Member of the UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission says Israel is trying maintain a monopoly over its version of the deadly May 31 events aboard the Turkish aid ship Mavi Marmara.
The three independent, UN-appointed experts said Israeli soldiers confiscated photos and video material from more than two dozen journalists and others aboard the flotilla during the raid, which killed nine pro-Palestinian activists.
"When the military took over the ships, they scrupulously confiscated all photographic material," said Karl T. Hudson-Phillips, a former judge at the International Criminal Court who chaired the panel. "All cameras were seized, all cell phones were seized, all laptops were confiscated."
"From this one would conclude that part of the strategy, as we indicated in our report, was to control information and to have a monopoly on versions as to what existed," he said.
Israel used confiscated videos to justify why its troops opened fire after rappelling onto the deck, saying they came under attack by activists wielding clubs, axes and metal rods. The army says its soldiers were armed with non-lethal paintball guns as their primary weapons and only resorted to using their handguns after they were assaulted.
