Occupiers’ impunity persists amid world outrage, UNSC meets

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett
Blood on our hands...

Israeli commandos today off the coast of the Gaza Strip attacked the “Freedom Flotilla,” a convoy of six aid-carrying ships. This Israeli attack early Monday killed up to 19 people and injured dozens on board the vessels.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said nothing justifies the appalling outcome of this operation. She went on to “unequivocally condemn what appears to be disproportionate use of force, resulting in the killing and wounding of so many people attempting to bring much-needed aid to the people of Gaza, who have now been enduring a blockade for more than three years.” Without the blockade, she said, “there would be no need for flotillas like this.” She also called for an investigation and accountability.

The blockade, Navi Pillay said, “lies at the heart of so many of the problems plaguing the Israel-Palestine situation, as does the impression that the Israeli Government treats international law with perpetual disdain.”

The UN Special Rapporteur Richard Falk charged that “Israel is guilty of shocking behavior by using deadly weapons against unarmed civilians on ships that were situated in the high seas where freedom of navigation exists, according to the law of the seas.” He went on to say that “unless prompt and decisive action is taken to challenge the Israeli approach to Gaza all of us will be complicit in criminal policies that are challenging the survival of an entire beleaguered community.”

Palestinian Civil Society Organizations and International activists are calling for worldwide pressure on governments to end Israel’s abductions and killings in attacks against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and pressure on governments to begin global efforts to “hold Israel accountable for the murder of civilians at sea and the illegal piracy of civilian vessels carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza.”

Amnesty International today recounts “the nearly three years, Israel, the occupying power in the Gaza Strip, has implemented a policy of banning all movement of goods and people, except for the most basic humanitarian necessities, which are imported by international aid agencies. A fraction of patients needing treatment outside Gaza are allowed to leave and dozens have died while waiting for a travel permit from Israel.”

By restricting the entry of food, medical supplies, educational equipment and building materials, Israel’s blockade does not target armed groups but rather punishes Gaza’s entire population. The impact falls heaviest “on the most vulnerable among Gaza’s 1.5 million people: children, the elderly, and the sick.” Under international law, Israel’s “blockade constitutes collective punishment and must be lifted immediately.”

In its latest assault, the Israeli government persisted in claiming self-defense but Al Jazeera reporters found something else. From aboard the flotilla’s lead ship, the reporters said a white surrender flag had been raised from the ship but “Israeli troops assaulted with “live ammunition.” About 50 flotilla activists (among them students, Nobel laureates, children, and Jewish holocaust survivors) were subjected to extensive security checks and imprisoned, the goods they carried taken and placed in a terminal. Activists were given the choice if going home immediately, in which case they would be taken by bus to Tel Aviv airport; or, if they resisted deportation, taken to a nearby detention center and held for at least 72 hours.

International solidarity movement’s call from Gaza for global response has been signed by several organizations: The One Democratic State Group, University Teachers Association, Arab Cultural Forum, Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel, Association of Al-Quds Bank for Culture and Info, Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements, International Solidarity Movement, Palestinian Network of Non-Governmental Organizations, Palestinian Women Committees, Progressive Students Union, Medical Relief Society, The General Society for Rehabilitation, Gaza Community Mental Health Program. General Union of Palestinian Women, Afaq Jadeeda Cultural Centre for Women and Children, Deir Al-Balah Cultural Centre for Women and Children, Maghazi Cultural Centre for Children, Al-Sahel Centre for Women and Youth, Ghassan Kanfani Kindergartens, Rachel Corrie Centre, Rafah, Rafah Olympia City Sisters, Al Awda Centre, Rafah, Al Awda Hospital, Jabaliya Camp, Ajyal Association, Gaza, General Union of Palestinian Syndicates, Al Karmel Centre, Nuseirat, Local Inititiative, Beit Hanoun, Union of Health Work Committees, Red Crescent Society Gaza Strip, Beit Lahiya Cultural Centre, Al Awda Centre, Rafah [Updated on May 31, 2010].

People of Gaza are calling on people across the world to

Demonstrate and support the courageous men and women who went on the Flotilla, many now murdered on a humanitarian aid mission.
Insist on severing diplomatic ties with Israel, bringing to trial for war crimes, securing International protection of the civilians of Gaza
Join the growing campaigns of international boycott, divestment and sanction of a country proving again to be so violent and yet unchallenged
Join the growing critical mass around the world with a commitment to the day when Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as any other people, when the siege is lifted, the occupation is over, and the six million Palestinian refugees are finally granted justice.

By the afternoon today Eastern Time, reports from international waters were still coming in. In New York City, the UN Security Council was meeting to discuss Israel's attack on the Freedom Flotilla. The League of Arab States also was expected to hold an urgent session on the matter.

Sources and notes
“Deadly Israeli raid on aid,” May 31, 2010 fleethttp://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/05/201053113252437484.html
“Israeli killings of Gaza ship activists must be investigated,” May 31, 2010, http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/israeli-killings-gaza-ship-activists-must-be-investigated-2010-05-31
“Call from Gaza for global response to killings on the freedom flotilla,” May 31, 2010, http://palsolidarity.org/2010/05/12597/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29
“Secretary-General 'shocked' by deadly raid on Gaza aid flotilla,” May 31, 2010, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=34863&Cr=gaza&Cr1=

Irony
Today in history: Adolf Eichmann was hanged ─ On May 31, 1962, Israel hanged German official Adolf Eichmann for his part in “the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War II.” Eichmann had escaped from a prison camp in 1946 and spent some 14 years in hiding [Britannica].

Pyramids - Sea Suffering’s unstoppable nonviolent resistance

Excerpted with minor edits by Carolyn Bennett

“From the pyramids to the checkpoints, we have had many victories in Egypt" says Emily Ratner (January 3, 2010), an organizer and media maker based in New Orleans. Ratner is a member of New Orleans Palestine Solidarity (NOLAPS) and the International Jewish anti-Zionist Network (IJAN).

Egyptian guards have been unable to stop us as we scream our demands from atop the pyramids, from the sidewalks of the U.S. and Israeli Embassies, and from the front pages of newspapers in Egypt, Kuwait, Yemen, and around the world. Allies have stamped these demands into the world’s streets as they march for Palestine’s freedom.

… While Egyptians turn us away from checkpoints and borders, we remember that it is the Israeli government that has demanded we be kept out of Gaza. The Israelis have made this demand because they are terrified of our movement. Their weapons and soldiers are no match for the ideas we carry with us, sparked in Palestine and now aflame in Egypt and throughout the world. Our global community joins Palestinian civil society in some demands of our own, which the Israelis cannot quell by preventing our passage to Gaza. As the Cairo Declaration states, we demand Self-Determination for all Palestinians.

We demand an End to the Occupation.

We demand Equal Rights for ALL within historic Palestine.

We demand the full Right of Return for all People of Palestine.

We insist that as a global solidarity movement,
We have the right to make these demands.

… We must make these demands because our work is too important to wait for the governments of the world to acknowledge that the Israelis will never offer Palestinians what they are owed. We can make these demands because we have the power of a global boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement that will some day be strong enough to cripple the Israeli economy, if we do the work we have promised here in Cairo. As Anna Julia Cooper so eloquently states in the U.S. passport that was rejected by Egyptians working on behalf of Israelis yesterday ─ we will make these demands because freedom is the birthright of humankind.

We celebrate our sisters and brothers in Gaza and throughout Palestine, who have worked so hard to bring us to this historic moment. We celebrate allies here in Cairo and around the world who are renewing their commitment to their crucial solidarity work by endorsing the Cairo Declaration. We celebrate all of the travelers who slowly make their way to Rafah, whether they arrive or not. May the Egyptians run our passport numbers thousands of times as they turn us back. May the Israelis be reminded again and again that they have only encouraged us to work more tirelessly than we have so far. May the U.S. government be reminded of the wisdom of Cooper’s words, spat on every time we are rejected at a checkpoint or border crossing. May we leave Cairo with more hope than when we arrived that the siege will end and Gaza and all of Palestine will be free.

Emily Ratner's full article is at Mondoweiss (http://mondoweiss.net/). She is an organizer and media maker based in New Orleans, a member of New Orleans Palestine Solidarity (NOLAPS) and the International Jewish anti-Zionist Network (IJAN). She can be reached at emily@nolahumanrights.org


Mondoweiss is a news website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, chiefly from a progressive Jewish perspective. The site is maintained by Philip Weiss of New York State and Adam Horowitz of New York City ─ “because of 9/11, Iraq, Gaza, the Nakba, the struggling people of Israel and Palestine, and our Jewish background;” mondoweiss@gmail.com