Sir, – As somebody who submitted evidence to both the UNHRC investigation and the UN “Panel of Inquiry”, I now request that the Irish as well as other European and international governments refuse to recognise the Palmer Report as the fruit of a genuine investigation (World News, September 3rd).
In the interest of EU unanimity, I beseech Europeans to demand of their governments that the UNHRC report be acknowledged as the only genuine investigation to date. Messrs Palmer, Uribe and Trimble have only implicated themselves in the 21st-century equivalent of the Widgery Report of the Bloody Sunday massacre and shame on any lawmaker who accepts the false premise that the siege of Gaza is or ever was legal.
This cynical Palmer Report is based on the idea the most important outcome is for Israel and Turkey to kiss-and-make-up, as 15 months should have been enough for most of us to forget what really happened. It is also designed to condition people into accepting the illegal and immoral siege of Gaza as something that is inevitable. This contradicts reality and without speaking for anybody else, not 15 months nor 15 years will make me forget what I survived and witnessed with my own eyes.
I saw Israeli helicopters and attack-boats fire on the Mavi Marmara before a single commando fast-roped down onto the deck. For me it is apparent that the Israeli government ordered its commandos to carry out a murder mission on the “most Muslim ship” as the only way of discouraging future flotillas from reaffirming Palestine’s right to legal maritime aid and trade.
Furthermore, as a candidate in the 2009 European elections, I strongly urge the EU to make funds available for Gaza to expand its port so as to be able to participate in the existing trade agreements between the EU and Palestine. I also request that current MEPs agitate for trade agreements with Israel to be suspended until this work is completed and the siege of Gaza is fully lifted.
In Derry, the hometown of my adolescence, people waited nearly 40 years for something resembling justice after Bloody Sunday. In Derry’s Guildhall Square, less than a fortnight after our release from Israeli abduction, I finally witnessed a British prime minister apologise for the atrocities that have scarred Ireland for more than a generation.
I would like to take this opportunity to tell the people of Palestine that their day will also come. One day Israel will apologise, not to Turkey, but to Palestine. In the meantime, Palestinians will not be alone in their search for equality, justice and nationhood. – Yours, etc,