[E-rundbrief] Info 917 - Gaza - Israels Disinformation Campaign

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 917 - Freedom Flotilla | Witness Gaza: Israel’s
Disinformation Campaign Against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Israeli
disinformation cannot hide the siege of Gaza.

Bad Ischl, 29.5.2010

Begegnungszentrum für aktive Gewaltlosigkeit

www.begegnungszentrum.at

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Israel’s Disinformation Campaign Against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla

Posted on: May 28, 2010 |

Freedom Flotilla | Witness Gaza

http://palsolidarity.org/2010/05/12531/

Israeli disinformation cannot hide the siege of Gaza.

For over four years, Israel has subjected the civilian population of
Gaza to an increasingly severe blockade, resulting in a man-made
humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. Earlier this month, John
Ging, the Director of Operations of the UN Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, called upon the international
community to break the siege on the Gaza Strip by sending ships loaded
with humanitarian aid. This weekend, 9 civilian boats carrying 700 human
rights workers from 40 countries and 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid
will attempt to do just that: break through the Israel’s illegal
military blockade on the Gaza Strip in non-violent direct action. In
response, the Israeli government has threatened to send out ‘half’ of
its Naval forces to violently stop our flotilla, and they have engaged
in a deceitful campaign of misinformation regarding our mission.

Israel claims that there is no ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
Every international aid organization working in Gaza has documented this
crisis in stark detail. Just released earlier this week, Amnesty
International’s Annual Human Rights Report stated that Israeli’s siege
on Gaza has “deepened the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Mass
unemployment, extreme poverty, food insecurity and food price rises
caused by shortages left four out of five Gazans dependent on
humanitarian aid. The scope of the blockade and statements made by
Israeli officials about its purpose showed that it was being imposed as
a form of collective punishment of Gazans, a flagrant violation of
international law.”[1]

Israel claims that its blockade is directed simply at the Hamas
government in Gaza, and is limited to so-called ’security’ items. Yet
When U.S. Senator John Kerry visited Gaza last year, he was shocked to
discover that the Israeli blockade included staple food items such as
lentils, macaroni and tomato paste.[2] Furthermore, Gisha, the Israeli
Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, has documented numerous official
Israeli government statements that the blockade is intended to put
‘pressure’ on Gaza’s population, and collective punishment of civilians
is an illegal act under international law.[3]

Israel claims that if we wish to send aid to Gaza, all we need do is go
through ‘official channels,’ give the aid to them and they will deliver
it. This statement is both ridiculous and offensive. Their blockade,
their ‘official channels,’ is what is directly causing the humanitarian
crisis in the first place.

According to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter: “Palestinians in Gaza
are being actually ’starved to death,’ receiving fewer calories per day
than people in the poorest parts of Africa. This is an atrocity that is
being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza. It is a crime… an
abomination that this is allowed to go on. Tragically, the international
community at large ignores the cries for help, while the citizens of
Gaza are treated more like animals than human beings.”[4]

Israel claims that we refused to deliver a letter and package from POW
Gilad Shalit’s father. This is a blatant lie. We were first contacted by
lawyers representing Shalit’s family Wednesday evening, just hours
before we were set to depart from Greece. Irish Senator Mark Daly
(Kerry), one of 35 parliamentarians joining our flotilla, agreed to
carry any letter and to attempt to deliver it to Shalit or, if that
request was denied, deliver it to officials in the Hamas government. As
of this writing, the lawyers have not responded to Sen. Daly, electing
instead to attempt to smear us in the Israeli press.[5] We have always
called for the release of all political prisoners in this conflict,
including the 11,000 Palestinian political prisoners languishing in
Israeli jails, among them hundreds of child prisoners.[6]

Most despicably of all, Israel claims that we are violating
international law by sailing unarmed ships carrying humanitarian aid to
a people desperately in need. These claims only demonstrate how
degenerate the political discourse in Israel has become.

Despite its high profile pullout of illegal settlements and military
presence from Gaza in August—September 2005, Israel maintains “effective
control” over the Gaza Strip and therefore remains an occupying force
with certain obligations.[7] Among Israel’s most fundamental obligations
as an occupying power is to provide for the welfare of the Palestinian
civilian population. An occupying force has a duty to ensure the food
and medical supplies of the population, as well as maintain hospitals
and other medical services, “to the fullest extent of the means
available to it” (G IV, arts. 55, 56). This includes protecting civilian
hospitals, medical personnel, and the wounded and sick. In addition, a
fundamental principle of International Humanitarian Law, as well as of
the domestic laws of civilized nations, is that collective punishment
against a civilian population is forbidden (G IV, art. 33).

Israel has grossly abused its authority as an occupying power, not only
neglecting to provide for the welfare of the Palestinian civilian
population, but instituting policies designed to collectively punish the
Palestinians of Gaza. From fuel and electricity cuts that hinder the
proper functioning of hospitals, to the deliberate obstruction of
humanitarian aid delivery through Israeli-controlled borders, Israel’s
policies towards the Gaza Strip have turned Gaza into a man-made
humanitarian disaster. The dire situation that currently exists in Gaza
is therefore a result of deliberate policies by Israel designed to
punish the people of Gaza. In order to address the calamitous conditions
imposed upon the people, one must work to change the policies causing
the crisis. The United Nations has referred to Israel’s near hermetic
closure of Gaza as “collective punishment,”[8] strictly prohibited under
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. All nations signatory to the
Convention have an obligation to ensure respect for its provisions.[9]

Given the continuing and sustained failure of the international
community to enforce its own laws and protect the people of Gaza, we
strongly believe that we all, as citizens of the world, have a moral
obligation to directly intervene in acts of nonviolent civil resistance
to uphold international principles. Israeli threats and intimidation
will not deter us. We will sail to Gaza again and again and again, until
this siege is forever ended and the Palestinian people have free access
to the world.

NOTES:

    1. Amnesty International, Annual Human Rights Report (26 May 2010);
http://thereport.amnesty.org

    2. “The pasta, paper and hearing aids that could threaten Israeli
security,” The Independent (2 March 2009)

    3. “Restrictions on the transfer of goods to Gaza: Obstruction and
obfuscation,” Gisha (January 2010)

    4. “Carter calls Gaza blockade ‘a crime and atrocity,” Haaretz (17
April 2008),
http://www.haaretz.com/news/carter-calls-gaza-blockade-a-crime-and-atrocity-1.244176

    5. “Gaza aid convoy refuses to deliver package to Gilad Shalit,”
Haaretz (27 May 2010)

    6. “Comprehensive Report on Status of Palestinian Political
Prisoners,” Sumoud (June 2004); Palestinian Children Political
Prisoners, Addameer, http://www.addameer.org/detention/children.html

    7. Article 42 of the Hague Regulations stipulates, a “territory is
considered occupied when it is actually placed under the authority of
the hostile army,” and that the occupation extends “to the territory
where such authority has been established and can be exercised.”
Similarly, in the Hostage Case, the Nuremburg Tribunal held that, “the
test for application of the legal regime of occupation is not whether
the occupying power fails to exercise effective control over the
territory, but whether it has the ability to exercise such power.”
Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, like those in the West Bank,
continue to be subject to Israeli control. For example, Israel controls
Gaza’s air space, territorial waters, and all border crossings.
Palestinians in Gaza require Israel’s consent to travel to and from
Gaza, to take their goods to Palestinian and foreign markets, to acquire
food and medicine, and to access water and electricity. Without Israel’s
permission, the Palestinian Authority (PA) cannot perform such basic
functions of government as providing social, health, security and
utility services, developing the Palestinian economy and allocating
resources.

    8. John Holmes, Briefing to the U Security Council on the situation
in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, 27 January 2009.

    9. Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in
Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949, Article I stating, “The High
Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the
present Convention in all circumstances.” See also, Legal Consequences
of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,
Advisory Opinion, I. C. J. Reports 2004, p. 136 at 138;
http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/131/1671.pdf.

Updated on May 28, 2010

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Matthias Reichl, Pressesprecher/ press speaker,
Begegnungszentrum fuer aktive Gewaltlosigkeit
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