David Trimble, admitted Friend of Israel, has been appointed by Binyamin Netanyahu, 'as an impartial observer' to assist in investigating his army's bloody killing of nine civilian passengers who were shot at point-blank range by an illegal boarding party of Israeli troops. The dead, who were unarmed and unable to defend themselves against the night-time attack, died a horrible death on the deck of a Turkish registered ferry on a humanitarian mission to bring supplies to Gaza, illegally blockaded by Israel for over three years.

Trimble was chosen by Netanyahu as a publically declared friend of Israel just two weeks ago, on the very day of the illegal seizure of the vessel in international waters on the excuse that it was carrying weapons. There were no weapons or firearms on board the civilian vessel, only unarmed men and women, nine of whom were shot in cold blood and left dying on deck.

France and Britain Foreign Ministers insist that there is an international investigation into the killings by armed Israeli commandos on the passenger ferry, the Mavi Marmara

"We think it's very important that there is a credible and transparent investigation", William Hague, British Foreign Secretary said in Paris after a meeting with Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister.

There is undoubtedly a concern, in Europe and around the world, that Israel will endeavour to repeat its unsuccessful attempt to discredit any independent report into its actions after its reaction to the publication of the UN Fact Finding Mission into its alleged war crimes in Gaza when hundreds of civilians were reported to have been killed by the IDF in 2008/9. 

That Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, dated 15 September 2009  into HUMAN RIGHTS IN PALESTINE AND OTHER OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES states, inter alia, (para 699) that:

 "From the facts available to it, the Mission believes that there has been a violation of the inherent right to life of the Palestinian civilians killed in the above incidents by depriving them arbitrarily of their life in violation of article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights". 

It continues by stating that "The Mission views as being unreliable the versions given by the Israeli authorities."