“We recommend the world send ships to the shores of Gaza, and we believe that Israel would not stop these vessels because the sea is open, and many human rights organizations have been successful in previous similar steps, and proved that breaking the siege on Gaza is possible.”
John Ging, Head of United Nation’s Relief and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip.
Reporting for the Sydney Morning Herald, Paul McGeogh writes:
A global coalition of Palestinian support groups is taking protest to a dangerous new point of brinkmanship this week, with an attempt to crash through Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip in a flotilla of cargo and passenger boats now assembling in the eastern Mediterranean.
Converging at an undisclosed rendezvous in international waters, the four small cargo boats and four passenger vessels – ranging from cruisers carrying 20 to a Turkish passenger ferry for 600 – are a multimillion-dollar bid to shame the international community to use ships to circumvent Israel’s tight control on humanitarian supplies reaching war-ravaged Gaza.
As the first boat in the flotilla sailed from Dundalk, Ireland, to link up with others being readied at ports in Turkey and in Greece, Israel announced that it would bar the boats from landing.
View Freedom Flotilla to Gaza in a larger map
A senior foreign ministry official described the flotilla as a ”provocation and a breach of Israeli law”.
Israeli media reports say that the Defence Minister, Ehud Barak, has formally ordered that waters off Gaza become a closed zone to a distance of 20 nautical miles.
Israel already has a ”large naval force” on manoeuvre in the area; and as a confrontation at sea looms, suspicion was taking hold in both camps.
Mechanical difficulties in the boat bound from Ireland – the 1200-tonne MV Rachel Corrie, named after an American who was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza in 2003 – prompted claims that the boat had been sabotaged. Unnamed Israeli officials have claimed elements in the flotilla would attempt to garner media attention by seeking to provoke Israeli violence.
Further complicating a tense scenario were reports of a welcome fleet of small boats attempting to put to sea from Gaza, and of an Israeli ”counter flotilla” that had assembled near Tel Aviv as a “civil initiative … not connected to any political group”.
Israel has rejected pleas by several ambassadors, most vocally by Dublin’s envoy to Tel Aviv, that their nationals on the flotilla be given safe passage to Gaza.
In the port of Agios Nikolaos, here on the Greek island of Crete, one of the lead organisers of the flotilla is the Free Gaza Movement’s Renee Jaouadi – a 34-year-old schoolteacher, formerly from Newcastle, NSW. Under the banner of the Freedom Flotilla, the protest is a $US3 million-plus ($3.6 million) operation. Apart from 10,000 tonnes of building, medical, educational and other supplies, on board are dozens of parliamentarians from around the world and professionals planning to offer their services in Gaza.
Celebrity names include the Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell and Denis Halliday, a former United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator who in 1998 resigned, protesting that economic sanctions on Iraq amounted to genocide.
On Saturday evening, attempts were under way to find a berth on the over-subscribed manifest for the activist American philosopher Noam Chomsky, who Israeli authorities last week barred from entering the West Bank where he had been invited to speak at a Palestinian university.
Five of eight previous protest boats have managed to land in Gaza. But most recently one was rammed at sea by an Israeli navy ship, and another was captured, with all on board being held in Israeli jails for up to a week before they were deported.
This is deliberately their biggest operation. Ms Jaouadi said the number of vessels and passengers in this week’s flotilla was intended to overstretch the capacity of Israel’s navy and, in the event of mass arrests, the capacity of its prisons.
“It is perfectly logical to go in by sea when entry by land and air is closed,” she said. “We are ordinary civilians doing what governments and big NGOs are refusing to do. The UN is always complaining that it can’t get supplies through: why is it not sending ships?”
A delegation from the California-based Free Palestine Movement includes Joe Meadors, a decorated Navy veteran and one of the survivors of the 1967 attack on the U.S.S. Liberty, in which Israeli fighter planes and ships killed 34 Americans and wounded 173, and Ambassador Edward L. Peck, who spent 32 years in the Foreign Service, including stints as Chief of Mission in Iraq and Mauritania, and was Deputy Director of the Cabinet Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan administration.
“It’ll be like old home week,” said Meadors, recalling the Israeli attack he survived 43 years ago. “I’m determined to land with this internationally coordinated effort on the shores of Gaza to deliver relief to the 1.5 million inhabitants suffering under the Israeli-led illegal blockade.”
John Ging, the Director of Operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, recently called upon the international community to break the siege on the Gaza Strip by sending ships loaded with desperately needed supplies .”We believe that Israel will not intercept these vessels because the sea is open, and human rights organizations have been successful in similar previous operations proving that breaking the siege of Gaza is possible.”
Explaining his decision to participate in the convoy, Ambassador Peck said many Americans oppose Israeli’s oppressive policies in Palestine and especially Gaza, and believe that they are not in anyone’s interests, especially Israel’s. “All the peoples of the Middle East will live in peace and security”, he said, “only when, and if, all of them live in peace and security.”
Ismael Patel from Friends of Al Aqsa in Britain, describes the flotilla’s mission:
The Israeli organization Gush Shalom appeals to the Israeli government to allow the Freedom Flotilla to reach Gaza:
The State of Israel has no interest in flooding television screens all over the world with footage of its navy violently assaulting against peace activists at sea. It is time to remove the suffocating siege and allow residents of Gaza to have free contact with the outside world, freely operate sea and air ports of their own like any country in the world.
The Gush Shalom movement calls upon the government to allow the eight-boat aid flotilla from all over the world to reach the shores of Gaza, where they are scheduled to arrive next week, and unload the humanitarian cargo which is urgently needed by the residents of Gaza. In a letter to Defense Minister Barak, Gush Shalom calls upon him to cancel immediately the instructions given to Israeli Navy ships off the Gaza shore to intercept the aid flotilla.
“The whole world is looking. The State of Israel has no interest in flooding the international television screens with images of Israeli sailors and naval commandos violently assaulting hundreds of peace activists and humanitarian aid workers, many of them well-known in their countries. Whose interest will it serve when hours long dramatic live reports arrive from the Mediteranean, with the world’s sympathy given to hundreds of non-violent activists, on board eight boats, assaulted by the strongest military power in the Middle East?” were the words of a letter to the Defense Minister.
No harm whatsoever will be caused to Israel from the aid flotilla reaching Gaza Port and unloading a cargo of medical supplies and medicines, school supplies and construction materials to rebuild the houses destroyed by the Israeli Air Force a year and half ago and not yet been restored. On the contrary, it would be in Israel’s best interest to declare without delay that as a humanitarian gesture, the boats’ way will not be blocked. And in general, it is time to end once and for all the suffocating siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and causing terrible suffering to its million and a half inhabitants.
The siege on Gaza utterly failed in all the goals set for it by the government of Israel. The siege was supposed to result in toppling the Hamas government – and on the contrary strengthened this government, which relied on the support of a significant part of the Palestinian People. The siege was supposed to help in gaining the release of captured soldier Gilad Shalit – but on the contrary, the siege just delays that release, which could have been achieved long ago had the government of Israel agreed to the prisoner exchange deal, on which most of the details have been decided long ago. It’s time to end this cruel and pointless siege.
The residents of the Gaza Strip, like the citizens of Israel and of any other country in the world, have the right to maintain direct contacts with the outside world – to leave their country and return to it, to develop their economy, to import the products they need and export their own produce to anyone who wants to buy it, without asking or needing for permission from Israel, Egypt or any other country. Just as Israel needs no permit from any other country to operate daily the sea ports of Ashdod and Haifa and Eilat and the Ben Gurion International Airport, so are the Palestinians and their state to be entitled to run their own sea port and airport in the Gaza Strip. Let the flotilla of humanitarian aid from all over the world be given the honour of inaugurating the sovereign Palestinian Port of Gaza!
Greta Berlin, a cofounder of the Free Gaza Movement, describes what motivates her and the other activists on their latest voyage to Gaza:
We’ve all caught the fever, every one of us who works to send boats to Gaza. From August 2006, when a handful of us started the Free Gaza Movement, every one who has joined us has been stricken with a bad case of the disease. It is chronic. It sometimes causes afflicted patients to insist that if just one more voyage can be planned to this small slice of the Mediterranean, we’ll all be in remission. There is no real cure in sight… yet.
Gaza Fever has now attacked thousands of us who have a passionate sense of justice.
The disease began shortly after Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006, as a group of us were in despair that the Palestinians, once again, were the forgotten symptom of Israel’s grand designs. As the world watched the defeat of Israel by a small band of guerrilla fighters in Lebanon, Israel decided it would take its wrath out on the Palestinians, specifically the Palestinians of Gaza. We watched as Israel, in January 2009, deliberately bombed 1.5 million Palestinians into abject poverty, a man-made catastrophe bordering on genocide.
One man in Australia suggested we sail a boat from New York to Gaza in protest of the closures there. That small idea has grown into a flotilla that leaves at the end of May with 700 people on board nine ships.
We, who have traveled by boat to Gaza, come back changed, blisters of outrage forever marking us. Those who have supported us through donations, letters, outraged picketing in front of Israeli Embassies demanding Israel stop its war crimes against a civilian population are also changed, as they watched our small boats sail into Gaza five times, cheering us on our way. Then, when our last three missions were violently stopped by Israel, thousands stepped up and donated to help us buy new boats.
In July 2009, Tun Dr.Mahathir bin Mohamad, former Prime Minister of Malaysia, and his wife, Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah bin Mohamad visited the Free Gaza Movement in Cyprus. They had heard about the voyages to Gaza and what Israel had done to the last three, ramming the Dignity, turning one back under threat of fire and hijacking the Spirit of Humanity, kidnapping the 21 human rights observers and throwing them into detention for a week.
He wanted to come and see for himself the small fishing boat that had been, in August 2008, Free Gaza’s first vessel to enter the port of Gaza in 41 years. When he and his wife stepped on this small vessel, he was shocked. “You went all the way to Gaza on this small boat? You braved the sea in a boat that was barely seaworthy?”
When we replied that, indeed, we had crossed the sea in not only this small boat, but one even smaller, 44 of us challenging Israel’s blockade on the 1.5 million Palestinians of Gaza, he caught Gaza Fever.
“You need a proper boat,” he said. “I’m going back to my people in Malaysia and see how we can help you raise money to send more boats back to Gaza.”
And that’s exactly what he and his wife did.
Follow the progress of the Freedom Flotilla on Twitter and at WitnessGAZA.
How can any Israeli deny humanitarian aid to a besieged people?
Well, the short answer is, “With the aid of US military hardware, tax dollars and Security Council veto.”
I was specifically referring to morality but yes US weapons and money can significantly cause a hardening of the heart.
Impacts of the proposed Flotilla on the UN Charter:
1) Violation of the fundamental guiding principles by which the UN was established.
Involving other countries in the act of breaching the sovereignty of an independent nation through such militant forceful aggressive manner, is basically instigating international conflicts, thus bringing up the ‘scourge of war’;
“We the peoples of the United Nations determined: to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, And for these ends: to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples, Have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims: Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.” (Preamble. The UN)
2) Violation of the Purposes of the United Nations
a) by agitation against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Israel, it violates the peace and order situation of the country;
b) by undermining the need for conformity with the principles of justice and international law;
c) by involving other countries in the breach of peace of Israel, it creates an international situation of aggression, disputes, or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace:
“To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;” (Chapter 1 Article 1)
The Palestinian conflict is an unresolved issue on territorial, and citizenship question that requires settlement (conciliation, arbitration, or judicial) in other organic areas of the UN. Forcing the issue against Israel on the ground of “respect for the principle of equal rights” without the proper process is likewise a disrespect ‘for the principle of equal rights’ and of self-determination of peoples including that of a sovereign nation (Israel) thus, it remains a violation of the Purposes and Principles of the UN charter:
“To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;” (Purposes and Principles. Chapter 1, Article 1)
The fact that this proposed action is connected to unresolved dispute between two peoples, ramming the issues on the ground of upholding one principle and violating the other particularly without undergoing in first place the defined processes of the UN, any similar action remains a fundamental violation of the UN Charter:
“The parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.” (Pacific Settlement of Disputes. Article 33. 1. )
Any appropriate measures maybe it an adverse action against such breach taken by the offended country on the ground of upholding its sovereignty, protecting and preserving it national integrity shall be deemed justifiable:
“Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations…” (Chapter VII, Article 51)
It must be emphasized that the UN was established as international venue for independent nations to act, settle, arbitrate, agree, arrange, or similar pacific measures on any situations to suppress potential conflicts or wars among member states. In this case, the persons or agencies involved in instigating such efforts to breach the rights of self determination of the country concerned (Israel) particularly John Ging, Head of United Nation’s Relief and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip who are not representing particular independent member state of the UN, and in absence of a decision of the Security Council, thus having no such rights nor authority to rise issues, nor take any punitive actions against any member state in behalf of the UN is by itself a violation of the UN Charter;
“The original Members of the United Nations shall be the states which,…” (Membership. Article 3)
“Membership in the United Nations is open to all other peace-loving states which accept the obligations contained in the present Charter and, in the judgment of the Organization, are able and willing to carry out these obligations.” (Membership. Article 4)
“The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.” (Purposes and Principles. Article 2. 1.)
“All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.” (Purposes and Principles. Article 2. 3.)
Now with this trial case, we will determine whether the UN is going to self-destruct…
Well, thankfully Israel has no sovereignty of Gaza, so you have nothing to worry about with regards to the UN.
By the way, you might want to get the members of the Knesset to read what you’ve just posted. It would be a novelty to them.
Noone has sovereignty of Gaza, is the problem.
That is why and how it threatens the UN, which is a deliberative body of nations, not of militias.
If no one has sovereignty in Gaza, then Israel has no legal right to prevent others from bringing in relief. And if Israel has sovereignty, they have no right to treat 1.5 million civilians as prison inmates.
The problem here is Israel, not the flotilla.
The flotilla (absent Turkish implied military support, flag) is a uniquely illustrative civil disobedience.
With the Turkish flag, it is a potential military provocation. Turkey does NOT treat militants directing aggression towards Turkish civilians kindly by any stretch, including collective punishment.
That is a problem with the flotilla.
The problem is the status of Gaza, and that is the condition that needs to change.
Gaza has a system of governance, and elected leadership. Who made you and Israel the arbiters of what constitutes sovereignty? Your capability to kill and destroy (might makes right) and the waning apathy and ignorance of others (what the rest of the world doesn’t know about won’t offend them).
If Gazans don’t have sovereignty over their own land, then who does? Are you admitting that Israel is still legally the occupying power responsible for the health, safety, and welfare of Gazans?
Gaza ‘threatens’ the UN? ROFLMA Gaza isn’t a nation (it is part of a nation), and neither is it a militia.
You are using the standard hasbaric of abstracting Gaza as a ‘Hamas’, and therefore illegitimate terrorist, object. Gaza isn’t Hamas, and Hamas isn’t Gaza.
“That is a problem with the flotilla.”
There is no problem with the flotilla. The flotilla will remain outside of Isral’s waters until it reaches Gaza. Any attempt by Israel to block it will be am unambiguous act if piracy.
RW,
You worried about a fucking flag or about people starving and sick with no access to medicine?
Taxi,
don;t you realize that the feelings of Israelis is paramount. There’s no reason to rush. The starving and sick can wait.
First things first right Witty?
So out of curiosity, Witty, when the USS Liberty was flying a US flag in international waters near Israel, was that a military provocation? I take it you are shocked and appalled at the rampant militarism of the US, putting a lightly armed scout ship in the path of all those Israeli bombs and napalm? You must be demanding that the US apologize for its transgressions to Israel to this day.
“Noone has sovereignty of Gaza, is the problem.”
According to which article of internatinal law, or UN convention Witty?
“The problem is the status of Gaza, and that is the condition that needs to change.”
Except that Israel refuses to allow such change.
It’s like Witty’s otehr circular argument. Gaza and it’s government don’t have rights because they are not a sovereign state and they are not a sovereign state because Israel refuses to allow it to be one.
And so the circular logic and Wittocracy continues.
No one has sovereignty over Gaza? The Palestinians had democratic elections in 2006! What, now self-determination is a uniquely Jewish right?
You are a disgusting, awful, hideous racist, Witty. When I compare Zionism to Nazism, THIS IS WHY.
the same way that they the zionist movement helped send millions to their deaths in germany…power
Mr Bradley,
Seriously what do you expect from those who spray school children with white phosphorus? They bomb schools, hospitals and ambulances. They have no red lines.
great post paul, thank you. i cried..again. praying for gaza…
Annie:
I trust you are being ironic, yes? But why? I understand that Israel has a legitimate interest to keep rockets, and guns, and explosives out of Gaza. But I don’t get how it’s o.k. to keep medicines, and food from children. Doesn’t that raise a moral issue? And which side of this moral issue do you want to be on?
Here is an argument by Efraim Inbar at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. He notes that Israel and the Interantional Community are blockading Gaza in order to bring Gazans to their senses to stop supporting Hamas. He raises the argument of moral hazard: Gazans have lent their support to terrible leaders and if we let up now this will only strengthen Hamas, and Gazans will get the message that they can make such poor political decisions and still the International community will bail them out. That’s the gist of it, read it for yourself.
I support the flotilla because I don’t believe you can morally defend denying food and medicine to children. The children of Gaza are not responsible for the political leadership there. Moreover, I support the flotilla because I don’t believe allowing food, medicines, and building materials to enter Gaza will threaten Israel.
During operation cast lead there was a picture of three men in religious garb, standing on a hillside watching smoke rise in Gaza. I found it poignent because I have the impression that many of these triumphant men do not fully support the state of Israel, and the suspicion that many of them are hoping that conditions in Gaza and the West Bank can be made so miserable that Palestinians will simply leave. Looking at this photo I have the sense that these men don’t care that they are denying food and medicine to children, and that they have it as their goal that those children will never have a hopeful future anywhere in Palestine. Is it so? If so, I don’t believe these things are morally defensible.
Interested Bystander,
Where ever do you get the absurd impression that annie is being ironic, or that she doesn’t care for Gazans?
“Here is an argument by Efraim Inbar at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. He notes that Israel and the Interantional Community are blockading Gaza in order to bring Gazans to their senses to stop supporting Hamas. He raises the argument of moral hazard: Gazans have lent their support to terrible leaders and if we let up now this will only strengthen Hamas, and Gazans will get the message that they can make such poor political decisions and still the International community will bail them out.”
This “argument” fails on several counts.
Morally.
It is utterly against every convention of Human and Political rights to punish a populace for making “poor political decisions” in a transparently democratic manner.
Factually.
Hamas have proved to be the only administrators capable of maintaining order and this is proven not only by the approval they have won among highly principled observers but by the six month ceasefire they imposed in 2008, confirmed by Israel’s own Terrorism Information Center.
Qualitatively.
Some of the talent:
Aziz Dwaik, professor of urban geography, PhD in Regional and Architecture Planning from the University of Pennsylvania.
Ismail Haniyeh, B.A. (Arabic Literature)
Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, physician, studied pediatric medicine and genetics at Egypt’s Alexandria University, graduating first in his class. (Assassinated by the Israeli Army after they fired hellfire missiles from an AH-64 Apache Apache helicopter at his car)
Khaled Mashal, Bachelor of Science degree in Physics. (Survived assassination attempt by Mossad under orders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu)
Basim Naim, Physician.
Mahmoud al-Zahar, Surgeon.
Jamila Shanti, Ph.D (English)
Mousa Abu Marzook, Ph.D. in industrial engineering (United States)
Israel (and no doubt Efraim Inbar ) cannot deal with Hamas and Hamas are the Palestinian people’s choice for precisely the same reason:
Hamas stands by the right of return of the refugees. As do all Human rights organizations, the U.N., the Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Accords.
At the present time, ROR is the pivotal issue in this conflict.
I think ROR is a very differnt issue than the current econmic status in either Gaza or West Bank. I am not for the ROR to inside ’67 borders for descendents of Palestinians from pre-’48 because this is not consistent with a two state solution.
“I am not for the ROR to inside ‘67 borders for descendents of Palestinians from pre-’48 because this is not consistent with a two state solution.”
I am of the opinion that justice must take precedence over the desires and ambitions of any one racial or religious group.
I am for the right of return for those that have demonstrable title claims, and/or were born in Israel, on the basis that Israel is not Israel if it is only Jewish, but it is only Israel if it is Jewish AND democratic (probably best highly emphasizing the democratic).
RW.
“I am for the right of return…”
In that case, perhaps you can clear up a matter that has concerned me for many years.
Why is it that in any of the so-called “peace” negotiations, Israel has never offered a settlement of the refugee question?
>> … Israel is not Israel if it is only Jewish, but it is only Israel if it is Jewish AND democratic (probably best highly emphasizing the democratic).
Yes, it’s probably best to highly emphasize “democratic”; otherwise, it would kind of contradict the self-determined title of “only democracy in the Middle East”.
>> Why is it that in any of the so-called “peace” negotiations, Israel has never offered a settlement of the refugee question?
Good question. I suspect an answer along the line of “the refugee question is too ambiguous”, even though that sort of ambiguity is what gets resolved during negotiations.
Nothing ambiguous about UN Resolution 194 (article 11), the Fourth Geneva Protocol (article 49) or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (articles 2, 7, 9 and, in particular, 17) .
The only way “ambiguity” can be introduced is by the implication that Israel is somehow a special case to which these conventions do not apply. You will find this implication in the arguments of every single defender of Israel’s position.
“The only way “ambiguity” can be introduced is by the implication that Israel is somehow a special case to which these conventions do not apply.”
Witty wants si desperately to say this, but realizes he can’t without comming across as a Zamaaz/UNIX nutjob, so he flounders and wiggled and squirms in an attempt to make the argument without being literal.
That is why his posts as so consistently incoherent.
“A senior foreign ministry official described the flotilla as a ”provocation and a breach of Israeli law”.”
Unless Israel claims Gaza to be Israeli territory, then how can this flotilla possibly breach Israeli law? What law is that?
What law gives Israel the authority to formally order that waters off Gaza are a closed zone to a distance of 20 nautical miles?
This puts a nail in the coffin of the lie that Israel withdrew unilaterally from Gaza in 2005.
The law of the jungle my friend.
Godspeed to the Freedom Flotilla and may the Rachel Corrie prevail! Great article.
May Israel be shamed in front of the entire world once again for what it’s doing in Gaza!
May Israel be shamed in front of the entire world once again for what it’s doing in Gaza!
Oh, they will be. There’s no navigating around this flotilla. Whether it reaches its destination and provides the relief, or is stopped by Israel (or, if they are stupid enough to attack it) – it’s going to blow in Israel’s face as a PR disaster.
of course they could just lift the seige and have the worlds press waiting in Gaza for the arrival. everybody sing sing Hatikvah together, sing up Mr Haniyeh.
Only if the world can be made to see, to care.
All the hasbara in the world is powerless compared to the power of apathy.
It’s hardly a “giant freedom flotilla”, but with the participation of a major Turkish charity, and the open support of Turkey’s president and political establishment of ships flying the Turkish flag, then things could get interesting over the next few days.
Israel has extended its ‘territorial waters’ off Gaza from 3 miles (allowed for Gaza fishermen) to a 20 mile exclusion zone. Israel would prefer the goods to be landed under their control, in Ashdod, or in El Arish, Egypt, where the relief supplies and accompanying activists can be safely delayed until the fuss has blown over. That is their usual style. They can then charge UNRWA with huge demurrage fees, while still letting nothing they don’like get by.
Al-Manar TV – 25/05/2010 via link to alethonews.wordpress.com +comment no 2
I don’t think Israel has yet realised quite how on the edge it really is.
I quoted from today’s Haaretz on the flotilla earlier today, but my comment was munched by Phil’s software, and Haaretz’s column has now disappeared. There is nothing left there now, which suggests a massive Israeli information clampdown, normally a precedent for war.
Except: “Yet Jerusalem continues to view the siege simply as a public-relations problem, and is currently readying to intercept the aid fleet of pro-Palestinian activists that is now on its way to protest the closure. Instead of allowing Gazans to rebuild, Israel is setting up a televised confrontation between the navy and unarmed civilians. “http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/taking-gaza-seriously-1.292075
Instead, Israel is challenging a country that less than a century ago owned them, and now, with 10 times the population has massive public support for dealing with the shitty little Levantine country.
We are no longer in the era where the USS Liberty could be attacked by Israel without anyone seeing it.
Sorry to put the same into two different threads, but I do think the complexity behind this, and Israel’s very panicky response is worth recording.
if israel opened fire on the humanitarian flotilla and committed mass-murder upon those good people would anybody be surprised?
israel has become a MONSTER and should be treated thusly
I so wish you would drop the “this shitty little Levantine country” crap.
It makes your otherwise informative posts, very difficult to read.
Israel’s dilemma is not so simplistic as the position of a “just non-violent civil disobedience”. It could have been if the Turkish president didn’t offer his country’s official support of the group.
It claims to be both non-violent civil disobedience by independant kind-hearted dissenters, and an official action of the Turkish government at that point.
It definitely ups the pressure, but in an unmanageable way.
Gaza is still not a sovereign state. It does not have the legitimate right to unhindered ports as it does not adopt international law as its norm, and particularly with regard to laws of the sea and port management.
It is an opportunist status on their part. As not a state, they can claim that they are immune from the responsibilities of states, while they claim the rights of states.
The way that the flotilla is politically postured, it is not currently parallel to the 1945-48 “Exodus” model, and won’t be understood as similar. It could have been, but sailing under Turkish official sanction, it won’t.
And, it very much could escalate. Ambiguity facilitates escalation. Each side can accurately say, “my position is the responsible one”.
Hopefully, the event will not lead to escalation, and will lead to the institutional transitions that allow Gaza to be a responsible state. Who knows if Hamas will move in that way, or if they will continue their militia status, rather than proceed to actual international law status as a peer state, with peer responsibilities.
Witty your hypocrisy is so appalling as usual.
It does not have the legitimate right to unhindered ports as it does not adopt international law as its norm, and particularly with regard to laws of the sea and port management.
Well Witty i will be willing to know what’s the place of this siege under international law? Do you consider it a collective punishment?
Gaza is still not a sovereign state.
Yes Gaza is not a sovereign state, but it is not part of Israel.
Again, the United Nations is a deliberative body of nations/states, not of militias.
The question of whether it as an administration has protection under international law is not clear. Civilians do, but as civilians.
The formula of stated dissent implies that the status of a non-state is the same as a state, which is just innaccurate.
The role of Israel is ambiguous. There are two meanings to the term “occupier”.
One is rhetorical, oriented to name a foreign power as an external coercive force, a “microbe” to use Ahmenidijad’s term.
The second is legal, oriented to define the responsibilities of temporary administration over a region until sovereignty is established. In that role, Israel does respnsibly control the cross-border traffic, and the closure by land is an abuse, though not by sea.
If Gaza were sovereign, then the blockade would be illegal.
So, all there is is ambiguity.
If the effect of the flotilla and potential military confrontation are to hasten the formation of a Palestinian state, or states, then that would be something.
Is that what dissenters want, for Gaza to be an independant state, with the responsibilities (and dangers) of a state?
“If Gaza were sovereign, then the blockade would be illegal.”
If Gaza is not sovereign, the blockade is illegal. But I guess you’re back to defending the blockade you claim to oppose. Or you oppose it in the sense that you think Israel should be persuaded to stop inflicting it, but you think they have the right to do so.
I support the effort to legally end the blockade, by the formation of sovereign entity in Gaza separately or Palestine/Gaza.
I regard the current situation as horridly ambiguous, and opportunistically so for the Hamas militia.
Did you read my commentary on “occupation”?
If yes, then the control of borders IS Israel’s responsibility, as is the condition of civilians.
“I support the effort to legally end the blockade, by the formation of sovereign entity in Gaza separately or Palestine/Gaza.”
Israel is illegally imposing the blockade, whether Gaza is sovereign or not and if they have legal control over the borders they have no right to impose suffering on Gazans. You can’t legally punish 1.5 million civilians in order to demonstrate that it was a bad idea to elect Hamas. The political disunity among Palestinians was the result of a deliberate effort by the US to promote a civil war. Your stance is cynical–you claim to oppose the blockade, but oppose any attempt to alleviate the suffering of civilians that doesn’t give Israel some sort of veto power. The ambiguity you perceive is always interpreted by you to allow Israel to do what it wants, and you only perceive illegality when an action is taken that would be against Israel’s desires. Even in this post you can’t resist blaming Hamas though you have no word of blame for Israel. Typical.
I don’t know actually if the blockade is illegal.
Again, rather than support the goal of clarification of the status of Gaza, you condemn.
If the flotilla is successful, the ambiguous status of the Gazan port remains. If the flotilla genuinely contains only humanitarian aid (which I have no basis of confidence or of doubt), the establishment of a beachhead is a precedent.
And, it is reasonable for Israel, the US and international bodies, to not allow the precedent of import of arms to Gaza.
Its just not so simple, especially with the very large element of Turkish official support.
>> The role of Israel is ambiguous. There are two meanings to the term “occupier”. … The second is legal, oriented to define the responsibilities of temporary administration over a region until sovereignty is established.
“Temporary administration over a region until sovereignty is established”: Not a hint of occupation, land theft and annexation, resource theft, destruction of property and illegal settlement building – how charming is that? :-)
I can see why Israel might be loathe to relinquish “temporary administration” of the region…
“I don’t know actually if the blockade is illegal.”
Ian’t it funny how Witty speaks with such authority about international law and jurisdiction of Gaza (even though he’s just making shit up) , yet feigns ignorance when the issue of Israel’s illegality or criminality is mentioned?
I don’t know actually if the blockade is illegal.
With no doubts Israel is in severe violation of the 1977 amendment to the Geneva Conventions protocols.
The Blockade is clearly an act of war which give the occupied party to attack Israel in retaliation.
Witty you are a criminal asshole. Wow really Wow how you defend war crimes.
>> Ian’t it funny how Witty speaks with such authority about international law and jurisdiction of Gaza (even though he’s just making shit up) , yet feigns ignorance when the issue of Israel’s illegality or criminality is mentioned?
Yes, that is amusing, as is his condemnation of condemnations in the very same thread in which he is condemning the flotilla.
No matter how peaceful the protest or action, he’s always able to find in it an element of “maximalism” or “destabilization” to condemn. Israel destroys a farm or an aquifer, builds more settlements or kills more Palestinians, and there’s only poetry and green yarn and a need to look to the future and understand “the other”.
Yes, Witty is an insidious, dishonest, cynicla, racist ideological bottom feeder, who has no shame.
His posts all carry the admission that Israel is a criminal rogue enterprise that will resort to militarism and violence at every opportunity. The alarming thing is that he sees nothing wrong with the status quo.
Again for him, rape is always the fault of the victim.
You know Shingo, Witty is the reason why anti-Semitism is still there. Jewish people must take their distance with people like him. He is an intellectual terrorist.
“He is an intellectual terrorist.”‘
No he’s just a Zionist extremist. There’s nothign intellectual about Witty. He’s a pathological liar, a propaghanist, a vile racist, he doesn’t read or educate himself and he’s intellectually lazy.
How is it inconsistent that it can be both? Only some of the ship are Turkish.
Israeli behavior meets your criterion. I suppose you support a blockade of Israeli ports until they “adopt international law as [their]norm?”
“I suppose you support a blockade of Israeli ports until they “adopt international law as [their]norm?”
Touche.
Now watch witty squirm and feign ingorance about what international law really means.
“It is an opportunist status on their part. As not a state, they can claim that they are immune from the responsibilities of states, while they claim the rights of states.”
Really? So the fact that Israel flouts international law and claims immunity mend that is also illegitimate right Witty?
I personally prefer ‘the shitty little colony’.
Why?
Cause most of it’s citizens are NOT FROM THE LOVELY LEVANT.
“Israel’s dilemma is not so simplistic as the position of a “just non-violent civil disobedience”. It could have been if the Turkish president didn’t offer his country’s official support of the group.”
You’re such a fraud Richard Witty.
Israel has blocked the previous three attempts to deliver aid by sea to Gaza – and they had no endorsement from Turkey.
link to gulfnews.com
The problem is Israel you dick.
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman calls government of Israel “not … rational”. From a Today’s Zaman article from yesterday on a statement by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu: Gaza blockade must end, says Davutoğlu at UN meeting in İstanbul:
The Turkish ships have not been officially dispatched by the Turkish government, but there is no doubt that the Turkish government is supportive of the enterprise, and is concerned that Turkish ships be unmolested. If the Israelis do use force against the ships, I expect the Turkish government would make a strong response.
I also suspect that the people of Turkey (who are reading and watching the news about it) would demand a strong response from their government. And the government wants to be re-elected.
The Turks have already moved some missiles to make it clear to Israel that they will not tolerate Israeli overflights of Turkey, and are prepared to defend at least a bit of Syrian air-space as well. They are building better relations with Syria and Iran, a well as with their old enemy, Russia. Russia, for its part, has restored its naval base in Syria.
If they don’t want force used against their ships, they should send a gunship to defend them.
I’d like to see half the Turkish Navy there, but from the remarks of Davutoğlu I’m guessing the Turkish gov’t wants to be able to say “this is a purely humanitarian mission of unarmed civilian ships” so that the Israelis can’t make any claims that there is a military threat to Israel and use that as an excuse to block the fleet.
If the Israelis attack the fleet, they will clearly be the bad guys.
If they don’t it, the aid gets through.
This is true.
But there is more to this issue than just this shipment of aid getting through. The real goal is freedom for Gaza, freedom to come and go, to control its own ports. The sea is the only route in and out of Gaza that is not under the control of another power. The UN should establish, by force if necessary, that it will defend this freedom.
Speaking of which, it’s possible that Egypt may be rethinking its position. link to maannews.net
It is not only making special preparations to allow in a shipment of aid from the UAE, it is preparing to dock the flotilla at the al-Arish port, in case the Israeli naval thugs prevent it.
Still, though, this leaves Gaza’s fate in Egypt’s hands.
This is probably the result of a face saving deal Israel is doing with Egypt, or perhaps the US on Israel’s behalf.
I hope the Turkish government rejects it and doesn’t back down. Israel must be made to heel and hopefully be humiliated over this.
Witty One is rhetorical, oriented to name a foreign power as an external coercive force, a “microbe” to use Ahmenidijad’s term.
The second is legal, oriented to define the responsibilities of temporary administration over a region until sovereignty is established. In that role, Israel does respnsibly control the cross-border traffic, and the closure by land is an abuse, though not by sea.
Read this again. Israel is a foreign occupying power, even if it only took over from Egypt (which doesn’t want Gaza back) in 1967. It has the usual responsibilities of an occupying power, but has singularly failed to uphold them. It tried to settle the territory, but failed ignominiously, and snuck out in 2005.
Tel Aviv, the wing-ding, super multi-culturalistic, coffee-drinking capital of ‘Israel’ is only 35-40 miles away from Northern Gaza, but a world away from its problems:
link to en.wikipedia.org
I would describe a 35-40 mile trip as a cruise in the park (especially if I was driving a tank).
Witty WhineI so wish you would drop the “this shitty little Levantine country” crap. It makes your otherwise informative posts, [sic] very difficult to read.
I will continue to call Israel “this shitty little Levantine country” so long as it behaves like an over-sexed teenager with more power, more arms and less political experience or responsibilty than it deserves.
Here here Richard Parker.
Villagers from southern Lebanon and Syria, villagers from northern Palestine too, consider themselves as the historic Levant people. They see Israel as a foreign invader, and yes, Richard Parker, they see it as shitty and little – but they don’t consider it ‘Levantine’ in any measure – and they never will.
That’s why it’s offensive that you refer to Israel as the Levant. Israelis have nothing in common with the real people of the Levant. Also Israel itself is but a temporary concentration camp with shopping malls and cafes owned by the camp bosses – it ain’t gonna be around long enough to be included in future maps.
By all means go ahead and trash out Israel, but please leave the real (and already downtrodden) people of the Levant out of it. It don’t seem right that they too should be slapped every time you wanna slap Israel.
p.s. Note that Richard Witty has a completely different reason for his objection.
I don’t see that your advocacy contributes to improvement in Gazans’ lives.
Can you explain how the prospect of a military provocation accomplishes that?
I can’t stop you guys from adopting circle the wagons approach to dissent against your dissent.
I’m just expressing clearly what I support and what I fear.
At some point, dissent has to shift to proposal and program. I’m still wondering what you propose for Gaza.
Do you suggest that it declare itself a state, with the rights and responsibilities of a state? Or, do you suggest that it allign with Palestine, towards forming a state, with the rights and responsibilities of a state?
Or, do you suggest that Hamas remain a militia, and continue to only conduct resistance, rather than governance including inter-national governance?
People here differ on what they think the long term goal should be. I’m on the fence–a one state solution is just, but may not be achievable under current conditions. OTOH, a two state solution which is acceptable to Palestinians may also not be achievable under current conditions. Something dramatic has to change.
A couple of things that could help–
1. Break the blockade. Israel has been given a free hand for several years to commit a war crime against 1.5 million people. That has to stop, regardless of what the long term solution turns out to be.
2. The US has to stop pretending to support democracy and then working to undermine it when the “wrong” side wins an election. The Palestinians chose Hamas in 2006 and a unity government would have probably formed, but the US decided to undermine this by supporting Dahlan in his bid to overthrow Hamas. At some point the US has to stop dictating to Palestinians who can and cannot be in their government. We don’t dictate to the Israelis that they can’t have racists and fascists in their government.
So work with Arabs in bringing the WB and the Gaza Strip back under one government and don’t try to force the end result down their throats in an undemocratic way. I know the US and Israel (and you) would like to dictate who is the legitimate Palestinian leadership–well, it shouldn’t. I would like to see a non-corrupt and non collaborating and non-Hamas government in power there, but it’s not my choice.
“I don’t see that your advocacy contributes to improvement in Gazans’ lives.”
We don’t see yours either, in fact, we see your advocacy of their on going oppression.
“I’m just expressing clearly what I support and what I fear.”
The only thing you suport is Israel (rigth or wrong) and fear any reprisals for Israel.
“I’m still wondering what you propose for Gaza”
And you always wil be Witty, because no matter how many times it’s explained to you, you pretend there isn’t one.
“Do you suggest that it declare itself a state, with the rights and responsibilities of a state? ”
No, becasue it has to be part of the state of Palestine, adn that includes the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“Or, do you suggest that Hamas remain a militia, and continue to only conduct resistance, rather than governance including inter-national governance?”
You digusting little turd Witty. Everyone knows that Hamas do govern and run Gaza (very effectvekly I might add given the conditions they operate under).