Editor,
It has come as a relief to the world community that the U.N. has concluded its human rights investigation of the Israeli military raid on the Turkish civilian flotilla. As you may recall, this flotilla was bringing humanitarian aid to blockaded Gaza residents.
The human rights reports states: “The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel toward the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence.” At the time of the raid, the Israeli government justified its actions in the name of self-defense.
The U.N.’s findings add that Israeli’s self-defense claim is without factual basis. In this respect, the panel says: “It is apparent that no effort was made to minimize injuries at certain states of the operation and that the use of live fire was done in an extensive and arbitrary manner. The circumstances of the killing of at least six of the passengers were in a manner consistent with an extra-legal, arbitrary and summary execution.”
Now that the facts have been established, the logical thing to do is to bring the responsible parties to justice in a timely manner. The world community once again holds its breath and prays that justice will be served. As a wise, old man once said, “With all the hatred in this world, in this good world, let us be kind to one another.”
Muhajir Romero
UNM student
