The Turkel Committee: How has the inquiry been portrayed?

Just Journalism
11 August '10

Following the May 31 raid of the Mavi Marmara, in which nine Turkish activists were killed while fighting IDF commandos, Israel commissioned two inquiries to investigate what had happened. The first was an internal military review, which found that the IDF soldiers acted in a professional manner but had failed to properly anticipate a likely violent response from the ship’s passengers. The second inquiry, now underway, is the so-called Turkel Committee, headed by retired Israeli Supreme Court Justice Jacob Turkel, which is investigating whether Israel was justified under international law to both impose a naval blockade of Gaza in the first place, and to uphold it militarily during the flotilla affair.

The Israeli government initially rejected requests by several countries, such as Turkey and Britain, that there should be an independent, international inquiry into the events surrounding the casualties aboard the Mavi Marmara. Israel eventually relented to external pressure and announced that it would allow its inquiry to be overseen by two international observers.

Another concession came from the Turkel Committee itself, which was originally tasked with determining only if the IDF was lawful in stopping the flotilla and if its use of force on the Mavi Marmara was ‘proportionate’. It was not going to be permitted to subpoena witnesses or draw conclusions about the individual behaviour of those involved in the raid. However, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, ‘following [Justice] Turkel's demand to turn the panel into a full-fledged governmental inquiry committee with real teeth, the committee was granted the power to subpoena witnesses and documents, warn those who testify before it that the panel's findings could harm them, and hire outside experts in relevant fields.’ As it now stands, only IDF soldiers cannot be subpoenaed by the Turkel Committee.

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