Israel attacks aid ships

Yesterday Israel attacked a small flotilla of six ships carrying food, medicine and other aid to Gaza; the ships had on board six hundred humanitarian activists from many nations and sailed from Turkey. Amongst the humanitarian activists on board the ships were Northern Ireland’s Maraid Corrigan, the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Hedy Epstein, holocaust survivor and peace activist, and a number of European legislators.

At the time of the attack the ships were in international waters. As a result of the attack at least ten people were killed and thirty injured; some reports give the figures as high as nineteen dead and sixty injured. No Israeli soldiers were killed; two suffered injury.

The Israeli Defense Force and latterly spokesmen for the Israeli Government, including Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Alyon, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have variously claimed that the Israeli soldiers fought only defend themselves after being attacked on board the ships, and that the convoy itself was a provocation to Israel, and that it may have been carrying arms for the Palestinians. On the first point, counter claims have been made from individuals on board the ships that the Israeli soldiers landed on the ships already firing their weapons, whilst one also needs to note that the boarding of those ships in international waters was illegal and can be construed at best as piracy; at worst as an act of aggression against Turkey. On the second point the convoy was carrying a fully manifested cargo of 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid. This comprised primarily food, medicines, cement, other building materials, and water purifiers, materials which Israel has consistently refused to let through to Gaza as part of the ongoing blockade (since 2007).

That blockade has had a severe impact on the lives of the people of Gaza. There are continual breakdowns of the electricity system and sanitation system in Gaza through a lack of spare parts needed for ongoing maintenance and repair; there is a lack of food and medicine, to the point that the infrastructure of Gaza and the health of the inhabitants of Gaza have significantly deteriorated over the past two years. Indeed, the blockade has ensured that the collateral damage instituted by Israel in 2008 in its twenty-two day attack on Gaza has never been made good.

Some figures from the United Nations and the Aid agencies make clear the dire situation for Gazans.

• since the intensification of the siege in June 2007, “the formal economy in Gaza has collapsed”
• ”61% of people in the Gaza Strip are …food insecure,” of which “65% are children under 18 years”
• since June 2007, “the number of Palestine refugees unable to access food and lacking the means to purchase even the most basic items, such as soap, school stationery and safe drinking water, has tripled”
• ”in February 2009, the level of anaemia in babies (9-12 months) was as high as 65.5%”

Dov Weisglass, an adviser to Ehud Olmert, the then Israeli Prime Minister, said when the blockade was first imposed: "The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger"; a comment that is as racist, heartless and cruel as it is crass.

The attack in 2008, precipitated by Hamas rocket attacks of northern Israel, provides another example of Israeli aggression. The Hamas rocket attacks killed thirteen Israelis; the Israeli response led to the deaths of 1,400 Palestinians, trapped in the homes and neighbourhoods and then brutally bombarded.

The 2008 attack, the blockade / siege, and now the illegal assault on foreign ships are but the latest events in a long line of Israeli atrocities and international crimes against humanity. Other examples are:

• The Sabra and Shatilla massacres in 1982: They took place in the refugee camps in Lebanon.
• The crushing of the 1987 Palestinian intifada resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian men, women and children, with many more injured or maimed for life.

There are in reality hundreds of examples of Israeli atrocities meted out to Palestinians; Amnesty International published a full condemnation of Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank as long ago as 2004. At some point the world needs to take action. The community of nations must take the strongest possible action against Israel. A UN resolution is being put forward by Turkey; the acid test is if this will be supported by the USA. If it is not, then everything that Barak Obama promised to be is a lie, a simulacrum. American Zionism can no longer legitimately prop up the rogue nation of Israel. Until the Israel question is resolved there will be no peace or stability in the middle-east. How many more Palestinians have to die?