Viva Palestina - Gaza mission #4

[faceless]

It's just a shame that people have had to be murdered in the media spotlight for the Israelis to even start treating the people of Gaza with even the most basic humanitarian concern.

[faceless]

[faceless]

[mickyv]

I found this about Israel’s ‘Periphery Doctrine, quite interesting;

http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2010/07/02/israel%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98periphery-doctrine%E2%80%99-of-non-arab-friends-is-in-tatters/

[faceless]

Israeli Knesset Revokes Arab MK Zuabi’s Privileges over Gaza FLOTILLA
14. Jul, 2010
Jonathan Lis
haaretz.com

The Knesset on Tuesday voted to revoke three parliamentary privileges from Arab MK Hanin Zuabi (Balad) due to her participation in the aid flotilla that sailed to Gaza in late May. Thirty-four lawmakers voted in favor of stripping Zuabi’s privileges and 16 voted against, after a heated debate, in which Zuabi accused her fellow lawmakers of punishing her out of vengeance.

Zuabi responded to the Knesset vote by saying, “It’s not surprising that a country that strips the fundamental rights of its Arab citizens would revoke the privileges of a Knesset member who loyally represents her electorate.” Zuabi went on to say that the vote represents a dangerous precedent with regard to Israel’s Arab citizens and is a hostile message toward her. She went on to accuse Israeli parliamentarians of implementing racist laws in order to repress their Arab counterparts. “In a civilized country, the people who incite against and threaten MK Zuabi would be punished and have sanctions imposed against them,” the lawmaker said.

Zuabi said she will seek legal and international aid in order to “rein in the vengeful tendencies of the automatic majority in the Knesset.”

The Knesset’s House Committee last week recommended revoking Zuabi’s privileges after she participated in the Gaza-bound aid flotilla, which resulted in an IDF raid that killed nine activists. “You are punishing me out of vengeance,” Zuabi told fellow parliamentarians during the hearing. “When you threaten the Arab MKs and the Arabs’ protectors, you threaten democracy and co-existence between Jews and Arabs.”

“I have the right and the duty to fight for my rights and my values,” she continued, adding that “my positions are often different from those of the Likud, Kadima and most of the MKs. That’s why I don’t represent Kadima, the Labor Party or the Likud, but those who voted for me and in my case I represent the consensus of the Arab MKs. You have no freedom of choice with regards to the rules of democracy,” Zuabi added. “There are fixed rules that do not change at whim. You do not need to protect democracy, but to protect me for democracy’s sake.”

Last week the Knesset committee recommended rescinding from Zuabi three key privileges, one of which is the privilege to exit the country – meant to prevent Zoabi from fleeing Israel if she commits a felony or has debts in Israel. Another privilege to be rescinded is carrying a diplomatic passport, which according to the Knesset’s legal adviser, is a privilege that does not grant diplomatic immunity so revoking it would not make it more difficult for Zuabi to fulfill her duties. The third privilege is the right to have the Knesset cover litigation fees of an MK if he or she faces trial.

MK Yariv Levin (Likud), chairman of the Knesset committee that decided on rescinding her privileges, told Zuabi that she doesn’t belong in the Knesset. “You have no place in the Israeli Knesset, you are unworthy of holding an Israeli ID and you embarrass the citizens of Israel, the Knesset, the Arab population and your family,” he said.

Meanwhile, MK Anastassia Michaeli (Yisrael Beiteinu) was escorted out of the hall after she handed Zuabi a lookalike Iranian passport with a photograph of her in it, saying that it will serve her on her diplomatic incitement trips. “In every civilized country, a member of parliament who crosses the red line and identifies with the enemy and arming the enemy with weapons of mass destruction aimed at destroying his country’s national foundations will not find in his pocket a diplomatic passport of the country he aims to destroy,” Michaeli said. Ms. Zuabi, I take your loyalty to Iran seriously and I suggest you contact [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad and ask him to give you an Iranian diplomatic passport that will assist you with all your diplomatic incitement tours, because your Israeli passport will be revoked this evening,” she added and proceeded to hand Zuabi a lookalike Iranian passport that she had produced for her.

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) interrupted Levin and said that the Knesset plenum was not the platform to express his personal feelings but rather the committee’s decision.

Rivlin said: “I was not happy with Hanin Zuabi’s actions, but if she broke an Israeli law may the Attorney General, who was solely and unequivocally given the power to decide, rise and press charges against her. We, as Knesset members, were chosen due to our beliefs. Today it is in our favor, and tomorrow it might not be; there is a complex ideological struggle between what was once left and right,” Rivlin said, adding, “I believe that everyone should have the right to speak their minds, even if what they say hurts me.”

The House Committee decision to recommend the rescinding of Zuabi’s privileges was passed by a majority of seven to one, with MK Ilan Gilon of Meretz opposing. The Balad party condemned the Knesset committee decision calling it “racist and anti-democratic." “The MKs who incite against Zuabi spill her blood – they are calling on the public to harm her and following their decision, her life will be threatened,” Balad said in a statement. “These MKs will be responsible for any harm that may be caused to her.”

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Much respect to Hanin Zuabi.

[Colston]

I had a letter from my MP this morning about the Flotilla in response to me writing to him to remind him of Clegg's article in the Guardian about stopping the blockade back last year and to not let their new found power deflect them from their purpose and values.

I haven't read it yet but will try and get it scanned in and up here.

[Colston]

[modern]

Thanks for sharing, Colston. These letters always seem to contain the usual platitudes, but we never really see any change through actual actions, like sanctions...

[faceless]

This has just turned up on youtube

[luke]

Gaza flotilla attack: UN report condemns Israeli 'brutality'
UN Human Rights Council accuses Israel of a 'disproportionate' response to Gaza blockade-breakers, nine of whom died

A UN-appointed panel said today that Israeli forces violated international law, "including international humanitarian and human rights law", during and after their lethal attack on a flotilla of ships attempting to break the blockade of Gaza in May.

The UN Human Rights Council's fact-finding mission judged Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory to be "unlawful" because there was a humanitarian crisis in Gaza at the time.

The panel's report, published today, described Israel's military response to the flotilla as "disproportionate" and said it "betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality".

Eight Turkish activists and one Turkish-American were killed in the raid, which prompted international criticism of both the attack and Israel's policy of blockading the Gaza Strip. Israel has since eased its embargo, although still refuses to allow full imports and exports and the free movement of people.

Israel says the soldiers acted in self-defence. But the mission criticised the Israeli government for failing to co-operate with its inquiry. "Regrettably to date, no information has been given to the mission by or on behalf of the government of Israel," it said.

The panel was led by Karl Hudson-Phillips, a retired judge of the international criminal court and former attorney general of Trinidad and Tobago.

The report said: "The conduct of the Israeli military and other personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible violence. It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality. Such conduct cannot be justified or condoned on security or any other grounds. It constituted grave violations of human rights law and international humanitarian law."

The panel concluded that there was "clear evidence" of wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment and wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health – all crimes under the Geneva Convention.

The panel expressed the hope that there would be "swift action" by the Israeli government to help victims achieve effective remedies. "The mission sincerely hopes that no impediment will be put in the way of those who suffered loss as a result of the unlawful actions of the Israeli military to be compensated adequately and promptly," it said. It described the blockade of Gaza as "totally intolerable and unacceptable in the 21st century".

The Israeli government has fiercely resisted demands for an independent international inquiry into the flotilla attacks, establishing three internal investigations to avert pressure from the UN, Europe and Turkey.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/22/gaza-flotilla-un-condemns-israeli-brutality

[faceless]

Dear friend,

Today, Israel has released a report into its actions on the Mavi Marmara last year, when the ship - carrying aid as part of a flotilla to Gaza - was attacked by Israel, leading to the deaths of 9 Turks and the injuring of dozens more.

Viva Palestina's Kevin Ovenden, who was on board the Mavi Marmara when it was attacked by Israeli forces in May last year, said, "The claim by Israel's Turkel Commission that Israeli forces acted legally when they killed nine people aboard the Mavi Marmara, and left another brain dead, will be laughed out of court by all but the Israeli government and its most fanatical supporters.

"This whitewash commission was set up by the Netanyahu government, the same people who commissioned the assault on the aid ship. It is simply unfeasible to claim that, for example, the two men shot immediately to the left and right of me, were gunned down in some act of self-defence. They were shot from above. No Israeli commando was in sight of us when the bullets rang out.

"Israel has refused an independent international inquiry and instead was brazen enough to establish this farce. No Turkish official, lawyer or representative was allowed to take part. One of the only two international observers who was a fig-leaf for the commission's "impartiality" was Lord (David) Trimble. He was invited on to it a few months after founding a friends of Israel initiative. And as a leading establishment figure in the north of Ireland he refused for decades an independent inquiry into the killing of 14 unarmed civilians on the streets of Derry in 1972, the truth about the massacre only being officially acknowledged 38 years later with the report of the Saville inquiry.

"The United Nations Human Rights Council already found last year prima facie evidence of grave human rights abuses and war crimes aboard the Mavi Marmara.

"Rather than entertaining this charade from Tel Aviv, the British government should demand that Israel and those responsible for the atrocity of Bloody Monday on the Mediterranean on 31 May last year are held to account and to the same universal standards of justice that are required of other states.

"Whatever risible PR Israel and its supporters attempt to spin, that is going to happen. And on the one year anniversary of the attack on the Mavi Marmara a second, bigger international aid effort will set sail for the point at where it was so brutally attacked and will ask, civil society organisations, religious groups, politicians, governments, and people of conscience around the world to demand that all relevant governments and international bodies all it safe passage to Gaza.

"Wikileaks has confirmed what independent Israeli researchers told us last year. The siege on Gaza is carefully calibrated by the Israeli government to keep the Palestinian people in a state of dependency, with their economy society hovering just above complete collapse.

"The French foreign minister Michele Alliot-Marie is the latest high profile visitor to Gaza and Palestine to call for an end to the blockade.

"The pressure to end this barbarous policy is increasing. I think I can speak for all those who were aboard the Mavi Marmara in saying that we are redoubling our efforts in 2011 to bring it to an end this year. We will be part of the next aid missions, by land, by sea and by air.

"This sick joke from an Israeli government that has already lost all international credibility will serve only to increase our determination to bring justice to the Palestinian people."

Sarah Colbourne, Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and who was also onboard the Marvi Marmara when the Israeli Defence Force attacked the boat said:

“However hard the Israeli Government attempts to rewrite history, they can’t rewrite the truth. The facts are simple, the Marvi Marmara was carrying essential humanitarian aid like baby milk to the besieged people of Gaza. There were no guns or weapons on board the boat, we were in international waters, when over 300 bullets – or one for every two people on board - rained down on us, killing 9 people and injuring over 50.

The actions of the Israeli Defence Force and the Israeli Government where by all international standards of law illegal as is their continued occupation of Gaza and the oppression of the Palestinian people.”

www.vivapalestina.org

[faceless]

Czech reporters sue Israel over flotilla raid
Two journalists say Jewish state has yet to return money and equipment confiscated during Commando operation on Gaza-bound ship, demand apology
Ronen Medzini
April 10th 2011
ynetnews.com

Two Czech reporters who were on the Gaza-bound Turkish Marmara vessel during a deadly Israeli Commando raid last May are suing Israel, claiming the Jewish state has yet to return money and personal equipment confiscated from them.

"We demand that Israel apologize for the incident," the two insist. The two journalists filed a criminal claim in their country against Israel, although the prosecutor's office in Prague has already instructed the police not to investigate the case. The two turned to a higher authority, the attorney general's office, in a bid to overturn the decision.

The journalists' complaint includes 29 criminal acts allegedly committed by the Israeli soldiers, including theft and abduction. The two are demanding a "serious investigation", as well as legal and consular aid from the Czech authorities. The two say they are furious with the Czech Foreign Ministry and the Czech Embassy in Israel for "violating international treaties on consular relations" in handling the flotilla incident. Officials in the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem believe the claim was filed following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the Czech Republic last week.

Meanwhile, it appears the Israeli efforts to stop future Gaza-bound flotillas are being supported by unlikely elements. Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in an interview to local newspaper VG Nett that "those taking part in the planned journey to Gaza in May are in risk of being exploited by groups with different interests. Such journeys are mainly symbolic as most of the goods they bring along can also be brought through land. What comes through the sea will likely be received by the Hamas-ruled economy, and everyone should be aware of that."

The Norwegian foreign minister's remarks were made on the backdrop of the announcement of a group of parliament members from Norway that they plan to take part in the Gaza-bound flotilla in May. Foreign Ministry officials were pleased with the Norwegian minister's comments, particularly in light of the fact that the relations between Israel and Norway are not considered warm.

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As far as the Norwegian muppet is concerned, OF COURSE IT'S SYMBOLIC!! What a dick...