Posted on Wednesday, 18 August, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Those tuning in to Monday night’s Panorama on BBC may have finished the episode under the impression that a Turkish ship had attacked a group of Israeli pleasure boaters somewhere off the coast of Tel Aviv. In fact, it was meant to be an exposé on the Israeli military’s deadly attack on a civilian vessel flying under a Turkish flag in international waters carrying an international crew and passengers and aid shipments bound to Gaza in an attempt to break a siege there that defies international law. See how easy that was? The show’s lead reporter, Jane Corbin wasn’t able to actually explore that in any depth the entire half-hour slot she had.
Corbin is a member of the Panorama documentary team and a self-styled “renowned expert on the al-Qaeda network and Islamist threat” that faces us all. I know this because it’s how she advertises herself. She even wrote a book on it.
Corbin ostensibly set out in Monday’s docu-drama to answer the question of what happened on the ship Mavi Marmara that led to the deaths of nine of its passengers by the guns of the Israeli commandos that stormed it. Spoiler alert: After a half an hour, the viewer is none the wiser. 80% of the program was devoted to commandos who killed 9 civilians while, at the most, 20% was devoted to all other comments. Her lengthy, fawning interviews with Israeli Navy flacks and TV-approved commandos failed to provide a definitive answer. The scant time dedicated to eye witnesses who had been aboard the Mavi Marmara on the night of May 31 also apparently failed to suit her narrative of choice. As a result, what we the TV audience received was pure propaganda.
Posted on Friday, 25 June, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Deep Dish TV is assisting my friend in Rafah, Gaza, Fida Qishta, develop and distribute Where Should the Birds Fly, a powerful on-the-ground view documentary. Fida worked with several folks including yours truly on the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project for a spell, and this documentary represents a lot of what that project was about: bringing a real view of life in Gaza to the rest of the world. Get a perspective from a local’s point of view.
In this film, Fida captures what was happening in Gaza during Israel’s onslaught in 2008, “Operation Cast Lead,” which killed and injured thousands of Palestinian civilians, and the aftermath since. You can help complete this moving film, a story that can engage the minds and touch the hearts of people in the U.S. Distribution isn’t cheap. Deep Dish is working to raise $30,000. Donations are tax deductible, which is more than you can say about the part of your taxable income that goes to perpetuate the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. Visit the Deep Dish website to help this project move along.
Posted on Friday, 11 June, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Delegitimize.com is a new media library project by Nigel Parry that plans to publish a series of both topic-specific and current event-focused archive websites, with the help of the pro-Palestinian community and beyond.
The Gaza Flotilla archiveis a freely-available research resource on the events that took place in international waters off the coast of Gaza on 31 May 2010.
Posted on Thursday, 3 June, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
IMEU has a great synopsis with regardss to the various laws that Israel’s attacks on the Free Gaza flotilla are in violation of, as well as the legal status of the Gaza blockade and occupation…
Some of the participants of the humanitarian flotilla. (Maan Images)
Israel exercises “effective control” over Gaza and as such remains an occupying power. Under international law Israel’s blockade of Gaza is illegal. Its attack on the humanitarian aid flotilla – meant to enforce an illegal blockade – is illegal as well.
Posted on Tuesday, 1 June, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
It’s actually very simple. Men with guns descend from helicopters onto boats in international water. Civilian passengers on boats killed. Done. Another vessel in the Free Gaza movement, The MV Rachel Corrie is set to arrive in Gazan waters soon. Israel has threatened to attack this legal shipment of humanitarian aid as well with similar deadly violence. What follows are some facts of the case with sources provided.
Products (source: the Israeli human rights organization Gisha) barred from Gaza by the Israeli occupation. Graphic by that bastion of the radical left, The Economist
“UN statistics show that around 70% of Gazans live on less than $1 a day, 75% rely on food aid and 60% have no daily access to water. Humanitarian aid is in theory allowed in, but UN agencies and charities claim that the Israelis have banned any items that are humanitarian in nature but could be put to alternative use. Items said to face delays getting into Gaza include shelter kits, health and paediatric hygiene kits, bedding, kitchen utensils, school textbooks and stationery. The World Bank estimates that 80% of Gaza’s imports are smuggled in by tunnel. The goods, which are taxed by Hamas, attract inflated prices that are out of the reach of most ordinary residents.” — The Guardian
freegaza.org
The embargo on goods to Gaza is illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has called for it to be lifted. — UN Security Council Resolution 1860
The Israeli embargo meets the definition of “collective punishment,” a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention. “Art. 33. No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.” — ICRC
No foreign power, even an occupying power, has the authority to restrict delivery of Humanitarian aid under any circumstances according to the Fourth Geneva Convention. — ICRC
“Israel has no right to control Gaza’s sea as its own territorial waters and to stop aid convoys arriving that way. In doing so, it proves that it is still in belligerent occupation of the enclave and its 1.5 million inhabitants. And if it is occupying Gaza, then under international law Israel is responsible for the welfare of the Strip’s inhabitants. Given that the blockade has put Palestinians there on a starvation diet for the past four years, Israel should long ago have been in the dock for committing a crime against humanity.” — Jonathan Cook
A ship delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza was flying under the Turkish flag when it was attacked by Israeli commandos last night leading to a still unknown number of civilian deaths. Turkey is a member of NATO. Article 5 of the NATO charter declares that armed attacks against any NATO member in Europe or North America will be considered an attack against all of them, with each taking action. Article 6 lists the Mediterranean Sea as one location where an attack will bring about a response. — NATO
The Law of the Sea also applies to the attack on the Turkish vessel, and the U.S. was wrong to suggest in the UN that Israel should lead (or even take part) in any investigation of the incident. In international waters, the applicable laws are those of the country whose flag the ship where the altercation took place was flying. It was a Turkish ship, hence it’s Turkish territory and Turkish laws and jurisdiction apply. — The Law of the Sea
Unless…
Because the action took place on open waters, one of two scenarios currently exists provided by Craig Murray (citation link at bottom):
” Possibility one is that the Israeli commandos were acting on behalf of the government of Israel in killing the activists on the ships. In that case Israel is in a position of war with Turkey, and the act falls under international jurisdiction as a war crime.”
“Possibility two is that, if the killings were not authorised Israeli military action, they were acts of murder under Turkish jurisdiction. If Israel does not consider itself in a position of war with Turkey, then it must hand over the commandos involved for trial in Turkey under Turkish law.”
So, if Israel isn’t at war with Turkey then it should turn over any suspects to Turkish authorities. If Israel claims it has the authority, it’s an act of war. — Craig Murray, former British Ambassador and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Lancaster School of Law
Taking all this into account, you’d think the MV Rachel Corrie would find some smooth sailing into the Port of Gaza. But then you’d be thinking about a government that was behaving in a rational manner. Think again.
Posted on Tuesday, 1 June, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Note: The IHH website is currently under a DOS attack. IHH was the human rights organisation out of Turkey that organised the shipment of 10,000 tonnes of aid to Gaza.
What follows are some decent statements on the Israel’s attack on humanitarian ships in international waters:
“Hillary Clinton on North Korea: ‘I think it’s important to send a clear message to North Korea that provocative actions [sinking a war ship] have consequences. We cannot allow the attack on South Korea to go unanswered by the international community.’ … Hillary Clinton on Israel’s attack on a humanitarian aid convoy: Silence.” – Diana Buttu
***
“If an armed group of Somali pirates had yesterday boarded six vessels on the high seas, killing at least 10 passengers and injuring many more, a Nato taskforce would today be heading for the Somali coast. What happened yesterday in international waters off the coast of Gaza was the work of Israeli commandos, not pirates, and no Nato warships will in fact be heading for Israel. Perhaps they should be.” – The Guardian editorial
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“It is unclear how anyone could credibly adopt an Israeli narrative of ‘self-defense’ when Israel had carried out an unprovoked armed assault on civilian ships in international waters. Surely any right of self-defense would belong to the passengers on the ship. Nevertheless, the Freedom Flotilla organizers had clearly and loudly proclaimed their ships to be unarmed civilian vessels on a humanitarian mission.” – Electronic Intifada
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“If we needed any evidence of the degree to which Western TV journalists are simply stenographers to power, the BBC, CNN and others are amply proving it. Mark Regev, Israel’s propagandist-in-chief, has the airwaves largely to himself.” – Jonathan Cook
I advocate revolutionary changes…an end to capitalist exploitation, the abolition of racist policies, the eradication of sexism and the elimination of political repression. If that is a crime, then I am totally guilty. — Assata Shakur
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Those tuning in to Monday night’s Panorama on BBC may have finished the episode under the impression that a Turkish ship had attacked a group of Israeli pleasure boaters somewhere off the coast of Tel Aviv. In fact, it was meant to be an exposé on the Israeli military’s deadly attack on a civilian vessel flying under a Turkish flag in international waters carrying an international crew and passengers and aid shipments bound to Gaza in an attempt to break a siege there that defies international law. See how easy that was? The show’s lead reporter, Jane Corbin wasn’t able to actually explore that in any depth the entire half-hour slot she had. 
I advocate revolutionary changes…an end to capitalist exploitation, the abolition of racist policies, the eradication of sexism and the elimination of political repression. If that is a crime, then I am totally guilty.
