LA Jews for Peace
www.LAJewsforPeace.org
MODEL LETTER TO LA TIMES
RE: "Israelis conflicted about probe" June 15, 2010
The United States and other members of the U.N. Security Council must not
accept the "Independent Public Commission" that the Israeli government set
up to investigate the midnight attack on the Freedom Flotilla. There are at
least three major flaws in this commission. First, the commission charge is
directed more at the peace activists rather than at the Israeli commandos
who attacked the flotilla and the Israeli government illegal siege policy.
Second, the commission does not have investigative authority or subpoena
power. The leading Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz editorialized that what is
needed is a "government committee of inquiry with real powers." Third the
proposed commission has a majority of Israeli members which suggests that
the commission will be biased in favor of Israel, and will not seriously
engage the legality of the Gaza siege that underlies the attack on the
flotilla. What is needed is a truly independent, international panel with
Israeli and Turkish observers.
***
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stephane-frederic-hessel/gaza-flotilla-global-citi_b_612865.html
The Gaza Flotilla: Global Citizens Must Respond Where Governments Have
Failed
By Stéphane Hessel
Holocaust survivor, Human rights activist, Diplomat
HuffingtonPost: June 16, 2010
Israel's illegal and immoral attack on the Freedom Flotilla humanitarian aid
convoy, which left at least nine dead and dozens injured, has rightfully
stunned the world. The all-civilian convoy of 6 ships carried over 10,000
tons of critically-needed humanitarian aid and nearly 700 citizens from 40
countries. The Flotilla was an ambitious attempt to break the siege imposed
by Israel on the 1.5 million Palestinians of the occupied Gaza strip, since
2007. Carrying distinguished parliamentarians, religious leaders, authors,
journalists, a Nobel Peace Laureate, and a Holocaust survivor, the relief
convoy aimed not only to provide relief supplies to Gaza; it sought to
direct the international spotlight towards the humanitarian crisis imposed
on Gaza's residents and the imperative to end it. There is no denying that
the latter objective has succeeded, albeit with tragic consequences.
The Israeli attack on the unarmed aid convoy in international waters was "[a
clear] violation of international humanitarian law, international law of the
seas, and [by most interpretations] international criminal law," to use the
words of Richard Falk, Professor of International Law and UN Special
Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It is a
sad reality that world governments have for too long become either complicit
or apathetic to Israel's crimes and fostered its culture of impunity, under
a shield of unquestionable backing by the US. Its initial condemnation
notwithstanding, the US government has pressured the UN Security Council
members, again, to adopt ambiguous language which relieves Israel of
responsibility and creates parity between aggressor and victim.
Characteristically, the Israeli government has blamed the victims of its
raid for attacking the Israeli soldiers, claiming "self-defense." Prominent
legal expert and Director of the Sydney Centre for International Law at
Sydney Law School, Professor Ben Saul, squarely refutes Israel's claim
arguing: "Legally speaking, government military forces rappelling onto a
ship to illegally capture it are treated no differently than other
criminals. The right of self-defense in such situations rests with the
passengers on board: a person is legally entitled to resist one's own
unlawful capture, abduction and detention." He adds that "if Israeli forces
killed people, they may not only have infringed the human right to life, but
they may also have committed serious international crimes. Under article 3
of the Rome Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the
Safety of Maritime Navigation of 1988, it is an international crime for any
person to seize or exercise control over a ship by force, and also a crime
to injure or kill any person in the process."
Despite UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's statement calling for an end to
Israel's illegal siege of Gaza, the Security Council has failed to call for
an unconditional end to the blockade, allowing Israel to commit grave war
crimes with impunity, as well documented in the UN Goldstone report.
The absence of meaningful action from governments to hold Israel accountable
to international law leaves open one path for citizens of conscience: to
take this responsibility upon themselves, as done against apartheid South
Africa. Non-violent citizen-led initiatives, exemplified by the Flotilla and
the various boycott and divestment campaigns around the world, present the
most promising way to overcome the failure of world governments to stand up
to Israel's intransigence and lawless behavior. By flagrantly attacking the
aid ship, Israel has inadvertently brought unprecedented awareness and
condemnation not only of its fatal siege of Gaza but also of the wider
context of Israel's occupation practices in the Palestinian Territories, its
denial of Palestinian refugee rights, and its apartheid policies against the
indigenous, "non-Jewish" citizens of Israel.
The Freedom Flotilla brings to mind the kind of civil society solidarity
initiatives which brought an end to segregation laws in the US and apartheid
in South Africa, an analogy impossible to ignore. Like the apartheid regime
of South Africa, Israel's reaction has been to label this non-violent act an
"intentional provocation." As in the case of South Africa, the call for
international solidarity, in the form of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
(BDS) came from an overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society unions
and organizations in 2005, and is being embraced by citizens of conscience
and social movements worldwide. The BDS initiative calls for effectively
isolating Israel, its complicit business, academic and cultural
institutions, as well as companies profiting from its human rights
violations and illegal policies, as long as these policies continue.
I believe that the BDS initiative is a moral strategy which has demonstrated
its potential for success. Most recently, German Deutsche Bank became the
latest of several European financial institutions and major pension funds to
divest from Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems. Last week, two main
Italian supermarket chains announced a boycott of produce from illegal
Israeli settlements. Last month, performers Elvis Costello and Gil
Scott-Heron cancelled appearances in Israel. Reminiscent of the South
African anti-apartheid popular struggle, the current generation of students
across university campuses is actively calling upon their administrations to
adopt divestment policies.
I endorse the heartfelt words of Scottish writer Iain Banks, who in reaction
to Israel's atrocious attack on the Freedom Flotilla suggested that the best
way for international artists, writers and academics to "convince Israel of
its moral degradation and ethical isolation" is "simply by having nothing
more to do with this criminal government."
Stéphane Frédéric Hessel is a diplomat, former ambassador, French resistance
fighter and BCRA agent. Born German, he obtained French nationality in 1937.
He participated in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
of 1948.
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