Talk:Turkel Commission

"The major criticisms"

The items called "the major criticisms of the commission" are nothing of the sort. They are the major criticisms of the commission within domestic Israeli politics. The real major criticism of the commission is that it's a laughable whitewash. Actually I think that criticism has even been made within domestic Israeli politics. So I really don't know why "there were no women" or "they were too old" is treated as a more serious criticism. TiC (talk) 19:06, 23 January 2011 (UTC)

Undo Dovidroth's revrt

@Dovidroth performed a revert which I suggest we undo. Their revert has reduced the quality of the page. DMH43 (talk) 14:20, 22 December 2023 (UTC)

Undo Dovidroths second revert

User Dovidroth reverted my addition for a second time. I suggest to undo the revert since the quality was decreased by the revert. DMH43 (talk) 22:14, 1 January 2024 (UTC)

It might be worth noting that Dovidroth has been banned from the Palestine/Israel Conflict topic for 90 days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Dovidroth#Notice_that_you_are_now_subject_to_an_arbitration_enforcement_sanction

this is @Dovidroth's revert DMH43 (talk) 16:58, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

My changes can be summarized as:

1. Adding brief description of the legal findings and justification in the intro.

2. Adding brief description of criticism in the intro. The controversy of the report is a main feature of its legacy, so it is important that criticism appears in the intro.

3. Specifying that the report is it two parts published months apart.

4. Adding 2 criticisms to the Criticism section.

5. Reorganized the criticism section, moving demographic criticism (arguably the least important) to the bottom and removed the uncited criticism.

I suggest we bring my changes back. DMH43 (talk) 18:03, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

The specific additions are:

In the introduction:

The report found that the blockade of Gaza was legal on the basis that human rights organizations have found that 60% of Gazans suffer from "'food insecurity' (i.e., the lack of physical and economic access to sustainable food sources), and not [from] 'starvation' (a deliberate deprivation of food, which is intended to weaken or annihilate the population)."

The report has been criticized for being inconsistent with human rights reports and for inadequate treatment of the principle of proportionality regarding the blockade of Gaza. Specifically, the report denies the existence of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The report has also been criticized for failing to reconcile its conclusions with the findings by Israeli doctors that all of the dead passengers suffered multiple bullet wounds and five were shot in the neck or head.

And the following additions to the criticism section:

Political scientist Norman Finkelstein criticized the report for being a "whitewash." Finkelstein challenged the report's conclusion that the blockade did not deliberately cause hunger, arguing that the limitation of "civilian goods" to a "humanitarian minimum" suggested an intent to collectively punish the Gazan population, a claim not adequately addressed by the report. He specifically noted that the blockade prevented the entry of essential medical supplies and basic food items, including lentils, pasta, and tomato paste.

Furthermore, Finkelstein cited a report from the Israeli human rights organization Gisha, which detailed items restricted by the blockade. These items encompass a variety of goods such as spices (sage, coriander, ginger), food products (jam, halva, vinegar, nutmeg, chocolate, fruit preserves, seeds, nuts, biscuits, potato chips), and non-food items (musical instruments, notebooks, writing materials, toys, chicks, and goats). He argued that the restriction of these goods further indicated the punitive nature of the blockade.

The report's claim that the blockade complies with the principle of proportionality has also been contested. First, on the basis that the intentional infliction of starvation is not the only test of a blockade's legality. Second, a blockade causing a civilian population to be inadequately supplied with food to cause hunger may constitute a disproportionate effect.

DMH43 (talk) 19:31, 6 January 2024 (UTC)

References