Family of Mavi Marmara victim sues Ehud Barak
Published October 22, 2015
(JTA) — The family of a dual Turkish and American citizen killed when Israel raided the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish boat seeking to break the Gaza blockade, have filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles against former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.
Barak was served with papers in the lawsuit on Tuesday after he gave a speech near Los Angeles, the Associated Press reported.
The lawsuit was filed on Oct. 16 in federal court in Los Angeles, the report said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Furkan Dogan, who was killed in the May 31, 2010 raid, was born in New York and lived with his parents in Turkey at the time of his death, according to the Associated Press.
Attorneys for the Dogan family told the AP that they have been trying to serve Barak, who was Israel’s defense minister at the time of the incident, with litigation “for years.” Barak could qualify for diplomatic immunity.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague declined to investigate the case for Israeli war crimes.
The raid, in which Israeli special forces rappelled down onto the ships of activists who were seeking to break an Israeli blockade of Hamas in Gaza, killing 9 protesters including Dogan, caused a breakdown in relations between Turkey and Israel.
Turkey downgraded diplomatic ties with Israel and then expelled Israel’s ambassador after the incident. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in March 2013, after which representatives of the countries met for reconciliation talks, which did not bear fruit.
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.