UN Confirms Palmer

With Israel agreeing to participate in a UN investigation of its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla earlier this year, former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer will chair the four-member panel inquiry made up of outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as vice-chairman, plus one Israeli and one Turkish member. The New York-based panel will start work on August 1 and submit its first progress report by mid-September. Palmer said heading the inquiry will probably be the hardest job he has done. “I can’t think of a harder one that I’ve had,” Palmer said. “I think it’s the inherent complexity of it, that’s the problem.” He said he felt honoured by the appointment. “It is some sort of recognition that New Zealand can play a useful role in this sort of thing and I think that’s good.”