U.N. Rights Council Begins Questioning Flotilla Witnesses
Investigators from the United Nations Human Rights Council have begun questioning witnesses of Israel’s May 31 capture of a Gaza-bound boat in which nine people died, the UN said on Monday.
An official statement said the 3-person team was now in Turkey, under whose flag the vessel was registered, after hearing other witnesses in London and Geneva. After two weeks, it would move on to Amman in Jordan.
The team – judges from Britain and Trinidad and a Malaysian human rights campaigner – has been refused entry by Israel which says pro-Palestinian activists on the boat were killed when they fought back against its commandos.
The trio are due to present their report to the 47-nation council on September 27, according to a schedule for the body’s 3-week autumn session which starts on September 13.
"Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief"
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
