Human shields (part 2): Gazans to put injured people on boats and set sail, to nowhere - by Elder of Ziyon

...judging from how the media covered Gaza, we can expect this gimmick to work as well

Elder of Ziyon..
27 May '18..

From Middle East Monitor:

The Gaza Strip will set off a flotilla of ships on Tuesday in a bid to break the 12-year-long Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory.

“This trip will carry the hopes and dreams of the Palestinian people for freedom,” Salah Abdul-Ati, a member of a Palestinian committee tasked with breaking the siege, told a press conference in the Gaza City on Sunday.

He said the first ship will set sail on Tuesday morning, with a number of injured Gazans and patients aboard.

He, however, did not specify the first stop of the ship.

This is the naval equivalent of the "Return march" riots.

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

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Surprise! Pro-Palestinian Activists Only Respect the U.N. When It Suits Them

...To be clear, I would have no problem with ignoring the U.N. altogether; it’s an organization dominated by dictators that no self-respecting democracy should legitimize, so a principled refusal to honor any of its decisions would be eminently understandable. I’d also have no problem with a position rooted in genuine international law, which is that U.N. decisions are binding and enforceable only when adopted by the U.N. Security Council under Chapter VII. That’s what’s actually written in the U.N. Charter, and what U.N. member states agreed to when they signed the charter, and therefore, no state ever made a legal commitment to obey any other U.N. decision. But pro-Palestinian activists selectively treat U.N. decisions that favor their cause as “binding international law” while simply ignoring decisions that don’t favor their cause. And that position makes a travesty of the most fundamental principle of any kind of law: that it must apply equally to all parties in all cases, regardless of whether it helps or hurts a particular cause.

Evelyn Gordon..
Analysis from Israel..
05 July '15..

The hypocrisy of the claim that flotillas to Gaza are a “humanitarian” endeavor has now been fully exposed: As Jonathan Tobin noted last week, the latest proved to be carrying a mere two cardboard boxes worth of aid. But pro-Palestinian activists are also guilty of an even more egregious form of hypocrisy: They proclaim all anti-Israel U.N. decisions to be binding international law, but openly flout U.N. decisions that happen to be in Israel’s favor. The Gaza flotillas are a perfect example.

According to the flotilla activists, their goal was “to break the illegal blockade on Gaza.” But a blue-ribbon international commission appointed by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in 2010 concluded that the blockade is in fact a “legitimate security measure” that fully complies with international law. So the same activists who lambaste Israel for noncompliance with anti-Israel U.N. resolutions – like those against the settlements, or the one ostensibly granting Palestinian refugees a “right of return” to Israel – feel it’s perfectly fine for them to ignore U.N. decisions that don’t serve their cause.

Nor is the Gaza blockade the worst example. Far more egregious is the way pro-Palestinian activists – and indeed, every country in the world except Israel – simply ignores U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, despite it being hands-down the most frequently cited resolution relating to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Who Would've Thought? Gaza Flotilla Activists Brought Hate, Not Aid

...You don’t need to bring actual aid if your goal is waging war on the existence of the sole Jewish state in the world. For that, you only need to be immersed in the anti-Semitic zeitgeist of a movement that thinks helping Hamas is a humanitarian gesture.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
02 July "15..

We all knew that the latest Gaza flotilla that attempted to land on the coast was a publicity stunt rather than an actual effort to bring assistance to the Palestinians. After all, international organizations can ship genuine humanitarian aid into Gaza via the Israeli land route. But instead they chose to try and run the naval blockade put in place to ensure that shiploads of non-humanitarian supplies like Iranian-supplied weapons don’t reach the terrorist Hamas government. But it turns out that all these so-called human rights advocates were bringing to Gaza was moral support for the right of the Islamist regime there to oppress Palestinians and wage war on Israel. After the Swedish-registered ship Marianne was detained and brought to Israel, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon dismissed the effort by revealing that the Navy discovered “there was no aid on the board” after examining the vessel. When queried about this by the Washington Post, members of the so-called Freedom Flotilla Coalition claimed Yaalon was wrong and sent a photograph to prove it. What did they bring? Two cardboard boxes.

According to one member of the group, the two boxes contained a solar panel and a nebulizer. I’m sure Gazans appreciate the gesture and, it’s likely that, as they’ve done before, the Israelis will ensure that any genuine aid packages will reach Gaza. After all, even on days when Hamas is shooting rockets at Israeli cities, convoys of up to 500 trucks pass through the border bringing food and medicine to the Palestinians. Israel also supplies the water and electricity that Palestinians in Gaza use.

That’s why talk of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a lie. There is no shortage of supplies needed to keep Palestinians in Gaza alive. What Hamas wants, and what these faux human rights activists want to give it, is a shot in the arm for a propaganda war against Israel that will reinforce the legitimacy of the Islamist regime that brutally oppresses its own people and uses them as human shields in order to conduct terrorist operations.

But it is no more of a lie than the claim that the point of this flotilla was humanitarian aid. That’s not just because the activists didn’t actually bring much, if any, aid material with them. It’s because the whole point of the exercise is to claim that efforts of both Israel and Egypt to isolate the Hamas terrorists that run Gaza are illegitimate.

Wondering Why Flotillas Sail to Gaza, Not Syria?

...Activists seek to go to Gaza, however, for one clear reason, and it has nothing to do with humanitarian concerns. Arabs who are engaged in conflicts with other Arabs don’t interest them no matter how many people are killed or how much suffering is caused. Even at the height of the fighting last year when hundreds of Palestinian civilians were unfortunately killed as they were caught in fighting provoked by Hamas, the casualties there were dwarfed by what is going on in Syria. But it is only when Jews are involved in defending their state that the human rights community discovers a crisis.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary Magazine..
29 June '15..

Today, the latest publicity stunt by pro-Palestinian activists ended harmlessly as the Israel Navy intercepted a ship off the coast of Gaza that was attempting to break the blockade of the strip in order to draw attention to what is passengers claim is a humanitarian crisis. But, like previous Gaza flotillas, the effort has little to do with the plight of the people of Gaza and everything to do with the long war being waged to end Israel’s existence. More to the point, the continued focus on Gaza by those calling themselves advocates for human rights at the very moment that a genuine human catastrophe is occurring inside Syria without much of response from the international community tells us all we need to know about the hypocrisy of Israel-bashers.

The fact that it was Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu who today pointed out the fact that flotillas aren’t sailing to Syria doesn’t make it any less valid. Thousands of Syrians have been slaughtered by the Assad regime that is backed by Iran and Hezbollah terrorists with more being killed by its tacit ISIS allies. The carnage has created millions of refugees who are living in squalor inside the country or in camps in neighboring Jordan.

But as Netanyahu knows, there will be no peace activist flotilla to Syria to bring aid to people who really need it. Nor had those on the Swedish-registered Marianne that was diverted by the Israelis gotten lost on their way to help those truly in need. Instead, they were on the way to try and help the Hamas government of Gaza that has been rightly isolated by the international community since the bloody 2007 coup when the Islamist group seized power.

While the situation in Gaza isn’t pleasant, the popular notion of a humanitarian crisis there is a myth. That’s because there is no shortage of food or medicine in the strip since Israel allows daily convoys of such supplies into Gaza every day, including those when Hamas is shooting rockets over the border at cities and towns inside the Jewish state. It is true that there is a shortage of building materials inside Gaza. Given the scale of the destruction wrought by the war Hamas launched against Israel last year, that’s a problem. But the reason why such materials can’t be brought into the strip without restrictions was revealed anew when Hamas showcased a new terror tunnel that it claims reaches into Israel on Iranian TV on Sunday. Most of the concrete that is brought into Gaza is being used for such tunnels or for the construction of elaborate fortifications that will enable Hamas to shield its arsenal and other structures intended to make it harder for Israel to repress rocket fire aimed at civilians.

When an Israeli MK sets out to join a flotilla of illusions

...Rather than improve Gazans' quality of life, Hamas constructed a grid of murderous terror tunnels meant to kill Israelis, including children in Tel Aviv. It never occurred to Ghattas, not for one minute, to condemn that situation. For that matter, in never occurred to Joint Arab List MK Hanin Zoabi either, as she found Hamas' defeat in Operation Protective Edge very disappointing.

Dr. Reuven Berko..
Israel Hayom..
23 June '15..

Joint Arab List MK Basel Ghattas, who plans to join the next Gaza Strip-bound flotilla, made a big to-do Monday about not disclosing exactly where he was, telling Israel Radio's Arabic station he was "somewhere in Greece."

Asked about the nature of the sail Ghattas declined to answer, sounding as if he were taking part in a top-secret mission whose details must be kept from the hostile agents of Israel's intelligence community -- the very country in whose parliament he serves.

"So you are taking part in a flotilla whose details you know nothing about?" the interviewer insisted, alluding to the ill-fated journey by the Mavi Marmara in 2010. At this point, Ghattas reverted to savvy politician mode, saying the current flotilla was on a mission of peace, and that he had personally informed authorities in Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of his intention to join the sail.

The interview attempted to focus on recent security events and the phenomenon of Israeli Arab individuals who join the Islamic State group, but Ghattas was mostly interested in expressing his disappointment over the fact he was the only Arab MK to join the flotilla.

Already trying to capitalize on the move, which will surely affect his future ranking within the Joint Arab List, Ghattas reiterated how we should all be grateful for his determined initiative, as all he seeks to do is "breach the Israeli siege on Gaza."

Ghattas' hearing out as sea must have been impaired somehow, as the "peaceful sailor"-turned-naval commando apparently found it impossible to hear the harsh questions leveled at him by Israeli media outlets, which asserted that Hamas is a hostile entity seeking to destroy Israel, and that given that the land crossings to the Gaza Strip are open and allow the steady delivery of supplies -- including cement, which Hamas is using to build terror tunnels -- Gaza is not under siege.

Ship to Gaza - The yearly flotilla farce to Gaza is upon us

...Another such holiday, akin to a pilgrimage, is the Freedom Flotilla. Every year since 2010 -- meaning that this year marks a five year anniversary -- the worshippers of Palestinianism go to the Mediterranean, but unlike others, who go to Club Med, these people swear by Gaza. Clearly, where the main attraction of a trip to the Mediterranean is typically the sandy beaches, the good weather and the great food, followers of Palestinianism are attracted by terror tunnels, Iranian made missiles and promises of ethnical cleansing of all Jews from the state of Israel. It is now that sweet time of the year again, when the most religious of the devotees get ready to board their vessels and set sail to Gaza.

Judith Bergman..
IsraelNationalNews.com..
22 May '15..

New religions add new holidays to their calendars these days. However, one religion keeps piling them on. Known as Palestinianism, and despite being relatively fresh on the historical scene compared to older world faiths, it has been gaining devotees at an amazing speed. Furthermore, it has fully understood that in order to galvanize followers and to gain new proselytes it needs to have holidays, which can serve as rallying points, strengthening that burning flame of faith.

One such holiday, which has become as regular as Christmas Eve, is Israel Apartheid Week, which commences worldwide every year around February and has done so since 2005. This festival has as its aim the “enrichment” of campuses with virulently anti-Semitic and vitriolic abuse of the State of Israel.

Another such holiday, akin to a pilgrimage, is the Freedom Flotilla. Every year since 2010 -- meaning that this year marks a five year anniversary -- the worshippers of Palestinianism go to the Mediterranean, but unlike others, who go to Club Med, these people swear by Gaza. Clearly, where the main attraction of a trip to the Mediterranean is typically the sandy beaches, the good weather and the great food, followers of Palestinianism are attracted by terror tunnels, Iranian made missiles and promises of ethnical cleansing of all Jews from the state of Israel.

It is now that sweet time of the year again, when the most religious of the devotees get ready to board their vessels and set sail to Gaza. This year the pilgrimage is called “Freedom Flotilla III” comprising several planned sea voyages, all aptly named “Ship to Gaza” from different ports in Europe, as well as Canada, Turkey, and South Africa according to the website of the organizers.

Some of the most devoted followers of Palestinianism are Scandinavians – a fact worth mentioning, since Scandinavia is one of the least traditionally religious places in the West, Palestinianism thus filling a notable void – and it should therefore come as no surprise that the first ship in the Freedom Flotilla III is from Sweden. Norway helped purchase the ship and has sent a few members from its own sizeable community of Palestinianists.

The trawler, named Marianne of Gothenburg, left its homeport on Thursday. It travelled first to Malmoe, that lovely city in the far south of Sweden, where Jews cannot wear a kippa in the streets out of fear for their personal security. Then it continued to Copenhagen, where it picked up a lonely female populist Danish parliamentarian, scrambling for Muslim votes before the upcoming parliamentary elections.

While Marianne of Gothenburg is the first boat in the Freedom Flotilla III to leave for Gaza, according to the website of Ship to Gaza Sweden, it is scheduled to stop at several ports on the way that will be announced later. One devotee observer posting on Facebook, but not travelling on the ship himself, wrote that the purpose of these stops is to “expose Israel’s occupation of Palestine”.

Before leaving the port of Copenhagen, the Ship to Gaza devotees tried to explain the purpose of their voyage to the Danish press. “The ship’s cargo consists of important things such as solar panels and midwife equipment… but the cargo is primarily symbolic…probably our most important cargo is our message. We are carrying international law and human rights,” said the ship’s Swedish communications coordinator Staffan Granér to the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende. Another co-religionist, the Norwegian left wing politician from the party “Red”, Torstein Dahle, felt it pertinent to add his belief that the Israeli navy “shoots Palestinian fishermen and throws them into the sea”.

Faced with a question about Israel’s legitimate interest in screening ships for weapons shipments, the Palestinianists gathered in the port of Copenhagen became markedly evasive. “We are non-state actors and have no contact with Hamas. It is up to the Palestinians to decide, which government they wish to have” said Torstein Dahle. Notice the almost immediate denial of having anything to do with Hamas -- bringing to mind that old Shakespearean quote of “methinks the lady doth protest too much” -- and the convenient omission of the fact that there have been no “elections” in Gaza since 2006, when Hamas gained power. Not to mention that they did not answer the legitimate question posed by the Danish journalist.

How about Flotilla 3.0?

The Commentator..
27 March '13..

A new propaganda initiative designed to test the resolve of the Israeli blockade on Hamas in Gaza is seeking to highlight how trade from Gaza has been affected by Israel.

The focus of the 'Gaza Ark' is the fact that while goods do indeed enter the Hamas-run, Palestinian enclave, goods are said to rarely ever leave. The premise of the trip is that Gaza wants to trade with the world, rather than receive aid. Critics have called the trip "intentionally misleading", pointing to the fact that on a weekly basis, dozens of trucks export products from Gaza.

These facts haven't stopped the 'Gaza Ark' committee, however, a group which is supported by the hard-Left Noam Chomsky and disgraced Baroness Jenny Tonge. The organisation's "Who We Are" section also lists the public relations head of the Hamas-run Gaza Chamber of Commerce, Maher Al-Tabaa, and 'one-state solution' advocates such as Haidar Eid, who also works at the Al-Aqsa University, an institution that Hamas boasted about 'taking over' in 2009.

The Gaza Ark initiative is led by international anti-Israel activists, rather than ordinary Palestinians. Gaza’s Ark entails “purchasing a run-down boat from a local fishing family,” says Michael Coleman, a member of Free Gaza Australia and on the Gaza’s Ark steering committee.

Surprise! The Anti-Semitic Face of the Gaza Flotilla

Daniel Greenfield..
frontpagemag.com..
04 October '12..

Greta Berlin, who has made anti-Semitic statements in the past, tweeted a link to Holocaust denial material using the Free Gaza twitter account. Berlin had said in the past that reading the rantings of Gilad Atzmon, described as anti-Semitic even by Muslim terrorism supporters, made her glad she was raised Methodist, not Jewish.

Her latest antics involved claiming that the Nazis were actually Zionists and the concentration camps were a Jewish project. Berlin linked to a video featuring Eustace Mullins, a notorious bigot who believed in a slightly updated version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Throughout his long career as a propagandist, Mullins wrote numerous anti-Semitic works, including Secrets of the Federal Reserve, a re-hash of his anti-Semitic theories about the origins of the Federal Reserve and The Curse of Canaan, Mullins’s biblical “analysis” asserting that an ages-long conflict has taken place between the builders of civilization and the Canaanites (i.e., the Jews), who sought to destroy civilized life on earth.

On December 20, 2006, Mullins appeared as a guest on the white supremacist Vanguard News Network’s Internet-based radio show, run by neo-Nazi Alex Linder. A Web page announcing the program also promoted Mullin’s book, The Biological Jew, a virulently anti-Semitic book in which Mullins calls the very existence of Jews a “hate crime against nature.”

Because the world is too obsessed with Syria, a new Gaza "flotilla" planned.

Elder of Ziyon..
10 August '12..




A new Gaza "flotilla" that will probably go nowhere is being planned:

Ship to Gaza, a European activist organization, announced that they are in the process of organizing a new flotilla in solidarity with the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip.

The boat is set to sail on a roughly 5,000 kilometer journey, which is estimated to span between two and three months. Beginning in northern Sweden, it will dock in several countries en route to Gaza, holding events to raise awareness about the Israeli blockade.

“Estelle, our beautiful ship, is going to play a key role in Ship to Gaza’s renewed attempt to break the blockade on Gaza,” reads the organization’s website. “At each stop, there will be speakers, concerts, and public festivals providing information about the situation in Gaza.”

So it isn't a flotilla, it is a boat.

The website doesn't even bother to list what aid it is bringing to Gaza; it just says it is bringing a "cargo of necessities."

(Read full "....a new Gaza "flotilla" planned")

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Kay - Whining for Gaza

Jonathan Kay
National Post
07 November '11



http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/11/07/whining-for-gaza-jonathan-kay-on-flotilla-activist-david-heap/

Spare a tear please, for the Gaza flotilla crowd, which has seen its once-fashionable cause fall into obscurity.

The first flotilla in 2010 made headlines when Israeli commandos confronted pro-Hamas martyrdom-seeking “activists” armed with knives and blunt instruments aboard the Turkish ship MV Mavi Marmara. Nine activists died when Israeli troops opened fire. The episode galvanized pro-Hamas support for a while, and inspired a wave of copycat Westerners. They knew that they could challenge the Israeli navy in relative safety, since, in the post-Mavi Marmara era, Israeli leaders would do everything in their power to avoid another lethal encounter.

But the second Gaza flotilla, in the summer of 2011, was an embarrassing flop: The flotilla leaders couldn’t even sail out of Greek waters without getting arrested. Last week brought more flotilla news: Two ships, including a Canadian-owned vessel, were intercepted and boarded en route to delivering supplies to Hamas-controlled territory. There were no injuries — though that hasn’t stopped the more media-hungry activists from playing the martyr card.

Foremost among these is David Heap, a University of Western Ontario faculty member who claims to have been “tasered” and “bruised” as Israeli soldiers hauled his unco-operative self from the high seas. From the title of the article he wrote for the left-wing site Rabble.ca — “I write from cell 9 in the Apartheid State of Israel” — you would think he was Martin Luther King with a Twitter account, penning manifestos from a Birmingham jail. But even by his own morally self-aggrandizing account, he is “basically ok” after his high-seas experience.

But “basically ok” doesn’t get you on the front pages. So now a Toronto Star writer has gassed out the story for another day by reporting that Heap’s friends and family are “outraged,” “scared” and “worried” by his “brutal” treatment.

No one else in Canada seems to care much, though: Even among protest junkies, flotilla theatrics now play a distant second to the ongoing Occupy phenomenon. In fact, as far as “brutality” goes, the troops who ushered Heap into Israel don’t have a stitch on cops in Oakland.

“Outraged,” “scared” and “worried” would be good words to describe our thoughts about captured activists who did something that was actually brave and useful — like bringing aid to protesters in, say, Syria, just a few hundred kilometers up the Mediterranean coast. Instead, Heap and his friends set their compass for a confrontation with the Israeli Defense Forces, the most humane and professional military in the Middle East. And their only real punishment for trying to bring material goods to a terrorist-controlled regime in Gaza is to spend a few days in climate-controlled, Internet-equipped Israeli jails complaining about their ordeal to journalist pals back home.

Mr. Heap’s whining campaign isn’t nearly as dangerous as the tactics used by other activists, but it certainly is far more annoying.

National Post
jkay@nationalpost.com

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Berkowitz - The Gaza Flotilla and International Law

Peter Berkowitz
Hoover Institution
policy review no. 168
01 August '11



Further politicization of the global legal system

On May 31, 2010, in defense of a naval blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip, Israel seized control of the Mavi Marmara in international waters, detained the passengers, and towed the ship to the Israeli port city of Ashdod. During the previous three days and without incident, Israel had boarded, inspected, and brought to Ashdod the other five ships that had set sail from Turkey as part of the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla.” But on the Mavi Marmara, passengers wielding pipes, knives, and axes attacked Israeli commandos as they rappelled from helicopters down to the ship’s deck. Nine passengers were killed in the operation and several dozen were injured. Seven commandos were injured as well.

The flotilla’s ostensible purpose was to bring humanitarian goods to the Palestinian population of Gaza. In fact, humanitarian goods had been arriving in Gaza over land through Israel, and Israel had repeatedly volunteered to deliver the flotilla’s humanitarian cargo through the established land crossings. The flotilla’s real and obvious goal was, as one of the organizers put it, “breaking Israel’s siege.”

The international outcry in response to Israel’s raid on the Mavi Marmara was immediate. Little attention was given to the Turkish flotilla’s deliberate provocation or to the possibility that Israel had acted ineptly or unwisely. The focus rather was on the accusation, often couched as a conclusion, that Israel had acted unlawfully.

Little attention was given to the Turkish flotilla’s deliberate provocation or to the possibility that Israel had acted ineptly or unwisely.

On May 31, almost as soon as the news broke, un Secretary General Ban Ki Moon insisted that it was incumbent upon Israel to explain its actions to the world: “I condemn this violence . . . it is vital that there is a full investigation to determine exactly how this bloodshed took place . . . I believe Israel must urgently provide a full explanation.”

Also on May 31, Richard Falk, un special rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, immediately pronounced Israel in egregious violation of international law: “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.” Falk called for an investigation on the grounds that “It is essential that those Israelis responsible for this lawless and murderous behavior, including political leaders who issued the orders, be held criminally accountable for their wrongful acts.” He characterized the Gaza blockade as “a massive form of collective punishment” constituting “a crime against humanity, as well as a gross violation of the prohibition on collective punishment in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.” He insisted that failure to punish Israel’s lawlessness would itself be criminal: “As special rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, familiar with the suffering of the people of Gaza, I find this latest instance of Israeli military lawlessness to create a situation of regional and global emergency. 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.” Such was Israel’s “flagrant flouting of international law” that, to end its blockade of Gaza, Falk concluded, “the worldwide campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel is now a moral and political imperative, and needs to be supported and strengthened everywhere.”

Many nations promptly condemned Israel and some presumed its guilt that day. According to the bbc, within hours of the boarding of the Mavi Marmara French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner announced he was “deeply shocked” by Israel’s action and called for an inquiry, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy accused Israel of a “disproportionate use of force.” Sweden summoned the Israeli ambassador to discuss the “unacceptable action.” The Turkish foreign ministry issued a statement declaring the incident a “flagrant breach of international law” while Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan proclaimed Israel’s raid “totally contrary to the principles of international law” and an act of “inhumane state terrorism.” And the Arab League called for an emergency meeting the next day to discuss Israel’s “terrorist act.”1

On June 1, the un Security Council issued a presidential statement. By condemning Israel’s raid and by demanding a “prompt, impartial, credible, and transparent investigation conforming to international standards,” the Security Council indicated that there was sufficient evidence to be concerned that serious breaches of international law had occurred.

Not to be outdone, the notorious un Human Rights Council on June 2 issued resolution 14/1 on “The Grave Attacks by Israeli Forces against the Humanitarian Boat Convoy.”2 The hrc resolution “condemns in the strongest terms the outrageous attack by the Israeli forces against the humanitarian flotilla of ships which resulted in the killing and injuring of many innocent civilians from different countries.” And it authorized “an independent, international fact-finding mission to investigate violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, resulting from the Israeli attacks on the flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian assistance.”

The widespread accusations of unlawful conduct directed at Israel — coming, it should be said, not from some abstract international community, but from officers and official bodies of the un, European states, Turkey, and Arab states — were high on outrage and low on legal analysis. This is in keeping with the growing tendency in international affairs to transform hard political questions into conclusive legal judgments. The transformation increasingly yields gross abuses of law fraught with substantial political implications. The denunciations of Israel’s response to the Gaza Flotilla provide a case in point. To counteract the harm they can cause to a state’s interests when they gain international currency and exert worldwide influence, even far-fetched and perverse legal arguments must be addressed and refuted in legal terms.

In fact, the legality of Israel’s stopping and seizing of the Mavi Marmara and the other five ships of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla turned on the legality under international humanitarian law (a part of the international law of war governing the conduct of war, also known as ihl, the law of armed conflict, or the laws of war) of the naval blockade. If the blockade was legal, then Israel was perfectly within its rights to stop on international waters ships whose announced intention was to break it, and Israeli commandos were within their rights to defend themselves against the potentially lethal attacks to which they were subject as they boarded the Mavi Marmara. Israel’s blockade was legal given the state of armed conflict between Israel and Hamas, the de facto ruler of Gaza; the widely accepted use of naval blockades in war; and the conformity of Israel’s blockade to the requirements of maritime law — it was duly declared, effective, nondiscriminatory, and allowed the passage of humanitarian assistance to the civilian population of Gaza.

(Read full "The Gaza Flotilla and International Law")

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Levick - What the Guardian won’t report: UN concludes that Israel’s blockade is LEGAL

Adam Levick
CiF Watch
07 July '11

http://cifwatch.com/2011/07/07/what-the-guardian-wont-report-un-report-concludes-that-israels-blockade-is-legal/

Type the words “Israel”, “blockade”, and “illegal” in the Guardian’s search engine and you get 194 hits.

As recently as yesterday Guardian contributor Ruqaya Izzidien quoted a flotilla “activist” describing Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza as “illegal”.

On Tuesday, a report by Jack Shenker, in a Guardian straight news story, casually characterized the blockade as “an act deemed illegal under international law.”

Yet, the UN (which, it is a profound understatement to say, is no friend to Israel) reportedly will issue a report on last year’s Gaza flotilla clash concluding that Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip is legal and that Jerusalem owes no apology to Turkey for the Mavi Marmara raid.

According to AFP:

“United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will release a statement supporting the legality of the Israeli intervention against the 2010 ‘Gaza Freedom Flotilla.”

The UN report also will reportedly say that the Turkel Committee, which led Israel’s official flotilla probe, conducted a professional and independent investigation.

I’m willing to bet that the Guardian simply will not report this story, as it goes against volumes of Guardian stories, and CiF commentaries, since the May 31, 2010 incident, attesting to Israel’s guilt, but I’m even more confident that the countless number of contributors who were so quick to pass judgement on Israel’s blockade of weapons to Hamas will not apologize for their morally irresponsible rush to judgement.

As with Richard Goldstone’s recent mea culpa – acknowledging that, contradicting his initial conclusions, there was absolutely no evidence that Israel intentionally targeted civilians during Operation Cast Lead – this UN report exonerating Israel comes a year too late.

The damage to Israel has already been done.

Paraphrasing the immortal words of Ray Donovan, President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of Labor, who, after a long ideologically driven campaign in the mainstream media which assumed his guilt, was (in the end) acquitted of corruption charges in a court of law after a prolonged trial:

Where does Israel go to get their reputation back?

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Why Was the Gaza Flotilla Postponed?

Pesach Benson
Honest Reporting/Backspin
27 April '11

http://honestreporting.com/why-was-the-gaza-flotilla-postponed/


Choose the best answer. The real reason the IHH postponed its Gaza flotilla is because:

A) The IHH doesn’t want controversy disrupting Turkey’s June 12 parliamentary elections.

B) Macho Islamists know IDF commandos will be armed with more than paintball guns.

C) Organizers are having a hard time recruiting crew members and humanitarian ringers. Others who already signed up are backing out.

D) Ship owners aren’t loaning out vessels, fearful Israel will confiscate them.

E) Flotillista fundraising to purchase ships is simply floundering.

G) All of the above, though I wish it was because they’d realize that there’s no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

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What they faced on the Mavi Marmara

Yeah, right.

Fresnozionism.org
23 January '11

The Turkel Commission — the high-level commission appointed by the Israeli government to investigate the Turkish Flotilla affair — has released its report, which you can read here. The report is almost 300 pages in length and discusses the legal considerations surrounding Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza, whether there was a ‘humanitarian crisis’ there, and the actual events that occurred before, during and after the incident.

I’m not going to try to summarize its conclusions except to say that I am impressed by the thoroughness and honesty that surrounded this effort. But I do want to reproduce a bit of testimony that appears in it, the experiences of three of the first naval commandos that landed on the deck of the Mavi Marmara.

I’m certain that very few of you, even those who have been combat soldiers, have ever experienced anything close to what these young men did. Their bravery — after the first one hit the deck, the other 14 team members could see what was happening — and their presence of mind and strength, is remarkable.

The soldiers all testified that they expected to meet ‘peace activists’. One of them said,

During the preparation the message was passed that we were expected to encounter activists who would try to hurt us emotionally by creating provocations on the level of curses, spitting, removing face covering etc. but we did not expect a difficult physical confrontation… (note 518, p.150)

But try to put yourself in the place of the first soldier to rappel from the helicopter to the deck:

When I reached a height of 2 – 2.5 meters from the ship, people grabbed the end of the rope and pushed me to the side. Before I managed to touch my feet to the deck, about ten people jumped onto me and began brutally beating me from every direction, using clubs, metal rods and fists, and whatever they could grab. The blows were over my whole body and were concentrated mainly in the area of my face and head.

It is important to note that at this stage I was not armed – my weapon was fastened behind my back and in my vest pocket I had a taser (electric shocker) which was completely irrelevant in light of the brutal attack on me. At this stage I sensed a real and immediate threat to my life, and I tried to reach the weapon (a mini-Uzi) on my back. I only managed to open the clips that were securing the weapon but I didn’t manage to reach the weapon. At this stage I was occupied with attempts to reach my weapon while trying to protect myself as best I could from a fatal attack from the mob, and I waited for the rest of the soldiers to arrive.

The attackers pushed me toward the side of the ship. Because of the large number of attackers, I did not manage to resist. A number of attackers grabbed me by my legs and my torso and threw me over the side to the deck below, about 3.5 meters. Up until this stage, I did not see any other soldier aboard the ship, and, to my knowledge, I was the only solder who had fast-roped onto the ship.

Upon landing on the middle deck, I fractured my arm, and a mob of dozens of people attacked me and basically lynched me – including pulling off my helmet, strangling me, sticking fingers into my eyes to gouge them out of their sockets, pulling my limbs in every direction, striking me in an extremely harsh manner with clubs and metal rods, mostly on my head. I truly felt that I was about to die, way beyond what we define as life-threatening.

The behavior of the people at this stage was definitely like fighters of an enemy which has come to kill the other side, that is, me. I felt that at any moment I would take a blow to the head which would kill me. At this stage the mob succeeded in tearing my vest off of me (which included the weapon) and the weapon fell out of the vest.

I realized that I would not be able to overcome all of the attackers and in order to save my life I tried to jump into the water but: (a) I was worried that I would not fall into the water but rather onto the deck below me; (b) the mob blocked my access to the side. At a certain stage I managed to reach the weapon, I cocked it, and I shot one of the attackers in his leg. The considerations in shooting were as follows:

1) To distance the attacking mob from me and to minimize the injury to me.

2) To signal my location to the rest of the team on the ship and the fact that I was in distress and my life was in danger.

Immediately after I fired the shot, I took an extremely harsh blow directly to my head from a metal rod. This stunned me briefly, and in this second they grabbed the weapon from me. At this stage, I thought that the mob wanted to take me as a captive and use me as a bargaining chip for entry to Gaza or in general. A lot of blood began streaming down my face from the wounds to my head. The mob continued to hit me and push me forward inside the ship. — (p. 152)

The commander of the team from the helicopter was the third to land. Here is his testimony:

Gaza Flotilla Shakedown

Claudia Rosett
The Rosett Report
13 December '10

In the “Believe It Or Not” mega-farce of Middle East politics, the latest candidate for world-turned-upside-down is the story of Israel offering $100,000 apiece in compensation to the families of nine Turkish “activists” killed in May aboard the flagship of the flotilla that set out to break the Israeli blockade on terrorist-controlled Gaza. This offer is part of the haggling that has reportedly been going on between Israeli and Turkish officials, in what the New York Times describes an an effort “To Repair Ties.” The Turkish government is demanding an apology, as well. Israel is reportedly willing to express “regrets” for the loss of life, and, the Times reports, would like “whatever deal emerges to end the United Nations Inquiry and other international legal actions.”

In some quarters this may pass for diplomacy. But the deal shaping up here sure looks, walks and quacks like a shakedown. It’s Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who ought to be apologizing to Israel. The Gaza flotilla was a calculated provocation — a violent propaganda stunt to damage Israel. With a big boost from the UN, it’s still right on track to do exactly that.

Recall that in hope of peace, Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Instead of getting peace, Israel got yet more Palestinian terrorism, including bombardment by thousands of rockets. By 2007 Gaza was controlled by the terrorist group Hamas — backed and armed by Iran, and dedicated to the destruction of Israel. That’s the reason for the Israeli blockade, which the Gaza flotilla proposed to break.

(Read full "Gaza Flotilla Shakedown")

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Standing morality on its head

David Frum
National Post
27 November '10

Vancouver is about as far as you can get from the Middle East without bumping into penguins.

Yet this month, students at the University of British Columbia are getting a little taste of Hamas thuggery right on their own campus.

All UBC students pay a small fee to support student activities. One of the groups receiving the money has proposed donating $700 to a new Gaza flotilla: an attempt to deliver aid directly to Hamas (widely recognized as a terrorist group), bypassing Israeli inspections.

The UBC student group that oversees student funds did the responsible thing, and put a temporary stop to the Hamas donation, pending a vote by the full student council.

The pro-Hamas students have reacted with a campaign of abuse and intimidation against the student who made the responsible decision, UBC Alma Mater Society president Bijan Ahmadian. Ahmadian tweeted on Thursday: “Shaken from the physical intimidation by the SPHR President at my office today. Had to call security to remove him.” SPHR is the acronym for “Solidarity with Palestinian Human Rights, a UBC student group.

(Read full story)

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Fake "Elders" condemned Israel without knowing the facts

Elder of Ziyon
17 October '10

To give an idea of how fair-minded the "Elders" who are now visiting Gaza are, I just found their press release about the Mavi Marmara raid, drafted within a few hours of the first sketchy news reports. I annotated it by pointing out just a few of their outright lies and false assumptions.

31 May 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Elders have condemned the reported killing by Israeli forces of more than a dozen people [nine people] who were attempting to deliver relief supplies [Mavi Marmara had no aid; they refused offers to deliver the aid via Israel; their goal was political and not to deliver aid] to the Gaza strip by sea.

Meeting in Johannesburg, the independent group of eminent global leaders repeated their call for an end to the blockade on Gaza. They called for a full investigation of last night’s incident and urged the UN Security Council to debate the situation with a view to mandating action to end the closure of the Gaza Strip.[So the Elders weren't upset at the deaths, they wanted to leverage them to pressure Israel to lessen its security.]

Overnight, Israeli troops stormed at least one ship in a flotilla of vessels carrying 10,000 tonnes of relief supplies to Gaza. [Closer to 1500 tons of mostly useless supplies] Around 600 people are on board the six cargo and passenger boats.

(Read full post)

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Editorial: The disingenuous Nobel laureate

JPost Editorial
04 October '10

(Excellent editorial. Y.)

The state wants Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire ejected from Israel.

After permitting Maguire ample opportunity to make her case, the Central District Court ruled last week in the state’s favor and the Supreme Court on Monday appeared poised to do the same. (The Supreme Court turned down her appeal and she was sent off on Tuesday morning)

We applaud this stand – and not because of Maguire’s outrageous comparison in 2004 of Israel’s purported nuclear capability to Auschwitz’s gas chambers, nor because of her absurd, reprehensible accusation made in court Monday that Israel is an “apartheid state” perpetrating “ethnic cleansing against Palestinians.”

Rather, Maguire should be deported from Israel for undertaking actions that undermine Israel’s ability to protect itself.

MAGUIRE, WHO at 32 was the youngest-ever peace prize winner when she received it in 1976 for working to end sectarian violence in her native Northern Ireland, was intending to lead a delegation called the Nobel Women’s Initiative that is visiting Israel and the West Bank between September 28 and October 5.

Maguire is a woman with considerable merits who once acted courageously and peacefully to help end conflict in her own country. But her actions on behalf of Palestinians has revealed a sorrowful dearth of moral sensibilities.

She was first deported from Israel on September 30, 2009, after she took part in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. She and the other activists from the Free Gaza Movement attempted to forcibly prevent Israel from defending itself against Hamas-controlled Gaza via the blockade, which has never prevented the transferral of food, medicine and other necessities that cannot be turned into rockets, mortars or other deadly weapons and aimed at Israeli civilians.

(Read full editorial)

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Backgrounder: The Human Rights Council Flotilla Report

Gilead Ini
CAMERA Media Analysis
30 September '10

The United Nations’ Human Rights Council (HRC) voted on June 2, 2010 to investigate, in the words of the its resolution, "violations of international law ... resulting from the Israeli attacks on the flotilla of ships carrying humanitarian assistance." The Council subsequently established a three member fact-finding mission, and on Sept. 22 published an advance unedited version of the group’s conclusion.

The vote and investigation were the latest examples of what UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon once described as the Council’s "singling out" of Israel, and what his predecessor Kofi Annan had termed its "disproportionate focus" on the Jewish state.

The obsession with Israel on the part of the Human Rights Council is certainly significant and worthy of comment on its own. It is, after all, nothing less than bigotry and injustice to consistently judge one country by a particular set of standards while failing to apply those standards to the rest of the world. (The separate standard for the rest of the world is most notable when it involves regimes that voted to investigate Israel. For example, even as HRC member Kyrgystan was sitting in judgment of Israel's naval operation, hundreds of thousands of minority Uzbeks were forced from their homes in that country by brutal, gruesome violence at the hands of their Kyrgyz neighbors. )

That said, it is not necessary to focus HRC’s discriminatory treatment of Israel to raise serious concerns about its report. The text itself, which goes so far as to accuse Israel of summary execution and torture of innocent passengers, is deeply flawed, leading the U.S. ambassador to the Council to criticize its "unbalanced language, tone and conclusions."

(Read full analysis)

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UN Flotilla Report Lacks Credibility and Transparency

NGO Monitor
29 September '10

JERUSALEM – The UN Human Rights Council’s (HRC) report on the May 31, 2010 flotilla violence is based on secret and unverifiable allegations, is highly biased, and is therefore no more than hearsay, finds NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research institution. The HRC-appointed “fact-finding mission” submitted the report to the HRC during the Fifteenth Session currently underway in Geneva.

“This so-called fact finding mission met with numerous political advocacy NGOs and interviewed hundreds of witnesses from different countries, but it refuses to disclose these names or their statements,” says Professor Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. “The UNHRC and their latest ‘report’ indicting Israel have no legitimacy if the sources of the allegations and narrative are hidden. Unfortunately, this is indicative of the general lack of transparency surrounding the role of NGOs in the exploitation of human rights and international law.”

The “Free Gaza” flotilla violence involved the IHH, a Turkish-based organization with a history of links to terror, as well as the ISM, whose virulent incitement against Israel is also well documented. But instead of focusing on these organizations, the mission, chaired by Karl Hudson-Phillips, former justice on the International Criminal Court in The Hague, interviewed some participant-witnesses as well as ambassadors in London, Geneva, Amman, and Istanbul. News reports show that interviews in Jordan included members of the Muslim Brotherhood and those involved with anti-normalization campaigns with Israel. In addition, the panel spoke to MK Hanin Zoabi, a member of the Balad party, which rejects the idea of a Jewish state. Zoabi has also spoken in support of Iran's fierce hostility to Israel, and was on the boat involved in this violent incident. But the sources of other testimony remain secret.

(Read full report)

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