Israel is not cooperating with the UN Human Rights Council's probe of May's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, and it was unclear if investigators will be able to speak with Israeli soldiers involved, a UN official said Tuesday. Juan Carlos Monge, a UN human rights officer working with the fact-finding mission, said the panel was speaking with other witnesses and government officials in Turkey and Jordan. But Israel hasn't granted an invitation to the team, which is examining whether Israeli commandos broke international law by killing nine pro-Palestinian activists trying to break the Jewish state's blockade of Gaza. Eight of the dead activists were Turks, and the ninth was Turkish-American. Monge said in an e-mail that the mission would only speak with Israeli soldiers about the incident if permission was given by the Israeli government. Such approval is important to the investigation if it hopes to be objective, but Israel has refused to work with Council probes in the past, citing their bias. Israel's UN mission said Tuesday it will not comment on the investigation, but Israeli officials have suggested since the panel's creation in June that the Jewish state wouldn't cooperate. Israel considers the Human Rights Council to be anti-Israel, and points to a series of critical resolutions by the body in its four
