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The St. Pancake Flotilla: Commission Determines IHH Initiated Violence

Posted on | January 23, 2011 | 3 Comments

An official commission investigated the May incident where Israeli commandos were attacked when they boarded a vessel defying the Gaza blockade, and has determined that activists with the Turkish “humanitarian” agency IHH provoked the incident:

The commission concluded that on board the Mavi Marmara and the other flotilla vessels was a group of IHH and affiliated activists (the IHH activists) that violently opposed the Israelis boarding. The IHH activists who participated in that violence were civilians taking a direct part in hostilities.
“The force used against civilians on board the flotilla was governed by the principles of ‘necessity’ and use of ‘proportionate force’ associated with human rights based law enforcement norms. However, the IHH activists lost the protection of their civilian status for such time as they directly participated in the hostilities. The use of force against these direct participants in hostilities is governed by the applicable rules of international humanitarian law,” the report said.
The commission explained that the IHH activists carried out the violence on board the Mavi Marmara by arming themselves with a wide array of weapons, including iron bars, axes, clubs, slingshots, knives, and metal objects.
“Overall, the IDF personnel acted professionally in the faces of extensive and unanticipated violence. This included continuing to switch back and forth between less-lethal and lethal weapons in order to address the nature of the violence directed at them,” the commission said.

Friday, Pamela Geller highlighed a report by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on the jihadist connections of the IHH.

Category: Israel, Terrorism

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