Type the words “Israel”, “blockade”, and “illegal” in the Guardian’s search engine and you get 194 hits.
As recently as yesterday Guardian contributor Ruqaya Izzidien quoted a flotilla “activist” describing Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza as “illegal”.
On Tuesday, a report by Jack Shenker, in a Guardian straight news story, casually characterized the blockade as “an act deemed illegal under international law.”
Yet, the UN (which, it is a profound understatement to say, is no friend to Israel) reportedly will issue a report on last year’s Gaza flotilla clash concluding that Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip is legal and that Jerusalem owes no apology to Turkey for the Mavi Marmara raid.
According to AFP:
“United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will release a statement supporting the legality of the Israeli intervention against the 2010 ‘Gaza Freedom Flotilla.”
The UN report also will reportedly say that the Turkel Committee, which led Israel’s official flotilla probe, conducted a professional and independent investigation.
I’m willing to bet that the Guardian simply will not report this story, as it goes against volumes of Guardian stories, and CiF commentaries, since the May 31, 2010 incident, attesting to Israel’s guilt, but I’m even more confident that the countless number of contributors who were so quick to pass judgement on Israel’s blockade of weapons to Hamas will not apologize for their morally irresponsible rush to judgement.
As with Richard Goldstone’s recent mea culpa – acknowledging that, contradicting his initial conclusions, there was absolutely no evidence that Israel intentionally targeted civilians during Operation Cast Lead – this UN report exonerating Israel comes a year too late.
The damage to Israel has already been done.
Paraphrasing the immortal words of Ray Donovan, President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of Labor, who, after a long ideologically driven campaign in the mainstream media which assumed his guilt, was (in the end) acquitted of corruption charges in a court of law after a prolonged trial:
Where does Israel go to get their reputation back?
Related articles
- The Guardian finds fresh new talent to whitewash terror connections of flotilla movement, and demonize Israel (cifwatch.com)
- The tangled web they weave – the eminence noir behind the “Freedom Flotilla 2″ (cifwatch.com)
- Great comment by Guardian reader in reply to Greenslade blog post about limits on journalists covering flotilla (cifwatch.com)
- Guardian and Independent coverage of second flotilla omits key facts (cifwatch.com)
- Guardian quotes flotilla activist: Palestinians have been resisting occupation for “60 years” (cifwatch.com)
- Plagues of the Flotilla (cifwatch.com)
