Absolutey Pathetic.

Following their emergency session last night the UN Security Council have issued a statement on Israel's attack on an aid ship. That is a statement. Not and order or a resolution. Just a statement.

In this weakest of possible UN announcements the security council very politely requests that Israel releases the six ships and some 600 hundred civilians seized during the raid. It also urges Israel to grant consular access to those detained and permit the bodies of the dead to be repatriated.

It goes on to "take note" of a statement by the Secretary General on the need for a full investigation of the incident. It does actually call for a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation conforming to international standards. However it does not order such an investigation to be carried out and does not define the scope and conduct of that investigation seemingly leaving it up to Israel to carry out an internal investigation using whatever methods and leaving whatever conclusions Israels wants.

The statement goes on to call on Israel to adhere to all the other UN resolutions that it is operating in defiance of.

The UN will also be convening a special debate by the Human Rights Council to discuss the incident. The is perhaps the most insulting part of the UN's response. The purpose seems to be to gather together any nations that object to Israel's conduct and allow them to make impassioned speeches on the matter. Then when they've got it out of their system Israel should be allowed to carry on much the same as they did before.

None of this will go any way to reduce the anger that is already being displayed in spontaneous protests in the UK. This began with a demonstration in London that began at 11:00 just five hours after news of the attack broke. This led to another demonstration outside Downing Street at 14:00 and there were also protests in Edinburgh, Bristol, Cambridge, Oxford, Exeter, Birmingham, Manchester, Brighton and Sheffield throughout the day. The big day of protest though will be this Saturday, June 5th. In London there have been two marches called the first of which will assemble in Parliament square at 13:00. The second will assemble in Hyde Park at 14:00. Both will then march to the Israeli embassy for around 15:00.