Tue, 15 Jun 2010 18:29:08 GMT
River to Sea
Uprooted Palestinian |
The international lawyer Franklin Lamb |
On May 31, Israeli navy commandos launched a deadly attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters as the aid convoy was heading toward the besieged Gaza Strip, killing 20 people.
Defying repeated international calls for a transparent and credible probe into the incident, Israel's cabinet approved the establishment of an "independent public commission" to probe the legal aspects of the deadly operation.
What follows is Press TV's interview with Franklin Lamb, an international lawyer, about the investigation into the attack.
Press TV: Mr. Lamb, will the one-sided investigation by Israel be regarded as a legitimate one by the international community?
Lamb: Absolutely not, It will have no credibility whatsoever. All it will do is to provide some fodder for the international Zionist lobby to broadcast the findings (quote, unquote) and whitewash the murders Israel committed on the high seas. This has been about the 72 Israeli inquiries into misconducts by the elements of Israeli establishment since the 1983 Kahan commission.
If you remember in February 1983 [Israel] issued the so called Kahan commission report in which it found indirect (not direct) responsibility for the massacre of Sabra and Shatila in the seat of Begin government including Ariel Sharon who was defense minister and Rafael Eitan the head of the army.
This one will surely have no more credibility than that one did, and it is added to more than 6 dozen official inquiries regarding checkpoint murders, assassinations, and destructions that various army personnel and government officials have been involved in; Crimes against the occupied Palestinian people.
So no, this one will have no credibility. It remains of course what are we going to do about it? That's a question for the Arab League, The Organization of the Islamic Conference, the General Assembly of the United Nations and private tribunals such as the Russell tribunal. You know the citizens of the world can also weigh in on the subject.
But I am sorry to say that we will not get an honest inquiry and I think the white House knows that.
Press TV: It begs the question though, what it is that Israel is trying to hide with rejecting the international investigation?
Lamb: In the declaration that they are going to have, they start by limiting the scoop of inquiry dramatically to the point that whether or not it was legal to stop the ship. And International lawyers are debating that. They are trying to hide their crimes. That was murder, that was piracy, that was false arrest. It was a series of crimes they committed. So by trying to control the inquiry they will try to whitewash their illegal actions that the world has and continues dramatically to respond to and reject. There will other inquiries but this one I'm afraid is doomed. But it may serve the purpose of Israeli public and government and that is why they are doing it.
Press TV: We appreciate it, Franklin Lamb from Beirut.
MYA/CS/MMN
Defying repeated international calls for a transparent and credible probe into the incident, Israel's cabinet approved the establishment of an "independent public commission" to probe the legal aspects of the deadly operation.
What follows is Press TV's interview with Franklin Lamb, an international lawyer, about the investigation into the attack.
Press TV: Mr. Lamb, will the one-sided investigation by Israel be regarded as a legitimate one by the international community?
Lamb: Absolutely not, It will have no credibility whatsoever. All it will do is to provide some fodder for the international Zionist lobby to broadcast the findings (quote, unquote) and whitewash the murders Israel committed on the high seas. This has been about the 72 Israeli inquiries into misconducts by the elements of Israeli establishment since the 1983 Kahan commission.
If you remember in February 1983 [Israel] issued the so called Kahan commission report in which it found indirect (not direct) responsibility for the massacre of Sabra and Shatila in the seat of Begin government including Ariel Sharon who was defense minister and Rafael Eitan the head of the army.
This one will surely have no more credibility than that one did, and it is added to more than 6 dozen official inquiries regarding checkpoint murders, assassinations, and destructions that various army personnel and government officials have been involved in; Crimes against the occupied Palestinian people.
So no, this one will have no credibility. It remains of course what are we going to do about it? That's a question for the Arab League, The Organization of the Islamic Conference, the General Assembly of the United Nations and private tribunals such as the Russell tribunal. You know the citizens of the world can also weigh in on the subject.
But I am sorry to say that we will not get an honest inquiry and I think the white House knows that.
Press TV: It begs the question though, what it is that Israel is trying to hide with rejecting the international investigation?
Lamb: In the declaration that they are going to have, they start by limiting the scoop of inquiry dramatically to the point that whether or not it was legal to stop the ship. And International lawyers are debating that. They are trying to hide their crimes. That was murder, that was piracy, that was false arrest. It was a series of crimes they committed. So by trying to control the inquiry they will try to whitewash their illegal actions that the world has and continues dramatically to respond to and reject. There will other inquiries but this one I'm afraid is doomed. But it may serve the purpose of Israeli public and government and that is why they are doing it.
Press TV: We appreciate it, Franklin Lamb from Beirut.
MYA/CS/MMN
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