In Response to Adalah's Intervention: Israeli Defense Ministry Denies Responsibility for Personal Belongings Confiscated from Passengers on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
- Media reports and testimonies from passengers reveal only the partial return of personal belongings to owners. Bags were returned unmarked and items were missing. No electronic devices have been returned.
- Israel is legally obliged to mark and document personal belongings confiscated from flotilla passengers, and to provide copies of this documentation to the rightful owner
- Israel's failure to fulfill its legal obligations gives the passengers the right to seek compensation from Israel for damaged and lost belongings.
(Haifa, Israel) The Israeli Ministry of Defense (MOD) continues to deny responsibility for the possessions that were confiscated from the passengers on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on 31 May 2010. Israel further claims that it returned all of the belongings and property that was on board the flotilla of ships to Turkey, except for a number of bags that are still under examination, several wallets that were located at a later date, as well as some 100 bags which were returned from Turkey. The MOD’s statements were made in a letter dated 26 July 2010 in response to a letter sent by Adalah on 14 July 2010 demanding the return of personal possessions confiscated by Israel to their rightful owners.
Recent media reports and testimonies from passengers collected by Adalah have revealed that the majority of bags returned to Turkey were empty or contained only some of the owners’ belongings. In other cases, the belongings were returned to the wrong people. Laptop computers, cameras, cell phones, recording devices and other electronic equipment belonging to passengers on the flotilla were not returned to the owners. Furthermore, the bags returned by Israel to Turkey were left unmarked, making it extremely difficult to identify their rightful owners.
Based on these reports and the MOD’s response to Adalah's initial letter of 14 July 2010, Adalah sent a second letter on 12 August 2010 to the MOD asking for its response to questions set forth in Adalah's initial letter, to which the MOD failed to respond. In the letter, Adalah Attorney Haneen Na’amnih demanded clarification of regarding the following questions: What is the legal basis for Israel’s confiscation and continued possession of personal belongings of passengers on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla?; and what steps are being and will be taken to ensure the return of all personal belongings to their rightful owners?
Adalah further stressed that Israel's negligence in failing to mark the confiscated belongings contravenes Israeli law, which requires confiscated possessions to be duly marked, itemized and documented, with a copy signed and provided to the owner. "The failure of Israel to fulfill its legal obligations means that the passengers have the right to seek compensation from Israel for damaged and lost belongings," Adalah argued.
