JERUSALEM — An Istanbul court approved indictments against four senior Israeli military figures on Monday for involvement in a deadly raid on a Turkish passenger vessel attempting to breach Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza in May 2010. A senior Israeli official said the Turkish government had apparently decided to kill what was left of the diplomatic relationship between the two countries.
In the 2010 clash, soldiers opened fire after they rappelled onto the ship’s deck and were met with violent resistance. Nine pro-Palestinian activists - eight Turks and an American of Turkish descent - were killed.
Israel insisted that its soldiers acted in self-defense. A U.N. report subsequently found that Israel’s naval blockade was legal and appropriate but that in raiding the Turkish boat, part of an international flotilla, Israel had used “excessive and unreasonable” force.
Istanbul’s 7th Criminal Court unanimously accepted a 144-page indictment prepared by Istanbul Prosecutor Mehmet Akif Ekinci, Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency reported Mon-day. The prosecutor is seeking life terms for the former chief of staff of the Israeli military, Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi; the former naval forces commander, Vice Adm. Eliezer Marom; the former military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin; and the former head of air forces intelligence, Brig. Gen. Avishai Levy, as well as prison terms totaling up to 18,000 years for other crimes the prosecutor says were committed during the raid, according to the report.
All four commanders have since retired from the military, an army spokesman confirmed.
The court also agreed to press charges against several unidentified soldiers who raided the ship, the agency said. No trial date has been set.
While Israel expressed regret over the raid’s results,it has never offered an official apology, as the Turkish government has demanded. From the Turkish perspective, analysts said, until an apology is forthcoming, there is no relationship left to damage.
“There is absolutely no change for the better in relations between Israel and Turkey that would be harmed from this judicial development,” said Sami Kohen, a Middle East analyst with the Turkish daily Milliyet.
That was not the view of the Israeli official.
“Erdogan decided to launch a targeted killing of the relationship,” the official said, referring to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey.
The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because of the tensions regarding the issue. Israeli officials did not immediately comment publicly on the indictment because Israel had not yet received any official notification about it from Turkey.
The indictment means that the four military figures cannot set foot in Turkey, but Israeli officials said that they could still travel to other countries in safety, since, so far, Turkey has not issued international warrants for their arrests.
Turkey used to be Israel’s closest regional ally and its most important friend in the Muslim world. But relations began to sour over Israel’s three-week offensive against the Hamas militant group controlling Gaza in the winter of 2008-2009, which came after years of rocket fire by Gaza militants against southern Israel, though there had been a lull in 2008. Up to 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the campaign, hundreds of them civilians, and Erdogan accused Israel of attempted genocide.
Israel formally introduced a naval blockade of Gaza in early 2009, saying it was essential to prevent weapons being smuggled into the Palestinian coastal enclave. The blockade ultimately led to the dawn raid on the Turkish vessel, the Mavi Marmara, in international waters as it headed for Gaza.
Israel said its troops opened fire after coming under attack by activists wielding axes, knives and metal rods. It said soldiers rappelled on to the deck armed with nonlethal paintball guns as their primary weapons and only resorted to using handguns after they were assaulted.
The indictment, however, claimed that members of the military deliberately opened fire with the intention to kill - actions, it said, that cannot be considered acts of self-defense, since the passengers were only armed with sticks,spoons and forks.
It said some of the victims were shot dead from close range and from the back, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said.
A United Nations investigation of the boarding found Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza legally imposed “as a legitimate security measure” but added that the killing of eight Turkish activists and a Turkish-American was “unacceptable.”
Turkey has rejected the report’s findings, saying Israel had no right to raid the ship in international waters and said it would never recognize the blockade’s legitimacy.
Turkey has also slapped a series of sanctions on Israel - once a top military trading partner - that included expelling senior Israeli diplomats and suspending all military deals. It has also vowed to back the Palestinian bid for recognition of their statehood at the United Nations.
Israel eventually rejected a deal that included a formula for an apology acceptable to both sides in return for a restoration of relations and cessation of legal steps. Israeli officials said they grew wary of the proposed deal after Erdogan started speaking about the additional condition of lifting the blockade of Gaza.
Some Israelis, however, said Monday’s approval of the indictment did not necessarily signal a new low in Israeli-Turkish relations. Alon Liel, a former Israeli ambassador to Turkey, said it could also be viewed as the natural progression of a judicial process that started months ago.
“It is clear that this did not crop up just now,” Liel said, adding that the judicial ball probably began rolling when Israel announced that it would not apologize.
On the contrary, Liel said he had discerned different signals coming from Turkey in recent months.
Both Liel and Israeli officials noted that private trade between Israel and Turkey, to the tune of nearly $4 billion a year, had hardly been affected by the diplomatic freeze and that it was even improving.
Information for this article was contributed by Isabel Kershner and Sebnem Arsu of The New York Times and by Selcan Hacaoglu of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 05/29/2012