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New Review Ordered Into Israel’s Gaza Flotilla Raid New Review Ordered Into Israel’s Gaza Flotilla Raid
(about 2 hours later)
Judges of the International Criminal Court presented a new challenge to Israel on Thursday, ordering the court’s chief prosecutor to review her decision not to investigate a deadly Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla of aid ships five years ago. Israel denounced the order. PARIS — Judges of the International Criminal Court presented a new challenge to Israel on Thursday, asking the court’s chief prosecutor to review her decision not to investigate a deadly Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla of aid ships in 2010. Israel denounced the move.
In a statement posted on the court’s website, the judges said the prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, had committed “material errors” in her assessment of whether a criminal inquiry was warranted into the raid on the flotilla, which left eight Turks and an American of Turkish descent dead on the lead vessel, the Mavi Marmara. In their request, posted on the court’s website, the judges of a pretrial chamber said the prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, had committed “errors of fact” and reached “simplistic conclusions” in her assessment of whether a criminal inquiry was warranted into the raid on the flotilla, which left eight Turks and an American of Turkish descent dead on the lead vessel, the Mavi Marmara.
The judges requested that Ms. Bensouda “reconsider her decision not to initiate an investigation,” and do so “as soon as possible.” The judges asked that Ms. Bensouda “reconsider her decision not to initiate an investigation,” and do so “as soon as possible.”
The raid incited widespread criticism of Israel, severely damaged its relations with Turkey and focused attention on the naval blockade the Israelis have enforced on the Gaza Strip, the isolated Palestinian territory that has been a frequent flash point for the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. One of the three judges wrote a lengthy dissent, saying the bench had exceeded its mandate and had “interfered with the prosecutor’s margin of discretion.”
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted angrily to the court’s new order, asserting that commandos of the Israel Defense Forces who stormed the flotilla had acted in self-defense. Lawyers following the court, which is based in The Hague, said Ms. Bensouda could still refuse to open a criminal investigation. In November she said Israeli military forces may have committed war crimes when they stormed the civilian ships delivering aid to Gaza, but she found the consequences insufficiently grave to pursue.
“It is not clear why the court insists on focusing its resources on dealing unnecessarily with cynically and politically motivated complaints instead of dealing with matters for which it was established — mass atrocities,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. “Israel expects the prosecutor’s decision to remain in force.” The raid incited widespread criticism of Israel, severely damaged its relations with Turkey and focused attention on the naval blockade the Israelis have enforced on the Gaza Strip.
Ms. Bensouda announced in November that while Israeli military forces might have committed war crimes by forcefully intercepting the ships in the flotilla, which were carrying construction materials and relief supplies, the consequences were insufficiently grave to warrant a criminal inquiry. The complaint was brought to the court by the Comoros, the Indian Ocean nation where the Mavi Marmara was registered.
The Indian Ocean island nation of Comoros, where the Mavi Marmara was registered, asked the court to review Ms. Bensouda’s decision in January. In the decision by the panel — made up of judges from Kenya, Italy and Hungary — a Comoros request for an oral hearing was turned down. But the judges told the prosecutor that she had willfully ignored important information about “unnecessarily cruel treatment of the ships’ passengers” by Israeli soldiers.
A new inquiry into Israel’s actions during the flotilla raid, which happened in the darkness of May 31, 2010, could add to the legal complications the Israelis are now confronting from the Hague-based court, which was created more than a decade ago to prosecute egregious crimes. They said that her arguments that she had been given contradictory information had led her to unreasonable and hasty conclusions, and were all the more reason for further inquiry.
The Palestinians became members of the court just three months ago, part of their broader effort to establish an independent state by putting pressure on the Israelis. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted angrily to the decision, asserting that the commandos of the Israel Defense Forces had acted in self-defense.
Last month, the Palestinians delivered files to the court documenting what they said were Israeli war crimes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. “It is not clear why the court insists on focusing its resources on dealing unnecessarily with cynically and politically motivated complaints instead of dealing with matters for which it was established — mass atrocities,” the ministry said.
A new inquiry into Israel’s actions during the flotilla raid could add to the legal complications the Israelis are facing from the court, which was created over a decade ago to prosecute egregious crimes. The Palestinians became members of the court three months ago, part of their effort to establish an independent state by putting pressure on the Israelis.