International outcry over the commando raid on a flotilla bringing food and medicine to Gaza continues to grow. Israel insists that its soldiers were merely defending themselves in the shootings that left 9 people dead. Human rights activists insist that the troops opened fire on civilians onboard the ships. Whatever the final facts, the tragedy has brought even greater scrutiny of the long-condemned blockade in Gaza that has led to a humanitarian crisis.
It appears that all nine fatalities were Turkish citizens and Turkey has withdrawn its ambassador to Israel. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called the raid “banditry and piracy” on the high seas and “murder conducted by a state.”
Seven Israeli soldiers were also wounded, one seriously.
Israel has been criticized for years over the blockage, which has barred medical and other supplies from countries from France to Turkey to England. Israel imposed the blockade in response to Hamas winning elections in Gaza. Maj. Gen. Eitan Dangot, the Israeli military’s chief liaison with the Palestinian-controlled territories, said “We will not allow ships to come to Gaza while Hamas is in control there.”
While various organizations and countries have denounced the blockade as causing great hardship, Israel recently taunted critics by releasing a video of the Roots restaurant — one of the finest restaurants left in Gaza to show that fancy meals are still be served. The IDF noted “we have been told the Beef Stroganoff and cream of spinach soup are highly recommended.”
That move backfired as humanitarian groups alleged that the pictures were dated and the food was smuggled through tunnels for a small percent of wealthy Gazans. Eighty percent of Gazans are being supported by international relief supplies and the United Nations has said that the blockade is causing a health crisis in Gaza.
The blockade itself raises serious legal questions, particularly as a form of collective punishment against Gazans for their election of Hamas party members. Under international law, Israel cannot deny basic supplies to the population. There is also the question of the right of Israel to board the vessels in international waters. Furthermore, there are strict guidelines on the response by military and police in law enforcement situations. The San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea, 12 June 1994, is viewed as customary international law and limits such claimed acts of self-defense to proportional acts:
3. The exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognized in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations is subject to the conditions and limitations laid down in the Charter, and arising from general international law, including in particular the principles of necessity and proportionality.
4. The principles of necessity and proportionality apply equally to armed conflict at sea and require that the conduct of hostilities by a State should not exceed the degree and kind of force, not otherwise prohibited by the law of armed conflict, required to repel an armed attack against it and to restore its security.
Arguments that these searches were acts of self-defense are undermined by Israeli officials tying the blockade to the Hamas election as opposed to gun running. There is no question that Hamas is a legitimate concern for Israel and that Israel has a legitimate interest in ending the attacks on its borders. However, international law requires proportionality and protects foreign flagged vessels in international waters. To the extent that these searches are viewed as collective punishment, they would be viewed widely as an international violation.
While Israel has said that the ships can land in Israel for inspection and transfer to Gaza, international groups charge that the government holds on to the supplies and slows supplies to a trickle to punish Gazans for their support of Hamas. The World Health Organization has charged that Israel is stopping medical supplies and needed machines, like x-ray machines, from entering Gaza, here.
Prominent Jewish figures have also joined in condemning the blockade, here.
One country likely to face increased pressure is Egypt which under U.S. and Israeli pressure has closed its border to these goods passing through to Gaza. With the ongoing scandal over Israel’s assassination in Dubai in violation of the laws of various allies (here), this latest incident has already sparked massive protests around the world.
UPDATE: As expected, Egypt has opened its border to goods in response to the raid, here.
More to the truth of the matter than that silly Fox News Poem is the way an influntial Israeli paper put it during the 1950′s Iran crisis:
“The West is none too happy about its relations with states in the Middle East. The feudal regimes there have to make such concessions to the nationalist movements…that they become more and more reluctant to supply Britain and the United States with their natural resources and military bases…Therefore, strengthening Israel helps the Western powers maintain equilibrium and stability in the Middle East. Israel is to become the watchdog… if for any reason the Western powers should sometimes prefer to close their eyes, Israel could be relied upon to punish one or several neighboring states whose discourtesy to the West went beyond the bounds of the permissible.”
Like a famous American General once said about the Mideast: “How did our oil get under their land anyway?”
Bdaman:
Ham-ass has finally figured it out, I have been wondering how long it would take. They could have done this 40 years ago and played the victim and gotten their state without all the bloodshed. It is a little too late now after nearly 30 years of bloody acts, to try and come off as an oppressed people.
But then every 20 years is a new generation of suckers, so you cant blame them for trying.
Just for you Byron so you can sing along
There comes a time
When we need to make a show
For the world, the Web and CNN
There’s no people dying,
so the best that we can do
Is create the greatest bluff of all
We must go on pretending day by day
That in Gaza, there’s crisis, hunger and plague
Coz the billion bucks in aid won’t buy their basic needs
Like some cheese and missiles for the kids
We’ll make the world
Abandon reason
We’ll make them all believe that the Hamas
Is Momma Theresa
We are peaceful travelers
With guns and our own knives
The truth will never find its way to your TV
Ooooh, we’ll stab them at heart
They are soldiers, no one cares
We are small, and we took some pictures with doves
As Allah showed us, for facts there’s no demand
So we will always gain the upper hand
We’ll make the world
Abandon reason
We’ll make them all believe that the Hamas
Is Momma Theresa
We are peaceful travelers
we’re waving our own knives
The truth will never find its way to your TV
If Islam and terror brighten up your mood
But you worry that it may not look so good
Well well well well don’t you realize
You just gotta call yourself
An activist for peace and human aid
We’ll make the world
Abandon reason
We’ll make them all believe that the Hamas
Is Momma Theresa
We are peaceful travelers
We’re waving our own knives
The truth will never find its way to your TV
We con the world
We con the people
We’ll make them all believe the IDF is Jack the Ripper
We are peaceful travelers
We’re waving our own knives
The truth will never find its way to your TV
We con the world (Bruce: we con the world…)
We con the people (Bruce: we con the people…)
We’ll make them all believe the IDF is Jack the Ripper
We are peaceful travelers
We’re waving our own knives
The truth will never find its way to your TV
The truth will never find its way to your TV
Bdaman:
whoever made that video is brilliant. I love that line about “Abandon Reason”, pretty much says it all.
New aid ship heads to Gaza, Israel vows to stop it
ISTANBUL (AP) – An aid ship trying to break the blockade of Gaza could reach Israel’s 20-mile (32-kilometer) exclusion zone by Friday afternoon, an activist said, but Israel’s prime minister has vowed the ship will not reach land.
The dueling comments suggest a potential new clash over Israel’s three-year-old blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip – and come only four days after an Israeli commando raid on a larger aid flotilla left nine activists dead.
Greta Berlin, a spokesman for the Free Gaza group, says the 1,200-ton Rachel Corrie is heading directly to Gaza and will not stop in any port on the way. It is trying to deliver hundreds of tons of aid, including wheelchairs, medical supplies and concrete.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100604/D9G4E3EG1.html
AY, Karl does have his facts right, attacking him won’t change that. The missiles were removed from Cuba and all intermediate range missiles (which were capable of hitting Moscow) were removed from Turkey and Italy.
And I don’t recall anybody getting killed during the Cuban blockade. That’s why I like those daytime naval confrontations, they allow time for negotiation and temper rash actions the cover of darkness breeds.
Wikipedia: Cuban Missile Crisis:
“The quarantine was formally ended previously at 6:45 p.m. EDT on November 20, 1962. As a secret part of the agreement, all US-built Thor and Jupiter IRBMs deployed in Europe were deactivated by September 1963.”
James,
I’m glad you found the articles informative and entertaining. As ever one lives to be of service.
http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/netanyahu-defiant-still-fighting-ww-ii-hypocrisy-of-netanyahu-lieberman-opposing-terrorism.html
Mespo,
Almost anything can be made into a weapon. I once toured the correctional facility with my father when he was the Lieutenant for the Special Investigation Unit at High Desert State Prison in California. It is amazing the things that people can make that can cause serious bodily injury. He had a 3 inch binder overflowing with weapons that inmates had made that I could never even dream of.
The five ships that were inspected before this one complied and there were no problems. So I find it hard to believe that the IDF had some sort of mission to board this ship with the intent of killing people.
Chris:
I don’t know how comparable a zip gun is to the sling shots in the video but they look pretty dangerous.
************************
My hunting friends who are police officers tell me it’s about the same force. The IRA use slingshots in Northern Ireland as weapons seeking head or eye shots.
From the Slate article:
Concerned organizations like the Carter Center hold that even if the Israeli soldiers were defending themselves, their use of deadly force was uncalled for, and suggest that they could have used any number of nonlethal means—like tear gas or tasers—to contain the situation.
It’s easy to be an absentee moralist when you’re not under assault from men wielding iron bars and knives in a chaotic situation on the high seas.
AY:
Like stench in a restroom, Wayne’s always around. Where’s the disinfectant?
BIL:
“The bottom line is that Israel seems to have erred in assuming a compliant boarding, choosing a landing site, and inadequately arming the boarding team. It’s unlikely they will make the same mistakes twice, but even with the best planning, carrying out a noncompliant boarding with the entire world watching on TV is a scenario that isn’t covered in any naval manual.”
Could not have said it better.
Buddah,
What’s the Right Way to Board a Hostile Ship? Great article! Proportionate response was fun too, but I really appreciated the hostile ship one.
Buddah,
I think Israel definitely needs to let the U.S. or some other international body see the full tapes. However, I think they will chose not to release the full tapes publicly so that the portions in which they are killing people cannot be taken out of context and plastered all over radical islamic media.
Does anyone really believe that the Israeli’s would board a ship in international waters armed only with Paintball guns??? How far away from the port are they allowed to board a non-belligerent vessel? If they knew it wasn’t an aid ship, why didn’t they just contact the Turkish officials who they have cooperated with before? What if it was an aid ship from the United States with all US citizens and the Israeli’s killed 9 people with their “paintball” guns? Would that be proportionate to Americans?
Wayne lives……Call the Professor….he’s back….