In this document, the Government of Israel shares with the Israeli and international public updates regarding its investigations. During the past six months, since the publication of the last update, 11 additional criminal investigations into events relating to the Gaza Operation have been opened, bringing the total number of criminal investigations in the wake of allegations regarding violations of the Law of Armed Conflict to 47. Some of the investigations have have resulted in criminal indictments: two IDF soldiers were recently indicted for compelling a Palestinian minor to assist them in opening suspicious parcels, and another IDF soldier suspected of killing a Palestinian civilian. These cases are in addition to an earlier conviction of an IDF soldier for looting.

Israel examines complaints from a wide variety of sources, including Palestinian civilians, Israeli and international NGOs, reports from the United Nations and other international organizations. Even where Israel has expressed criticism of some of these reports, it views them as an important source of information. The two new indictments resulted from such reports.

Other cases resulted in disciplinary proceedings against senior officers, in instance where it was decided that while criminal actions had not been committed, they had deviated from the IDF's clear instructions.

Chapter 3 of the report provides an update of 16 concrete cases relating to the Gaza Operation. In most cases, the factual and/or legal conclusions reached differ widely from what was presented in outside reports.

In other cases, even where no violations of the Law of Armed Conflict were found, many lessons were learned that led to operational changes in IDF orders and combat doctrine, particularly in the area of protection of civilian property in time of armed conflict. A salient example of this is the integration of a Humanitarian Affairs Officer in each combat unit beginning at the battalion level and new procedures to regulate destruction of private property in cases of military necessity.

The document also describes the Turkel Commission, established in the wake of the Gaza flotilla, which also received a mandate to examine the conformity of Israel’s mechanisms for investigating complaints raised in relation to violations of the Law of Armed Conflict with its obligations under international law.

Click here to download the Gaza Update in PDF format»

Israel's seizure of the Turkish registered ship Mavi Marmara on May 31 thrust Turkey and its controversial Prime Minister Recep Erdogan into the international spotlight. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Erdogan's – together with his senior ministers' – vitriolic verbal attacks on Israel have raised his profile dramatically.

These profiles have varied considerably in the Canadian and western media circles.

For instance, in his June 5 National Post column dealing with the immediate rush to condemn Israel in the absence of established facts about the Marmara tragedy, Robert Fulford drew attention to rarely examined details about Turkey's hypocrisy. He wrote: "It was striking to hear that the Turkish foreign minister called the boarding of the Mavi Marmara 'an act of barbarism.' Turkey, having helped to instigate the flotilla, is a new voice in the self-righteous clamour against Israel. It still doesn't admit that it perpetrated genocide against the Armenians a century ago, it drags its distinguished authors into court for telling the truth about that atrocity and its attempt to contain the Kurdish independence movement has so far cost some 40,000 lives, mostly Kurds."

Writing from Jerusalem for the Globe and Mail (June 11) about the Turkish government's reaction, Patrick Martin argued that Erdogan's "outcry against Israel… have made him the most admired leader in the Muslim and Arab worlds, shaming those who have done so little for the Palestinians."

Precisely what Erdogan has done for the Palestinians, others would argue, is highly questionable to say the least. Erdogan's rhetorical assaults on Israel (including his tantrum in Davos in 2009 against Israeli president Shimon Peres) are no doubt popular in the Arab and Muslim worlds. But his support for Hamas (and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad) only serves to reinforce the hardships Palestinian extremists have inflicted on their own people in Gaza.

Martin paints a mostly positive picture of Erdogan, including his policy toward the Kurds: "He offered peace to the country's Kurds and an opening of relations with Turkey's historic foe, Armenia. He established good relations with Iraq and even with its Kurdish Regional Government that sits on Turkey's border."

What Martin didn't mention is that since late 2007, Erdogan's government has authorized deadly strikes into northern Iraq against Kurdish-PKK rebels operating from there in support of increased autonomy in southeastern Turkey. For instance, the BBC reported on May 3, 2008, that Turkish forces claimed in an army statement to have "neutralize[d] more than 150 [Kurdish] terrorists."

Other such attacks have resulted in scores more Kurds being killed and have prompted Iraq's government to warn Turkey about destabilizing the region.

It's no surprise, of course, that Erdogan's “outrage” against such deadly assaults on the Kurds is nowhere to be heard. And, after all, the Kurds are clamouring only for increased autonomy including language rights to be enshrined in the constitution, not any longer for self-rule which is prohibited and a punishable offence in Turkey.

* * *

Against a glut of uninformed, frenzied charges that Israel had committed “war crimes,” “terrorism” and “piracy” in intercepting the flotilla in international waters, Ed Morgan, professor of international law at the University of Toronto, clarified the facts pertaining to what is called the Law of the Sea (Globe and Mail, June 3). He spelled out the terms according to which it is perfectly legal for Israel, being in a state of armed conflict with Hamas, to impose and enforce a naval blockade on Gaza (to prevent the smuggling of arms), including by intercepting and boarding ships that attempt to run the blockade. Click here to read the story.

The Canadian Navy undertakes similar boardings on a regular basis. Between 2001 and 2003, during NATO's Operation Apollo, Canadian naval personnel made over 260 boardings in their efforts to halt the flow of terrorists and weapons through international waters in the Gulf. Global News reported (April 9) on the HMCS Fredericton's boardings off the east coast of Africa mere months ago: "The boarding party, team of specially trained and heavily armed sailors, was regularly dispatched from the Fredericton to investigate skiffs and dhows [Arab sailing vessels] … often used for pirate attacks or to transport weapons and drugs.”

What did they expect? Israel wasn't about to let a bunch of politically-motivated provocateurs breach its three-year blockade of Gaza under the propaganda smokescreen of "delivering humanitarian aid."

Contrary to monotonous Palestinian-sympathizer yammering, neither the blockade nor its conduct in international waters is "illegal." Naval blockades are legal acts of war, regulated by international law and custom, affirmed as such by Article 42 of the UN Charter, which specifically endorses blockading to "maintain or restore international peace and security."

According to the 1994 San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea, it is permissible under rule 67(a) to attack neutral vessels on the high seas when such vessels "are believed on reasonable grounds to be carrying contraband or breaching a blockade, if after prior warning they intentionally and clearly refuse to stop, or intentionally and clearly resist visit, search or capture." Force may be legally applied in self-defense if necessary in the course of detaining civilian vessels attempting break blockades if detention is met with violent resistance.

One of the fledgling Royal Canadian Navy's first wartime missions was Halifax-based cruiser HMCS Niobe's nine-month patrol off New York Harbor in 1914-15, joining British blockade forces tasked with boarding and searching every vessel leaving that then-neutral port to intercept all German trade and ensure that neutral vessels carried no cargo consigned to the enemy.

Naval blockade rules require advance warning to neutral states, with penalties for breach of blockade including seizure of ships and cargo and their possible seizure as lawful prizes, although neutral ships may not be destroyed for blockade-running.

Hence the necessity for Israeli forces physically boarding the blockade runners, leading to May 31's meleé. IDF forces rappelling from helicopters encountered violent resistance on board, ultimately resulting in deaths of nine alleged "peace activists" and serious injury, including knife and gunshot wounds, to several Israeli soldiers.

Click here to read the entire article »

It is possible for intelligent people to disagree over the way Israel stopped the flotilla that set out for Gaza from Turkey last month. Even after what we have learned about the "humanitarians" on board in the past two weeks — that many were in reality thugs lying in wait to ambush Israeli commandos — it is still possible to contend that Israeli military planners and commanders were unprepared for what their troops found when they tried to board the Turkish ships. Their unpreparedness, in turn, led to an overreaction by the commandos who, caught off guard, ended up killing nine thugs.

I, personally, don't dispute the Israelis' tactics, I'm merely saying that among smart people it's possible to disagree over whether Israel used just enough force, or too much.

But what can no longer be disputed is the character of those onboard the flotilla.

Sure, there were many useful idiots on the decks — pro-Palestinian activists from Western nations who had been included merely because they made good PR decoys. And, yes, most of them probably swallowed whole the bumph flotilla organizers were selling–that the exercise was merely an attempt to run Israel's blockade of Gaza ports and bring food, medicine, clothing, toys, etc. to the poor, starving residents.

But the real passengers were 40 operatives from the Turkish Islamist organization, the IHH, which has close ties to the ruling AKP party and directly to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, according to the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. It has also been reported that the ship on which the deadly commando raid took place, the Mavi Maramara, was purchased by the IHH from a company owned by the AKP with money furnished by the Turkish government.

Click here to read the entire article »
 

The equipment left on the Marmara and comments made by the passengers in the foreign media following the flotilla takeover show that the organizers of the flotilla, the leadership of the Turkish IHH organization, prepared for attacking the IDF soldiers. The IHH gathered about 60 members to be the “hard core” of the violent provocation at sea. These passengers boarded the ship in Istanbul and Antalya, bypassing security clearance. In order to differentiate between the 60 members and the rest of the passengers, those hard core operatives wore vests with the word ‘SECURITY’ written on them.

The protocol of a meeting held by the ship's leadership on May 16th shows that members of the IHH were dominant in whole organization of the flotilla. Other organizations that funded the flotilla decided to try and avoid confrontation with IDF soldiers and even committed the passengers to sign an agreement forbidding them from any verbal or physical violence. However, the IHH arranged a meeting in which the heads of the Turkish organization coordinated their actions with the other ships sailing to Gaza. Likewise they also arranged where the members would be located, half on the upper deck and the other half on the lower deck.

Click here to download the entire report in PDF format »

According to the statements from crew members, the atmosphere aboard the Mavi Marmara was tense and the crew noticed a gathering on the main deck. When they checked the upper deck they discovered that IHH operatives were cutting the ship's railings with metal disks they had brought with them into lengths suitable to be used as clubs. The crew members said the activities worried them and that they tried to stop the operatives but were unsuccessful.

The IHH is an NGO, but it was kind of a type of cover-up in order to obtain forged documents and also to obtain different forms of infiltration for Mujahideen in combat. And also to go and gather these Mujahideens. And finally, one of the last responsibilities that they had was also to be implicated or involved in weapons trafficking.

[…] the terrorist infiltration of IHH extended to its most senior ranks. The report, written by famed counterterrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguière, revealed that IHH President Bulent Yildrim had directly conspired in the mid-1990s to “recruit veteran soldiers in anticipation of the coming holy war [jihad]. In particular, some men were sent into war zones in Muslim countries in order to acquire combat experience.” Furthermore, in the hopes of “obtaining political support from these countries, financial aid was transferred [on behalf of IHH], as well as caches of firearms, knives, and pre-fabricated explosives.” An examination of IHH’s phone records in Istanbul showed repeated telephone calls in 1996 to an Al-Qaida guesthouse in Milan and various Algerian terrorist operatives active elsewhere in Europe – including the notorious Abu el-Ma`ali, who has been subse- quently termed by U.S. officials as a “junior Osama Bin Laden.”

IHH’s bureau in Istanbul was thoroughly searched, and its local officers were arrested. Security forces uncovered an array of disturbing items, including firearms, explosives, bomb-making instructions, and a “jihad flag.” After analyzing seized IHH documents, Turkish authorities concluded that “detained members of IHH were going to fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya

The head of the Research Department in the Intelligence Directorate, Brig. Gen. Yossi Beiditz, met on Tuesday (May 4) with the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Israeli Parliament, and discussed reports that have been issued recently about the transfer of Scud missiles from Syria to Hizbullah.

"Syria plays a significant role in the ever-growing rocket arsenal in the hands of Hizbullah," said Brig. Gen. Beiditz. "The transfer of weapons to Hizbullah occurs consistently from Syria and is organized by the Syrian and Iranian regimes. Therefore this is not considered the smuggling of weapons to Lebanon – it is an official and organized transfer."

The head of the Research Department confirmed that long-range missiles have been recently transferred from Syria to Hizbullah, and said that "this is just the tip of the iceberg," and that "already today Hizbullah has in its hands an arsenal of thousands of every type and range of rockets, including long-range and more efficient solid-fuel missiles."

According to Beiditz, "The long ranges of the missiles in the hands of Hizbullah enable them to place their launchers deep inside of Lebanon, and they cover ranges that are much longer than what we have seen in the past. Hizbullah in 2006 was different from Hizbullah in 2010 from the standpoint of their military capabilities which has developed more."

He continued to say that "Syria continues to march on two different paths without being forced on the international arena to choose between them. On one side Syria is improving her relations with the West, with the Arab states, and with Turkey, and is returning to a role of influence within Lebanon. At the same time, Syria is deepening her strategic and operational cooperation with Iran, Hizbullah and the Palestinian terror organizations."

Iran has overcome technological obstacles in creating a nuclear bomb

Brig. Gen. Beiditz also covered Iran's nuclear program. "The Iranians continue to promote their nuclear program and they are accumulating abilities that enable them to attack with nuclear weapons at any moment they decide to," he said. "From this moment, everything depends on their decision. If in the past arriving at nuclear capabilities was dependent on overcoming technological obstacles, today, in Iran, it is dependent on their decision alone to bring about the creation of a nuclear bomb."

Brig. Gen. Beiditz also spoke about the travel warnings to Sinai which were published recently by the Counter Terrorism Bureau. "On the eve of Passover there was an actual warning related to the activities of Bedouins in Sinai where they were supposed to kidnap Israelis there, and transfer them to the military wing of Hamas. There was a plan of cooperation between them. The publicity deterred the groups, but there is still the possibility that Bedouins acting as subcontractors will kidnap Israelis and transfer them over to Hamas."

April 15, 2010

Tonight, at 8:00 PM Israel time a siren will cut through the thoughts, actions and movements of every single Israeli, as memorial day for fallen soldiers commences.

For me, Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers is a “civil Yom Kippur” as well.  A time to reflect deeply upon where we stand as people and as a nation.

Two weeks ago Miriam Peretz escorted her (second) son, Eliraz to his grave.  Maj. Eliraz Peretz, z”l, Deputy Commander of the Golani Brigade was killed in battle, 12 years after his older brother Lt. Uriel Peretz, was killed by a Hizbullah bomb in south Lebanon. Both brothers were in the Golani Brigade. Another son is currently serving in the same unit.

From the time of the death of her first son, Miriam knew what she was meant to do.  She went from school to school explaining the importance of the Israel Defense Force. Importance – not just in serving in the military, but in commanding and leading it.  She preaches it and she lives it.

Miriam Peretz is part if the myth of this country – a country where a small and brave nation fights for its right to live in peace “under his vine and under his fig tree”. Miriam does not come with complaints to God or to people. She does whatever she can to strengthen the Jewish people and nation.  Her son Eliraz, z”l was killed on the outskirts of Sderot, where there is no “Israeli occupation”. A front on which we fight for our right to a peaceful life, fighting both the Palestinian terrorists and the Goldstone Report.

Along with Eliraz, St.-Sgt. Maj. Ilan Sviatkovsky –-was killed. Ilan, a Russian immigrant, served as a fighter in the Barak battalion of the Golani Brigade out of true love for the Land of Israel. He was a young man, a new immigrant, who volunteered for combat service and served as a prime example of morals and responsibility.

And then we have Dr. Degani, the principle of the First Hebrew Gymnasia in Herzliya – who closes its doors to IDF officers who wish to expound the importance of serving and commanding in the Israel Defense Force. Degani explains that the military’s role is in borders and bases and not in schools !! and nobody beeps !!!

People like Eliraz and Ilan represent the better aspect of modern Israeli society.  A society that will shortly come to the point that it will have to clarify where it stands;

• with Miriam Peretz and what she represents
   
• or Dr. Degani – and what he represents.

This is the real and bitter conflict that confronts the Jewish people in our homeland and in our future.

Yossi

As stated by Prime Minister Netanyahu in July 2009, Israel is committed to a two state solution which will be achieved through a negotiable bilateral agreement. Israel considers the development of the Palestinian economy a challenge shared by Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the international community.

Israel recognizes the importance of international support to projects in the West Bank in the areas of economic development, capacity building and the security and civil sectors, and supports efforts by the international community to promote Palestinian development.

This Report presents a series of steps and actions undertaken by Israel during 2009 and the beginning of 2010, which were intended to promote and substantially improve the West Bank's economy, alongside building security and other capacities. These measures were taken in parallel with a broader diplomatic and economic effort led by the international community, and notwithstanding the security risks posed by continued Palestinian terrorist activity.

The Report also briefly addresses the situation in Gaza and Israel’s actions to facilitate efforts by the international community to meet humanitarian needs. Israel acts to support these efforts despite the fact that Gaza is a hostile territory controlled by Hamas, a terrorist organization supported by Iran, which continues to constitute a security threat to thousands of Israel citizens. As of the publication of this Report, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit remains in captivity, and has been held by Hamas for almost four years.

This Report provides an overview of Israeli measures related to the main sectors listed below:

• Chapter One provides an overview of economic growth in the West Bank, Israeli efforts to boost the West Bank's economy and to enhance infrastructure projects.
   
• Chapter Two describes steps taken by Israel in order to facilitate and ease access and movement in the West Bank.
   
• Chapter Three outlines bilateral cooperation between the governments of Israel and the PA, including the operations of bilateral Israeli-Palestinian committees that convened during the period covered by the Report.
   
• Chapter Four presents the security challenges in the west bank and information on Israeli and international capacity building efforts in the security sector and the legal system.
   
• Finally, Chapter Five outlines Israeli efforts to support and facilitate humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Click here to download the entire report in PDF format »