May 2010 saw the international community up in arms over and IDF raid on a flotilla carrying aid to Palestinians, in which activists were killed. Throughout the ordeal everyone seemed to be against the IDF's decisions and accused them of violence and unnecessary force.
The Turkel committee who was put in charge of investigating this event has begun to construct a report, which is said to state that the IDF did indeed act appropriately. Many people have already dismissed this report claiming that it is a biased, pro-Israeli committee, however it is unfair to quickly jump to such a conclusion. A distinguished professor at Georgetown University stated that "any professional observer would view the Turkel committee as a serious, distinguished team...Irish and Canadian observers appointed by the committee further boosted its credibility."
A lot of the news media we see today is more than likely to take the side of the Palestinians due to high number of deaths and situations such as the flotilla raid, however it would be ignorant to completely dismiss a group whose sole mission is to understand what happened on this raid. As stated in the article the UN Commission will need to compare their report with the Turkel report and come to a conclusion, this should create a response that is, for the most part, fair.
This statement really resonated with me because it is important to understand that one cannot completely dismiss an opposing opinion, strictly because it is not an identical opinion. In my opinion, especially when it concerns such a heated topic as this, it is crucial to remain critical and conscious of all opinions.
I raise some questions: Was the IDF acting appropriately? Due to the fact that the Turkel committee is Israeli based, should the report be taken into consideration?
Links:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4016792,00.html
http://globalvoicesonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/freedom-flotilla-on-the-way.jpg
0 comments:
Post a Comment