The Israeli Commission tasked to probe Mavi Marmara releases second report

JERUSALEM

The Turkel Commission submitted the first part of its report in Jan. 2011. The second part of the report is some 1,000 pages long, according to the Haaretz newspaper.

The national commission established to probe Israel’s raid on the Mavi Marmara ship, which killed nine Turkish citizens, submitted the second part of its report to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu yesterday. 

The first section of the report, made public in January 2011 focused on failures that had occurred during the Mavi Marmara raid on May 31, 2010.  According to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, in its second report the Turkel Commission, chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Jacob Turkel and comprised of Israeli and foreign dignitaries, issued several recommendations to solve flaws found in the decision-making process that resulted in the raid on the Mavi Marmara.

One of the most critical propositions made is to attribute responsibility to the involved army commanders as well as the civilian government for the alleged violations of international law that were committed by their subordinates, Haaretz newspaper reported. “The law should impose direct criminal responsibility on commanders and their civilian superiors for violations committed by their subordinates, if they do not take all reasonable measures to prevent these violations or do not bring those responsible to justice when they find out about violations after the fact,” says the commission
report, according to Haaretz.

The commission also suggests establishing an independent team formed by army officers and jurists to provide counsel during the army’s own operational investigations. This team would be allocated the means needed to make an assessment following an operation and advise the military whether an investigation should be opened or not, noted Haaretz.