Palmer Report

The Palmer Report - The UN's findings about the IDF's raid on the Mavi Marmara - will finally be released tomorrow. Haaretz, through the NY Times, has released some of the major findings from the report:

- Israeli commandos who boarded the Mavi Marmara were met with "organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers," and so were forced to use self defense.

- The Israeli forces used "excessive and unreasonable force," and emphasized that the loss of life on board the ship is "unacceptable." Moreover, it found that the treatment of the passengers by the IDF soldiers after the interception was "abusive."

- The Palmer report determined that the Israeli naval blockade on the Gaza Strip is legal, as "Israel faces a security threat from violent groups in Gaza."

- The report harshly criticizes the flotilla organizers, stating "they acted recklessly in attempting to breach the naval blockade". It added that ” there exist serious questions about the conduct, true nature and objectives of the flotilla organizers, particularly IHH.”

Considering that this is a UN report, it seems pretty fair. The one area of the report I'd like to see an IDF's response to is the forensic evidence presented in the report. Other than that, I think the report pretty much highlights what most reasonable people already knew.
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