For several days, Israel has been able to contain some of the
fallout from the flotilla massacre by withholding information about the
dead and injured. The object of this exercise has clearly been to slow
the flow of information in the hope that by the time the most damning
facts become known, the international media’s attention will have
turned elsewhere.
But the dead now have names and faces and one turns out to be a nineteen-year-old American: Furkan Dogan.
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Murdered Humanitarian Activist Furkan Dogan. |
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Dogan is alleged to have been shot with five bullets, four in the head.
Does the Obama administration intend to investigate the
circumstances in which one of its citizens was killed? Protecting the
lives of Americans is after all the most fundamental responsibility of
our government.
Dogan’s death was presumably instant, but according to Al Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal there were others on board the Mavi Marmara who died because Israeli soldiers refused to treat their injuries.
“After the shooting and the first deaths, people put up
white flags and signs in English and Hebrew. An Isreali [on the ship]
asked the soldiers to take away the injured, but they did not and the
injured died on the ship.”
Crimes have been committed and since the suspects all acted under
the direction of the Israeli government and its defense forces and took
place on international waters outside Israel’s area of legal
jurisdiction, “a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent
investigation conforming to international standards” — a demand made by
the UN Security Council with the support of the Obama administration —
cannot be conducted by the Israeli government or a commission appointed
by them. An investigation conforming to international standards must
also be an international inquiry.
War in Context