For months, since the contents of the report prepared by a UN panel charged with reviewing the May 2010 Gaza flotilla incident (the Palmer Report) began to appear in news media coverage, it has been clear that the report would not provide a credible legal analysis of the issue that was the reason for the flotilla in the first place -- Israel's closure of Gaza. Instead, the Palmer Committee sought a political outcome -- to facilitate rehabilitation of Israeli-Turkish relations, strained by the killing of nine Turkish citizens by Israeli commandos who boarded their ship as they protested Israel's closure of Gaza. To that end, the Committee offered a compromise: it determined that Israel's naval blockade of Gaza was lawful and that Turkey should have done more to stop the flotilla, but it also found that Israel used excessive force aboard the ship. The proffered solution was an Israeli apology, a compensation fund and the resumption of full diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey.
Sari Bashi is the executive director for Gisha (Legal Center for Freedom of Movement).
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http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/09/02/flotilla_report_adrift_at_sea
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