Israel yesterday threatened to pull out of a UN probe into its deadly flotilla raid to keep the panel from grilling its troops, as Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told another inquiry the fleet was a “planned provocation.”
The May 31 raid in which Israeli commandos killed nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists sparked international outrage and led to the easing of a four-year blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted there was a “discreet” agreement to exclude military personnel from the UN probe, despite an earlier denial from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
“The prime minister said Israel would not cooperate with any commission that would ask to question soldiers,” spokesman Nir Hefetz told military radio.
“Before Israel gave the green light to its participation in the panel, we had discreet negotiations in order to ensure that this commission would not harm the vital interests of Israel,” he said.
Ban on Monday denied there was such an agreement.
The row broke out as the UN commission was due to start work, and on the second day of a series of top-level hearings by an Israeli panel, which also does not have the authority to question the soldiers who stormed the ships.
Testifying in Jerusalem, Barak said the flotilla was a “planned provocation” and that top officials had suspected more than a month beforehand that organizers were “preparing for an armed conflict to embarrass Israel.”
He said various alternatives were discussed ahead of the raid and that he and other senior officials had considered the possibility that the activists would attack the troops when they landed.
“We regret any loss of life,” Barak told the Tirkel Commission, a panel of five Israelis and two international observers charged with examining the international legality of the raid and the Gaza blockade. “But we would have lost more lives if we had behaved differently.”
Netanyahu told the panel on Monday that Israel had acted in line with international law, and accused Turkey of seeking a high-profile confrontation that saw activists attack its commandos with iron bars and knives.
The bloody raid caused a diplomatic crisis between Israel and Turkey.
“Turkey remains a very important state in the Middle East. We have to find a way ... to rectify the deterioration of relations,” Barak said yesterday.
However, he stressed that the naval blockade is “absolutely essential to stop Gaza from transforming into a massive arsenal. It is designed to stop the transfer of rockets and other means of warfare.”
Israel imposed border restrictions in June 2006 after Gaza militants captured an Israeli soldier. The sanctions, which have been largely backed by neighboring Egypt, were tightened in June 2007.
Last year, Israel formally declared a naval blockade, which Barak claimed allows Israel under international law to interdict Gaza-bound vessels.
The results of an internal military investigation, which are to be submitted to the Tirkel Commission and the UN panel, found that mistakes were made at a “relatively senior” level, but that the use of live fire was justified.
Israel says its commandos resorted to force only after they were attacked when they rappelled onto the deck of one of the ships, but pro-Palestinian activists on board say the soldiers opened fire as soon as they landed.
Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi was to take the stand today and was likely to be quizzed over the operational aspects of boarding the ships.
Last week, Ban named his own panel, chaired by former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer, to look into the deadly raid. It was due to begin work yesterday and includes representatives from Israel and Turkey.
Israel has completely rejected a separate investigation launched by the UN Human Rights Council, which it views as hopelessly biased against the Jewish state.
A Chinese freighter that allegedly snapped an undersea cable linking Taiwan proper to Penghu County is suspected of being owned by a Chinese state-run company and had docked at the ports of Kaohsiung and Keelung for three months using different names. On Tuesday last week, the Togo-flagged freighter Hong Tai 58 (宏泰58號) and its Chinese crew were detained after the Taipei-Penghu No. 3 submarine cable was severed. When the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) first attempted to detain the ship on grounds of possible sabotage, its crew said the ship’s name was Hong Tai 168, although the Automatic Identification System (AIS)
An Akizuki-class destroyer last month made the first-ever solo transit of a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ship through the Taiwan Strait, Japanese government officials with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The JS Akizuki carried out a north-to-south transit through the Taiwan Strait on Feb. 5 as it sailed to the South China Sea to participate in a joint exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces that day. The Japanese destroyer JS Sazanami in September last year made the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s first-ever transit through the Taiwan Strait, but it was joined by vessels from New Zealand and Australia,
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
COORDINATION, ASSURANCE: Separately, representatives reintroduced a bill that asks the state department to review guidelines on how the US engages with Taiwan US senators on Tuesday introduced the Taiwan travel and tourism coordination act, which they said would bolster bilateral travel and cooperation. The bill, proposed by US senators Marsha Blackburn and Brian Schatz, seeks to establish “robust security screenings for those traveling to the US from Asia, open new markets for American industry, and strengthen the economic partnership between the US and Taiwan,” they said in a statement. “Travel and tourism play a crucial role in a nation’s economic security,” but Taiwan faces “pressure and coercion from the Chinese Communist Party [CCP]” in this sector, the statement said. As Taiwan is a “vital trading
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