Gaza in May in which nine Turkish activists died.”

That’s bound to be anti-semitic.

“Israel often does itself no favours.”

So is that. But then as some of us have noticed long since, any criticism of Israel is almost invariably dismissed as anti-semitism – just as it is anti-semitic to notice that.

The only safe course is to agree that Israel is always infallible. Everyone can then be happy – apart from the victims, that is. Try Avi Shlaim: Israel’s Insane Attack on the Freedom Flotilla
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19505

His book on the history of the Palestine conflict is worth reading: The Iron Wall (Penguin 2001).

Btw Avi Shlaim has joint Israel-UK citizenship. He is professor of international relations at Oxford.

I see Bob B recommends a website run by 9/11 troofers and Milosevic fans. Now there’s a real progressive.

“I see Bob B recommends a website run by 9/11 troofers and Milosevic fans. Now there’s a real progressive.”

Predictably, anything, any smear to deflect attention from anything Avi Shlaim writes.

Avi Shlaim: How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine

Milosevic was murdered!

“Never forget President Slobodan Milosevic!”

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12653

Great website Bob B, well done.

It doesn’t take an Oxford professor to show that Israel behaves appallingly. Nor do I need a UN investigation into the attack on the blockade runners, machine gunning protesters armed with sticks is an obvious outrage. It amazes me that anyone could justify the behaviour of this rogue state.

As for Mr Shlaim, how about this:

Israel’s official spokesmen claim that their soldiers acted in self-defence against terrorists wielding knives and clubs. Anyone who believes this will believe anything.

Oh dear:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YABBH3TxHzc

Oh well, here’s some IHH chanting about slaughtering Jews to cheer everyone up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3L7OV414Kk

“It doesn’t take an Oxford professor to show that Israel behaves appallingly”

What’s new? We have this on the Qibya massacre in October 1953 from Avi Shlaim’s book: The Iron Wall (Penguin Books, 2001), p.91:

“. . Unit 101 was commanded by an aggressive and ambitious young major named Ariel Sharon. Sharon’s order was to penetrate Qibya, blow up houses, and inflict heavy casualties on its inhabitants. His success in carrying out this order surpassed all expectations. The full and macabre story of what happened at Qibya was revealed only during the morning after the attack. The village had been reduced to a pile of rubble: forty-five houses had been blown up, and sixty-nine civiliains, two-thirds of them women and children, had been killed. Sharon and his men claimed that they had no idea that anyone was hiding in the houses. The UN observer who inspected the reached a different conclusion: ‘One story was repeated time after time: the bullet splintered door, the body sprawled across the threshold, indicating that the inhabitants had been forced by heavy fire to stay inside until their homes were blown up over them.’”

Paul, stop trying to derail the thread. Regardless of your position on Israel, you have to agree that at the very least the response was completely disproportionate.

“Paul, stop trying to derail the thread. Regardless of your position on Israel, you have to agree that at the very least the response was completely disproportionate.”

I suspect that the absence of a response from Paul indicates that he knew I would respond by posting documented citations of Israeli atrocities going back to the 1940s.

Avi Shlaim’s book: The Iron Wall (Penguin Books) is an excellent starting point for any unfamiliar with the history of the Palestine conflict. From long personal experience over years, it’s a familiar tactic to accuse any critics of Israel of being anti-semitic or friends of David Irving.

The last time that this was discussed on LC, the discussion was more illuminating than anything thus far. One of the reasons is that contributors posted facts and discussed them.

In the OP and Guardian story this time, we are told about “an illegal attack on a flotilla”. Reality is that on one boat protestors resisted the attempt by Israeli forces to board their vessel. On the other boats, campaigners acknowledged that an attempt to deliver aid to Palestine, even when thwarted by Israeli forces, delivered a political message. No violence occurred and the campaigners were returned home; some aid goods were even delivered.

On the Mavi Marmara, some people improvised weapons from material on the vessel and created a stand off when Israeli forces attempted to board it. Violence occurred and defenders of the vessel were killed. So that is one boat on which conflict occurred. Incidentally, the heroic defenders of Mavi Marmara invited non-violent campaigners onto a boat on which they intended to have a fight with Israeli forces. Nice people, eh.

I have been searching the internet for a personal printer that can produce output on toilet paper. When I find one, this UN report will serve my bottom wiping needs for a couple of weeks. But as cjcjc implied, the state of Israel has not served its own interests by failing to co-operate with the UN panel.

From long personal experience over years, it’s a familiar tactic to accuse any critics of Israel of being anti-semitic

Yawn, the old “any critics” line. No, Bob B, chanting “Khaybar” means “Jews, we are coming to kill you”. It’s not “criticism”.

As for Shlaim, as I have shown he resorted to a blatant lie in this case. No wonder troofers and Milosevic groupies love him.

Perhaps Sean Mc could tell us how he would respond to a mob trying to lynch him.

“As for Shlaim, as I have shown he resorted to a blatant lie in this case. No wonder troofers and Milosevic groupies love him.”

Do try his book: The Iron Wall (Penguin Books, 2001)

Further details of his books, papers and articles on Palestine here:
http://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/about/staff/staff.asp?action=show&person=62

Of course, it would be a big mistake to assume all jews are otherwise uncritical of Israel. Try Gerald Kaufman’s speech in the House of Commons on: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMGuYjt6CP8

And we have Jews for Justice for Palestinians:
http://jfjfp.com/

Great to see the Tories condemning Israel’s unacceptable blockade of Gaza.

What a change from BNPlite’s position of offering to help maintain it!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4278899/Britain-to-send-warships-to-Gaza-as-Israel-prepares-for-ceasefire.html

@16: “Great to see the Tories condemning Israel’s unacceptable blockade of Gaza”

To their credit, the Conservatives have been unequivocal:

“It is only weeks after David Cameron caused an Israeli flare-up by calling Gaza a ‘prison camp’.

“Now foreign secretary William Hague is stirring up the embers by saying that ‘all settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory is illegal and is an obstacle to peace’.

“He has called on the Israeli government to ‘freeze all settlement construction, including the natural growth of existing settlements, and dismantle all outposts built since 2001′, as well as extend the freeze to East Jerusalem.”
http://www.webinquirer.co.uk/william-hague-calls-israeli-settlement-in-palestinian-territory-%E2%80%98illegal%E2%80%99/8329/

Did someone just quiote the Telegraph on Gaza?

That’s the same Telegraph, found to have posted an OLD photo of Gaza during violence, on a piece about Gaza much later in piece time?

Hot news on Sunday night:

With a tooting of horns and pouring of cement, several thousand Jewish settlers and supporters declared a symbolic end Sunday to a 10-month moratorium on construction starts in their enclaves.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68P1ZG20100926

So much for the peace process in Palestine.

Who cares what Israel does to the Palestinians? They’re only Arabs.

Say what you like about Labour, but they’ve always recognised this and acted accordingly.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/brown-u-k-a-true-friend-of-israel-will-work-toward-terror-free-future-1.250032