Israel's illegal and immoral attack on the Freedom Flotilla humanitarian aid convoy, which left at least nine dead and dozens injured, has rightfully stunned the world. The all-civilian convoy of 6 ships carried over 10,000 tons of critically-needed humanitarian aid and nearly 700 citizens from 40 countries. The Flotilla was an ambitious attempt to break the siege imposed by Israel on the 1.5 million Palestinians of the occupied Gaza strip, since 2007. Carrying distinguished parliamentarians, religious leaders, authors, journalists, a Nobel Peace Laureate, and a Holocaust survivor, the relief convoy aimed not only to provide relief supplies to Gaza; it sought to direct the international spotlight towards the humanitarian crisis imposed on Gaza's residents and the imperative to end it. There is no denying that the latter objective has succeeded, albeit with tragic consequences.
The Israeli attack on the unarmed aid convoy in international waters was "[a clear] violation of international humanitarian law, international law of the seas, and [by most interpretations] international criminal law," to use the words of Richard Falk, Professor of International Law and UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It is a sad reality that world governments have for too long become either complicit or apathetic to Israel's crimes and fostered its culture of impunity, under a shield of unquestionable backing by the US. Its initial condemnation notwithstanding, the US government has pressured the UN Security Council members, again, to adopt ambiguous language which relieves Israel of responsibility and creates parity between aggressor and victim.
Characteristically, the Israeli government has blamed the victims of its raid for attacking the Israeli soldiers, claiming "self-defense." Prominent legal expert and Director of the Sydney Centre for International Law at Sydney Law School, Professor Ben Saul, squarely refutes Israel's claim arguing: "Legally speaking, government military forces rappelling onto a ship to illegally capture it are treated no differently than other criminals. The right of self-defense in such situations rests with the passengers on board: a person is legally entitled to resist one's own unlawful capture, abduction and detention." He adds that "if Israeli forces killed people, they may not only have infringed the human right to life, but they may also have committed serious international crimes. Under article 3 of the Rome Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation of 1988, it is an international crime for any person to seize or exercise control over a ship by force, and also a crime to injure or kill any person in the process."
Despite UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's statement calling for an end to Israel's illegal siege of Gaza, the Security Council has failed to call for an unconditional end to the blockade, allowing Israel to commit grave war crimes with impunity, as well documented in the UN Goldstone report.
The absence of meaningful action from governments to hold Israel accountable to international law leaves open one path for citizens of conscience: to take this responsibility upon themselves, as done against apartheid South Africa. Non-violent citizen-led initiatives, exemplified by the Flotilla and the various boycott and divestment campaigns around the world, present the most promising way to overcome the failure of world governments to stand up to Israel's intransigence and lawless behavior. By flagrantly attacking the aid ship, Israel has inadvertently brought unprecedented awareness and condemnation not only of its fatal siege of Gaza but also of the wider context of Israel's occupation practices in the Palestinian Territories, its denial of Palestinian refugee rights, and its apartheid policies against the indigenous, "non-Jewish" citizens of Israel.
The Freedom Flotilla brings to mind the kind of civil society solidarity initiatives which brought an end to segregation laws in the US and apartheid in South Africa, an analogy impossible to ignore. Like the apartheid regime of South Africa, Israel's reaction has been to label this non-violent act an "intentional provocation." As in the case of South Africa, the call for international solidarity, in the form of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) came from an overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society unions and organizations in 2005, and is being embraced by citizens of conscience and social movements worldwide. The BDS initiative calls for effectively isolating Israel, its complicit business, academic and cultural institutions, as well as companies profiting from its human rights violations and illegal policies, as long as these policies continue.
I believe that the BDS initiative is a moral strategy which has demonstrated its potential for success. Most recently, German Deutsche Bank became the latest of several European financial institutions and major pension funds to divest from Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems. Last week, two main Italian supermarket chains announced a boycott of produce from illegal Israeli settlements. Last month, performers Elvis Costello and Gil Scott-Heron cancelled appearances in Israel. Reminiscent of the South African anti-apartheid popular struggle, the current generation of students across university campuses is actively calling upon their administrations to adopt divestment policies.
I endorse the heartfelt words of Scottish writer Iain Banks, who in reaction to Israel's atrocious attack on the Freedom Flotilla suggested that the best way for international artists, writers and academics to "convince Israel of its moral degradation and ethical isolation" is "simply by having nothing more to do with this criminal government."
Stéphane Frédéric Hessel is a diplomat, former ambassador, French resistance fighter and BCRA agent. Born German, he obtained French nationality in 1937. He participated in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.
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"Resistant during the Second World War, Hessel joined General de Gaulle in 1941, was deported to Buchenwald and Dora concentration camps. Hessel escaped hanging in Dora and escaped with Forest Yeo-Thomas during a transfer to Bergen-Belsen by exchanging his identity with Michel Boitel, who was dying of typhus"
Hope that helps.
Why not?
Israelis - go home to the Israel and Judea!
Arabs - go home to Arabia!
Germans - go home to Germany!
French - go home to France!
Central American native Americans are in their Central American Mexico.
Immigrants are off-topic in the discussion about native nations. If you wish to protest the immigrants, feel free to support Arizona anti-illegal laws.
http://www
Palestinians will be winners only when they renounce violence and build their future. Why not turn gaza into little singapore? Violence has led them nowhere.
http://www
There are a dozen other sites I can think of just off the top of my head that are at least as progressive as HuffPo was back in the beginning, without all the infantile emotionalism wrapped in pseudo-int
I'd love to be convinced otherwise, but reading this comment thread just put a few more nails in THAT door.
Hamas only exists because of Israel's vile occupations.
It ain't rocket science, it's factual history.
"the HuffPost has reached a new low"
How exactly are you guys adding to the conversation? I'm surprised these adolescent comments haven't been filtered. Why not let a decent piece alone instead of swarming like flies here? Incredible. Really brought down the level of discussion.
From the legal point of view: Gaza is not a country, it cannot be embargoed. Israel is the occupying power and therefore is responsible for the welfare of Gazans. The siege is a war crime. It is collective punishment. If you do not trust Amnesty International trust the Red Cross.
In addition, have you ever thought that Sderot is on the lands of a Palestinian village from which the refugees to Gaza have been pushed away by the heroic Negev Brigade (Morris, Wiki) in 1948?
And do you recall that Hamas has often offered a ceasefire which when Israel agreed, it kept (and Israel not)?
Do you know that from 2001 and 2009 15 Israeli have been killed by Qassam? How many Gazans have been killed by the IDF in that period?
There are many Jews who disapprove of some of Israel's policies and actions, as there are many Muslims who disagree with al Qaeda's actions.
According to Israeli law, I myself could start voting and settle on land taken from Arabs just by showing up in Israel. I will never do so. It is immoral.
I recognize that the existence of the state of Israel is a fait accompli, but I will not support Israel until it stops its policies of subjugating and terrorizing the indigenous peoples, and treating them as sub-humans.
Accurate assessment of the illegal and immoral blockade and occupation.
All other noise is irrelevant.
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).
"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. "
"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.
"After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying."
"The Partition of Palestine is illegal. It will never be recognized .... Jerusalem was and will for ever be our capital. Eretz Israel will be restored to the people of Israel. All of it. And for ever."
-Menachem Begin
"It is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable,"
-The spiritual leader of Israel's ultra-orthodox Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
...they are not particularly useful.
Try:
"Hamas has accepted Israel's right to exist and would be prepared to nullify its charter, which calls for the destruction of Israel, Aziz Dwaik, Hamas's most senior representative in the West Bank, said on Wednesday.
http://www
...and this essay by Henry Siegman, director of the US Middle East Project in New York, visiting research professor at SOAS, University of London and former national director of the American Jewish Congress and of the Synagogue Council of America:
"The Great Middle East Peace Process Scam"
http://www
...is instructive.
« Yes yes and all blockades and sanctions are illegal and a sovereign nation has no rights to defend itself, etc., etc. Yes I've heard that already.
Yes yes its a crime against humanity. For sure. Excellent assessment thanks much! “
and @ blackjack12
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Israel won’t listen to international peace activists.
Israel won’t listen to Holocaust survivors.
When the ship of Jews from European Jews for a Just Peace arrives, what will Israel do?
Maybe…Israel has a blind spot.
Maybe…Israel is wrong.
It will never recognize the state of Palestine.
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It does not want peace...it wants a 'piece of'...to create greaterIsr
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When will American Israelis and Israelis understand that as long as this is the motivation and objective of Zionists..
Arabs already got 80% of Palestine Mandate. Its called Jordan. Add that the arab countries surrounding Israel in Middle East. Israel can't have a little sliver?
Take Israel/Hamas out of it. Be objective.
If your neighbor is firing rockets at you and attacking you, do you have the right to try to impose military blockade?
It seems to me yes and I see no precedent anywhere restricting a sovereign nation from this right.
If you have something, please show it.
No matter what Hamas does, no matter that Palestinians voted for Hamas, the list of Israeli blockaded goods proof that the blockade has NOTHING to do with Israel's security, only with punishing a civilian population.
Unless you, or Israel, or any Israeli supporter on these boards, can tell me how diapers, coriander, cinnamon, shaving cream, pasta and feminine sanitary supplies are a threat to Israel's security?
Don't make things up. It does not help Israel.
Hamas, however, is more interested in clinging to power than in serving its people,
The flotilla incident came at a time when Hamas appeared to be losing its popularity among Palestinians, largely due to the deteriorating economic situation in the Gaza Strip. It also came at a time when even some of Hamas's supporters were beginning to criticize the movement, especially over its decision to demolish scores of "illegal" houses in the southern Gaza Strip and the brutal execution of criminals and "collaborators" with Israel.
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Israel has Jewish-only and Palestinian-only laws. Whenever the Palestinians do (on their own land, not Israel), they are illegal...
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Not to mention the monies used for settlements are often the monies stolen from Holocaust Jews...who are living in abject poverty in Israel.
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Would Israel permit Jordan to make laws in Israel...a
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Jordon, for whatever else it is....is not an Apartheid nation like Israel.
Jordan not apatheid reallyyyyy
Any non-Jew has less obligations, but not less rights.