Ref: 92/2011 

 The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)
strongly condemns the report of the Panel of Inquiry (Palmer Committee) established
by the UN Secretary-General to investigate the attack on Mavi Marmara, one of
the ships of the Freedom Flotilla, while it was in international waters and
headed to the Gaza Strip, carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza’s civilian
population. PCHR believes that the
Committee prioritized political considerations over the rule of international
law and the rights of victims, while legitimizing the policy of collective
punishment represented in the blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip.

According to unofficial excerpts published by
New York Times on 01 September 2011, the report concludes that the naval blockade
of Gaza is legal as a matter of international law. Consequently, it does not demand Israel to
apologize for the crime it committed against human rights defenders who were
attempting to transfer humanitarian aid to Gaza, which left 9 civilians dead
and injured at least 50 others.  The
report considers that Israel used excessive force against the Freedom Flotilla,
and urges it to compensate families of the victims. PCHR believes that the recommendations of the
report do not commensurate with the crimes it addresses. Forensic medical reports have indicated that
the majority of victims were shot several times from short ranges. PCHR reiterates that the attack against Mavi
Marmara is a hideous crime, in which excessive and lethal force was used,
killing and wounding dozens of international civilian solidarity activists on
board on the Freedom Flotilla.

PCHR believes that the Panel of Inquiry,
established by UN Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki-moon on 02 August 2010, which
started its mission on 10 August 2010, is purely political, and consequently,
its conclusions are purely political. It
is not expected to provide legal opinions, like when it claims that the blockade
imposed by Israel on Gaza is legal as a matter of international law. The Panel was comprised of Mr. Geoffrey
Palmer, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, as Chairman; Alvaro Uribe, former
Columbian President, as Vice-Chairman; the Israeli Joseph Itzhar, as a member;
and the Turkish Sűleyman özdem Sanberk, as a member. Several civil society groups in Columbia and
Latin America accuse the Panel’s Vice-Chairman, Alvaro Uribe, of perpetrating
serious human rights violations in his country over several years.

PCHR further believes that the Panel of Inquiry
lacks professionalism as its conclusions contradict various legal opinions
issued by many international legal experts and UN bodies concerned with human
right and international humanitarian law, which have all considered that the
blockade imposed by Israel on the Gaza Strip is illegal and constitutes a form
of collective punishment, prohibited under Article 33 of the 1949 Fourth Geneva
Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. It is also a war crime, the recurrence of
which must be prevented by all parties, including the High Contracting Parties
to the Fourth Geneva Convention. PCHR views the mobility of international humanitarian organizations and
human right defenders is logical to break the illegal blockade imposed on the
Gaza Strip since mid 2007, when Israel imposed a total siege and closed all
border crossings of the Gaza Strip after Gaza International Airport had been
completely destroyed in 2000.

In light of the above, PCHR condemns the
initial findings concluded by Palmer Committee, which contradict the position
of the international community towards the blockade impose on the Gaza Strip,
particularly international reports addressing the human rights situation in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the Gaza Strip, including, inter
alia, reports of the UN Human Rights Council and the UN Special Rapporteur
on the occupied Palestinian territories. The findings of the report of Palmer Committee are also in contradiction
with the Goldstone Report prepared by the Inquiry Mission on Gaza Conflict
established by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate the Israeli military
offensive on the Gaza Strip in 2008-2009, which considered the blockade imposed
on the Gaza Strip illegal. They are
further in contrast with the legal opinion issued by the ICRC, a preeminent
organization for interpreting international humanitarian law, which indicated
that the closure policy constitutes a form of collective punishment against the
civilian population in the Gaza Strip, and an explicit violation of Israel’s
obligations under international law.

Accordingly:

1- PCHR totally rejects the findings of the report of Palmer
Committee considering it is politicized and disregards for the international
law. PCHR calls upon all international
organizations to condemn the report, and not to deal with the findings that
contradict with international law and human rights standards. 

2- PCHR emphasizes that this report will bring more pains and
suffering for 1.6 million Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip under an
illegal siege that violates the international humanitarian law and human rights
law.

3- Reiterates that the blockade is illegal as it constitutes a
violation of international law, as confirmed by the UN bodies, including the UN
Human Rights Council, reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied
Palestinian Territories, reports of the ICRC and reports of international human
rights organizations, including the International Federation for Human Rights,
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

4- PCHR calls upon the international community to intensify efforts
to stop the policy of collective punishment against the population of the Gaza
Strip and lift the blockade that has been imposed for the past five years.

5- PCHR calls for opening an international criminal investigation
into this crime based on the available legal evidence and documents, including
the forensic medical reports of victims.

6- PCHR supports the move of the Government of Turkey to the
International Court of Justice, as the highest international judicial body to
consider this crime, and reminds of its Advisory Opinion on the wall in the
West Bank issued in July 2004, which considered the siege imposed on the
Occupied Palestinian Territory a form of collective punishment prohibited under
the international law. PCHR calls upon
all States and international organizations to support the Turkish move in this
regard.