GAZA FLOTILLA:ISRAELI PRIME minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the proposal by United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon for an international inquiry into the commando raid on the Turkish aid ship the Mavi Marmaraa week ago, during which nine Turkish passengers were killed.
Mr Netanyahu told a meeting of ministers from his ruling Likud party yesterday: “I told the UN chief that establishing the facts must be conducted responsibly and objectively. I am looking into other possibilities.”
Mr Ban, in a conversation with the Israeli prime minister over the weekend, suggested that former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer, an expert on maritime law, would head a panel that would also include representatives from Israel, Turkey and the US.
Mr Netanyahu met senior ministers last night to discuss other options, amid reports that the political echelon was opting for an internal inquiry, possible with a respected American observer.
Israel’s ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, said Israel rejected an international investigation.
“Israel is a democratic nation. Israel has the ability and the right to investigate itself, not to be investigated by any international board.”
Defence minister Ehud Barak, who could potentially face embarrassing questions over Israeli intelligence ahead of the maritime raid, came out in support of an inquiry as long as the commandos were not questioned.
Israel wants any inquiry to examine the Turkish sponsors of the aid flotilla and the group of about 50 passengers who became involved in a struggle with Israeli troops. “During my conversation with Ban I conveyed all the information we have on the conduct of the members of the extreme Turkish group (IHH) that supports terror,” Mr Netanyahu told the Likud ministers. “I told him we must find out who organised them, who funds them, who equipped them and how they boarded the ship.”
Turkish organisers rejected Israeli claims that the men who fought with the commandos boarded the Mavi Marmaraat a different port from the rest of the passengers, thereby avoiding security checks.
All 11 activists and eight crew from the Rachel Corriewere deported yesterday. The aid from the boat is still being unloaded at the southern Israeli port of Ashdod.
The supplies aboard the vessel will be taken overland to Gaza in the hope that the Hamas authorities will allow it to be transported via the land crossings between Israel and the strip.
Forty lorries full of humanitarian supplies from the six ships seized last week are still waiting in Israel because Hamas is refusing to receive the aid.
Hamas has said it will not permit the supplies to enter the besieged territory until all detained activists are released and Israel agrees to deliver all aid consignments, including construction materials.
Israel does not allow concrete to reach Gaza fearing it will be used by Hamas to build bunkers, but a representative from Israel's Co-ordinator of Activities in the Territories said last night that the concrete aboard the Rachel Corriewould be allowed into Gaza in co-ordination with international aid organisations. Israel is insisting the concrete be earmarked for specific humanitarian projects under the supervision of international NGOs.
An Israeli official said it is expected that the Rachel Corrieand other vessels seized will be allowed to sail home, although a final decision has still not been taken.
Mr Netanyahu said that Israel was still considering ways to ease the economic blockade on Gaza. Welfare minister Yitzhak Herzog said there was a need to examine ways to increase aid to Gaza.
“The time has come to lift the siege and find a worthy alternative to ensure Israel’s security. Now that the dust is beginning to settle after what we’ve been through, we can now begin a dialogue with sister nations,” he said.
But finance minister Yuval Steinitz warned that the siege on Gaza was necessary and that “lifting the blockade will bring more missiles with longer range flying toward Israeli towns”.