Can the Israeli government kill Americans with impunity?
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.
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.
American Citizen Among Those Killed in Israeli Raid on Aid Flotilla
The raid Monday, with commandos rappelling from helicopters onto ships in an aid flotilla, was meant to enforce Israel's blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. But it ended in chaos and international condemnation of Israel for an operation that many critics viewed as too dangerous and over the top. Israel said the half-dozen ships in the flotilla were part of a radical Islamic movement and that some of its commandos were attacked after they boarded. Israel wants to make sure weapons are not slipped through the blockade and wind up in the hands of terrorists in Gaza, a Palestinian territory. In Washington, the State Department said it had urged Israel to use caution and restraint given the "anticipated presence of civilians, including American citizens," onboard. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. had been in contact with Israel many times "through multiple channels" regarding the flotilla. Meanwhile, CNN reported that another aid vessel, the Rachel Corrie, bound for Gaza from Ireland, has turned around in international waters. The Free Gaza Movement disclosed the change in direction but did not say where the ship was headed.