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Israel says flotilla detainees were treated well

12 October 2010 20:05 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Israeli officials on Tuesday denied allegations in a U.N. report that international activists detained after the deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla were abused, telling an investigative committee that everyone was treated with respect, APA reports quoting news.yahoo.com website.
The report has threatened to further tarnish Israel’s image in the wake of the raid, in which Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists, including an American citizen. The bloodshed caused widespread international outrage and forced Israel to loosen the very blockade the activists were trying to breach.
Israel detained hundreds of activists after the clashes in international waters, holding them for several days before they were deported, or in the case of Israeli participants, sent home.
In his testimony, Interior Ministry official Yossi Edelstein, who was in charge of processing detainees, said everyone was treated well and he had received no formal complaints of mistreatment.
Edelstein described a smooth process of medical checks and quick security interrogations with ample translators on hand. "Our staff is trained to have a dialogue with the detainees, and are instructed not to escalate" the situation, he said, adding that everyone was treated "with restraint and respect."
Last month’s report by the U.N. Human Rights Council accused Israel of using "extreme and unprovoked violence" against the detainees.
Based on interviews with more than one hundred flotilla participants, the report concluded that activists were subjected to excessive security checks and physical violence when they no longer posed a threat to Israeli forces.
"The preponderance of evidence from impeccable sources is too overwhelming to come to a contrary opinion," the report concluded. "Any denial of this cannot be supported on any rational grounds."
Israel’s prison services director, Benny Kaniak, who oversaw detainees before deportation, said everyone received "fair and humane" treatment.
Kaniak acknowledged that some detainees underwent additional interrogations inside the prisons, but said he did not witness them and refused to say which security agencies performed the questioning. According to the U.N. report, activists alleged that they were beaten during these interrogations.
Kaniak said detainees received visits from consular representatives, and had received no complaints from either former detainees nor their diplomatic representatives.
But Hasan Nowarah, a British national of Palestinian heritage who was on board one of the boats, said Israeli personnel struck him and forcibly recorded his fingerprints.
Nowarah said he was searched repeatedly, including three strip searches, at the airport before he was deported.
Israel refused to cooperate with the U.N. investigation, accusing the council of a long record of bias. Israel is cooperating with a separate U.N. investigation commissioned by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Op-ed columnist Larry Derfner wrote in the daily Jerusalem Post that "the report makes horrific reading. It leaves you demoralized."
Israel intercepted the flotilla as it was trying to breach the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Naval commandos met unanticipated resistance on board one of the ships. Both sides have said they acted in self defense.
Israel imposed its blockade of Gaza, a densely populated coastal strip along Israel’s southwest border, following the Hamas militant group’s violent takeover in June 2007.
Israel says the closure is needed to prevent Hamas, which has fired thousands of rockets at Israel, from building up its arsenal. But the blockade has failed to achieve its larger goal of weakening Hamas.
Following the uproar over the flotilla raid, Israel loosened the blockade to allow virtually all consumer goods into Gaza. Tight restrictions on construction materials remain in place, however, and Israel continues to enforce a naval blockade on Gaza.