Abbas gives flotilla activists citizenship

BETHLEHEM, West Bank, June 3 (UPI) -- Activists on the humanitarian aid flotilla raided by Israeli forces as it headed to Gaza will receive Palestinian citizenship, President Mahmoud Abbas said.

The Palestinian Authority president announced the decision during a speech before the Palestine Investment Conference, which was launched in Bethlehem, The Jerusalem Post reported Thursday.

Abbas also announced the conference would be called the Conference of Freedom after the Free Gaza flotilla.

Nine activists were killed Monday when Israeli commandos stormed the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara in international waters. Israel said its soldiers were acting in self-defense because passengers attacked the commandos when they repelled onto the ship from helicopters.

Abbas urged the U.N. Security Council, the Quartet of countries working on a Middle East peace accord and other international bodies to protect Palestinians and to work on lifting the Israeli blockade on Gaza, the Post said.

He also demanded the establishment of an international commission of inquiry into Monday's flotilla incident.

"We won't accept a situation where the peace process is being used as a means to avoid peace and its obligations," Abbas said. "We want to ask the world: When will this repression and occupation end? When will bloodshed end and real peace prevail?"

On Thursday, Israel's High Court rejected six petitions regarding the flotilla raid, the Post said.

Three petitions sought information about the whereabouts of the passengers. The other three petitions asked the court to overrule the decision of Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein and stop the police investigation of the events on the Mavi Marmara.

Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish said she found no reason for interfering with the attorney general's deportation of the activists.