The United Nations has condemned Israel for the attack on an aid flotilla that left nine civilians dead, following an emergency meeting of the Security Council.
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The United Nations has condemned Israel for the attack on an aid flotilla that left nine civilians dead. Following an emergency meeting of the Security Council in the early hours, the UN called for a “prompt, impartial, credible and transparent” inquiry into the attack – but as BBC News reports, Israel remains defiant, claimings its troops came under attack before opening fire. Israel’s deputy UN ambassador Daniel Carmon said: “This flotilla was anything but a humanitarian mission”; the activists had used “knives, clubs and other weapons” to attack Israel’s soldiers, he added.
Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, insisted the soldiers “had to defend themselves and defend their lives or else they would have been killed”, reports the Financial Times, and Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, called the flotilla “an armada of hate and violence”, accusing its organisers of a “premeditated and outrageous provocation”. The Times describes what happened: “The Gaza fleet’s co-ordinators had said their colleagues on the five other ships had been schooled in non-violent resistance, including linking arms round the ships’ wheelhouses, locking engine rooms and filming the Israeli forces. ‘The passengers were waving white flags, not clubs,’ the Free Gaza group said in a statement later; ‘They beat us with metal sticks and knives,’ said one of the Israeli commandos, who hit the deck only to find a mob of furious demonstrators, rather than political protesters, armed with iron bars, baseball bats, knives, petrol bombs and stun grenades.”
The prime minister called the attack “unacceptable”, and said the blockade of Gaza should be lifted, “allowing full access for humanitarian aid”. The Standard reports that: “In a telephone conversation with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday night, Mr Cameron insisted Britain remains committed to Israel’s security, but called for a ‘constructive’ response to ‘legitimate criticism’ of its actions. The Telegraph, meanwhile, reports that some of those seized have been released, and adds: “‘It is clearer than ever that Israel’s restrictions on access to Gaza must be lifted,’ said the British ambassador to the UN, Mark Lyall Grant. ‘The current closure is unacceptable and counterproductive.’ The Palestinian representative, Riyad Mansour, said the raid was an attack on unarmed civilians in international waters and a ‘war crime’. Protests were staged in cities around the world on Monday afternoon, but outrage at the incident was strongest in Turkey, historically Israel’s closest ally in the Muslim world. Its foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu, called the raid ‘banditry and piracy’ on the high seas and ‘murder conducted by a state’.” And The Guardian has video footage both from on board the Mavi Marmara and the IDF footage showing Israeli soldiers being attacked.
Domestically, The Guardian reports that schools secretary Michael Gove “has no ideological objection” to firms making profits out of running academies and free schools. Mr Gove told an audience of teachers: “I am a Conservative, I do not have an ideological objection to businesses being involved but the professionals should make that decision… My view is that school improvement will be driven by professionals not profitmakers.” The report says: “In Sweden, where the Conservatives drew their inspiration for the free school model, the ability for school providers to profit is seen as crucial for getting new providers into the state system. It is deeply opposed by many of the teaching unions in the UK – and those on the left of Gove’s Liberal Democrat coalition partners – but the Conservatives have become more receptive to the idea. Under the management fee model, the school governing body remains not-for-profit but all the services – from teaching to school lunches and cleaning – can be run by private companies.” On Ofsted, he said it needed “radical reform”: “We need to change the way in which it works pretty comprehensively… Sweden introduced its reforms after a banking crisis and in the teeth of a recession in the 1990s.”
The Independent reports that David Laws has briefed his successor as Chief Secretary “on the momentous task he faces in slashing spending”. Mr Laws is understood to have informed Danny Alexander on preparations for next month’s emergency budget and the spending review this autumn, as it emerged the Yeovil MP was “considering leaving politics altogether” following the disclosure of the millionaire’s claiming of £40,000 to rent rooms in properties belonging to his partner. The Guardian, meanwhile, claims he may play an “informal role” alongside Mr Alexander in the run up to the summer budget, reporting that: “A Downing Street spokesman confirmed that Laws and Alexander had already had an ‘extensive’ discussion about the job over the bank holiday weekend and would not rule out further talks before the crucial 22 June budget. Treasury officials will bear the chief responsibility for bringing Alexander, who spent the first three weeks of the coalition government as secretary of state for Scotland, up to speed in the job but he has the option to ask Laws for further advice in the role.” It adds: “The coalition government was defending its decision to promote Alexander, after accusations that his lack of economic experience could weaken plans to cut the deficit. The former minister and Tory party chairman Lord Tebbit claimed Alexander had ‘no apparent qualification for the job,’ labelling him ‘another God-damned public relations man’.”
And the Telegraph reports on the publication of what it calls the “public sector rich list”, which details the pay of “more than 170 senior civil servants” who earn more than the prime minister: “The names, positions and salaries of all Whitehall officials earning more than £150,000 have been published online as David Cameron tries to ‘open up the corridors of power’. The disclosure of the public sector ‘rich list’ will result in the release of large swathes of previously confidential information on pay levels and how billions of pounds in taxpayers’ money is spent. In the coming months, the names of any civil servant earning more than £58,000 will be released. It is expected to be followed by the details of tens of thousands more public sector workers, from headmasters to GPs, being opened up to public scrutiny.” The Mail names the highest earning public servant as “John Fingleton, the Chief Executive of consumer watchdog the Office of Fair Trading, [who] took home between £275,000 and £280,000 last year – nearly double David Cameron’s £142,500 pay” while “David Nicholson, the NHS Chief Executive, was second on the list with a total salary and benefits worth up to £260,000”.
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