Gaza.

Was there an Israeli ‘Death List’ being followed by the IDF on the Mavi Marmara?

The provenance of the video above is alleged to be from on board the Mavi Marmara before communications were cut.  It purports to show a ‘death list’ dropped by an IDF soldier during the storming of the ship.

Without detailed examination, it is impossible to tell if this document really was a list of people singled out for assassination, however, it is safe to say that based upon past history, Israel is certainly not above state-sanctioned extra-judicial killings.

What would be interesting to find out would be the intersection of names on the alleged ‘death list’ and the names of the 9 people shot dead by the IDF. If nothing else - if the film and/or the list are genuine - it demonstrates that the Israeli intelligence gathering on the activists in the build up to the flotilla was far more professional than the storming of the ship by so-called commandos.

One has to concede that if there were people aboard that ship which Israel - rightly or wrongly - considered to be part of a support network for what it considers to be a terrorist organisation, the opportunity to rid themselves of 9 members of that support network in one fell swoop was probably too good to pass up.  But one also has to recognise the moral minefield such extra-judicial killings are.  

If Israel had 9 suspected terrorists supporters cornered on a ship, it should have put them on trial, not pre-judged and killed them outright.  When was the last time a judge in Israel sentenced a person to death?

As we’ve mentioned before, Israel can silence all its international critics once and for all by simply releasing the footage of the raid. This should include the footage shot by the Israelis themselves, together with footage from the on-board cameras, together with the mobile cameras operated by activists on board the ship. In full and un-edited.

Only then will we be able to piece together a complete picture of the events leading to the deaths of 9 civilians in international waters.  But then, perhaps that is exactly what Israel does not want?