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Israel Threatens Use of Force Against Free Gaza Movement Boats |
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I’ve been following with interest the Free Gaza Movement effort to break the Israeli Navy’s blockade of Gaza by sailing two unarmed sloops from Cyprus to the Palestinian enclave. Due to stormy weather, the project has been forced to put back their scheduled departure date from several days ago.
Israel is ratcheting up the pressure on participants in the voyage. Haaretz reveals that the Israeli foreign ministry has released a legal white paper claiming its navy has the right to use force against the ships:
Defense officials favor forcefully blocking two boats which a group of U.S.-based activists plan to sail to Gaza to protest what they call “the Israeli siege on the Strip,†Haaretz has learned.
…Allowing the ships to reach the Gaza coastline could create a dangerous precedent.
…A position paper by the Foreign Ministry’s legal department says Israel has the right to use force against the demonstrators as part of the Oslo Accords, which names Israel as responsible for Gaza’s territorial waters.
This seems typically out of proportion to the “threat†represented by the enterprise. And one wonders what “dangerous precedent†it could create? Hamas militants disguised as peace activists smuggling Iranian missiles into Gaza by boat? It seems ludicrous that Israeli gunboats will have their weapons targeted on a group of defenseless peace activists attempting to do something no more dangerous than deliver two tons of medical supplies to the local population.
And even if the foreign ministry is right in claiming it has jurisdiction over Gaza waters (which I’m not at all willing to concede given that Ariel Sharon “withdrew†from Gaza years ago–well after the Oslo accords were signed–and supposedly washed his hands of involvement in its affairs) under what justification can it forcefully prevent the ships from entering Gazan waters, detain participants, and subject them to Israeli interrogation? What threat or danger do they pose to anything other than Israel’s image?
Though there are Americans, Europeans and even Israelis on board, the government, again typically sees the project as a wholly owned enterprise of Hamas:
According to some officials, Hamas is keen to exploit the initiative by the activists - including Israeli Hebrew University professor and activist Jeff Halper - for its political needs, and could try to greet the seafarers with fishing boats.
The officials believe that Hamas views the drive as an opportunity to underscore the suffering of the civilian population because of Israel’s policies…
How frightening it must be to the unnamed “officials†that the FGM boats might be welcomed by Gaza fishing boats. And how disturbing it must be for Israel to face the prospect that Jewish and non-Jewish peace campaigners, no less than Hamas itself, may want to bring to the world’s attention the suffering Israel is causing through its suffocation of the enclave.
Writing in her daily update, FGM participant and Tony Blair sister-in-law, Lauren Booth, reveals a frightening psyops campaign being waged against individuals and their families. It appears that unknown opponents of the group have gained access to private cell and home phone numbers and e mail addresses and are sending threatening messages which warn the ships will be sabotaged and those on them killed:
Over the the past 72 hours almost a dozen aggressive messages have been received by members of the groups both on board the ships and in Cyprus. In Nicosia, where twenty human rights campaigners including Hedy Epstein await to board the Freegaza and the Liberty, anonymous callers have been making threats to the general well being of all concerned.
Some of these texts, calls and answer messages focus on the ships being ‘blown up’ or ‘destroyed, killing all on board.’ Unnerving enough. But today I can reveal even more pernicious acts of psychological violence on those both reporting and supporting this effort to ease the blockade of Gaza by Israel.
Since Monday, some campaigners, (who I will not name here for obvious reasons), have received phone calls made to their mobiles. More disturbingly, in an increasing number of cases - to family members.
Now, it is my turn. Yesterday afternoon, on the 14th of August 2008, an anonymous young man called my home in France as my daughters played hide and seek in the garden. This stranger spoke to my husband, warning him that ‘your wife is in great danger. These ships will be blown up.’ My husband asked how it was this person had obtained our private home number. No response was forthcoming, but the illicit threats carried on.
Who is behind these phone calls? Who benefits by upsetting the families of those onboard the Freegaza and the Liberty? Who would wish to unsettle journalists aboard as unarmed ships set sail towards the waters around Gaza and almost certain interception by Israeli forces?
The answer is clear.
Perhaps not as clear as Booth would have us believe. Clearly, pro-Israel far-rightists would be motivated to carry out such a psyops campaign. But would Israeli intelligence be involved? One would have to ask how even a motivated lay true believer could gain access to the private information these harassers now have. I would suggest that it may be likely that the Mossad is involved in some way even if it is just to pass information on to others willing to harass the FGM. Of course, as is typical of their ham-handedness, it only creates more sympathy for the project among those who might be on the fence concerning its goals.
And should the Israeli Navy overreact to the boats as they come closer to Gaza and engage in violence to subdue them, this will provide even further proof to the world that Israel, just as it is brutal in implementing its stranglehold over Gaza–is willing to be almost as brutal in subduing non-Palestinians who seek nothing more than to show Israelis how counter-productive their policy is.
(originally posted at Tikun Olam)
Richard Silverstein writes Tikun Olam, one of the earliest progressive Jewish blogs (2003), dedicated to Israeli-Arab peace. He also created the Israel Palestine Forum, a site for progressive discussion of the issues related to the conflict. He writes weekly for the Guardian’s Comment is Free blog and for Huffington Post. He has also published at Haaretz, the Jewish Forward, the Los Angeles Times, and American Conservative Magazine. He contributed a chapter to A Time to Speak Out (Verso Books), an essay collection by Independent Jewish Voices to be published in October. He earned undergraduate degrees from Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary and an MA in Comparative Literature at UCLA. He has been devoted to Israeli-Arab peace since 1968, and currently lives in Seattle with his wife and three children.
Excellent piece. I think it’s unlikely Israel will make good on its threats of violence against the Liberty and Free Gaza. Sinking two humanitarian vessels would be catastrophically bad P.R. for them; although they’ve used violence against peaceful demonstrators many times before.
As I said in my post on this topic, the smartest thing Israel can do, and what I think they will wind up doing, is intercept the ships and then gather together the media to document them turning it over to the Palestinians.
What would America’s reaction be to two ships of let’s say, Mexican “activists” entering her territorial waters via the Caribbean? Whatever America’s response would be, Israel should do the same.
BTW, are these “activists” the same type that Barack Obama was after he graduated from law school?
But Gaza is not Israel’s territorial waters. Israel left Gaza in 2005 & has no mandate to occupy it today except one of its own making.
One would have thought that blowing up a family on a beach, dropping bombs on children in Lebanon, calling the killing of a 12 year old Palestinian child, “a good kill”, killing babies by shutting off the electricity…one would think that any one of these or a thousand other atrocities would have generated “catastrophically bad PR” for Israel.
Somehow it never happens. Yet let ONE Palestinian - not the government, not the army, neither of which exist - one individual Palestinian kill one Israeli civilian, and that generates catastrophically bad PR for the entire Palestinian population for months or years.
Yet let ONE Palestinian - not the government, not the army, neither of which exist - one individual Palestinian kill one Israeli civilian, and that generates catastrophically bad PR for the entire Palestinian population for months or years.
You’re absolutely correct: Palestinians (Or Lebanese for that matter) and Israelis are not held to the same standard when it comes to violence.
I am a Jewish person living in America, and I am ashamed of Israel. Israel is a totalitarian state. They will kill peace activists because the Israelis know that the Palestinians can not be allowed to have any rights at all. The reason for that stance is that Israel is an invader. Everyone forgets that the USA invaded Palestine in 1948 and wiped out the country, installing Israel as a puppet government.
Israel has ignored every law, both international and national, that goes against their wishes. This is a defacto “devine right” government, not one bit different from the Nazi Germany leadership. I love my Jewish people, but Jews worldwide fear and abhor the Israeli state. It is an embarrassment to Judaism. Israel is Jewish in the same way that the Taliban is Muslim. They’re both killers who use religion as nothing more than a tool to excuse atrocity.
Despite my own oppression, I would never blow myself up nor attack innocent civilians to protest the deaths of family or friends, nor to defend my religion. I obey the speed limit although I strongly disagree with it.
Israeli Jews are not real Jews to the rest of the world, they are Jewish Extremists. They kill. Jewish law says “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” The Torah does not say “Okay, you can kill if you feel it’s necessary, or to protect yourself.” Nowhere in our Torah do these words appear.
Israel lives in defiance of the Torah, and of Judaism. True Jews would vacate Israel to make peace. That is our way. We invented ‘turn the other cheek.’
Americans should not confuse the puppet government of Israel with real Judaism. Israel was created by the USA to give the US a clear, moral high ground, which allows the US to commit atrocities by proxy. The USA has a long history of creating new states and commanding them to commit heinous crimes against US enemies. Many of these enemies are merely annoyances, roadblocks to obtaining oil or wealth, and 94% of all US enemies have been third world countries lacking the ability to present a threat to America.
PLEASE END THIS ATROCITY.
Do not support the Israeli state. Do not present Israel as a valid government, any more than Iraq has been a valid government for many decades. One puppet state is as bad as another. The USA is a horrific, murderous, and devine-right regime which has a terrifying record of murder worldwide. To date, the USA has fought over 200 wars, most of which were waged against sovereign nations that had no ability to defend themselves against the higher technology. In every way, the US has attacked and destroyed Democracy in order to install Dictatorships. How is that fighting for peace?
I am a US Naval veteran, and I can swear to this testimony in particular, without revealing the national secrets of the US. The United States is a killing machine worried only about one thing: Power.
Israel is not the ally of America. Israel is America’s tool. America created Israel and continues to fund and arm Israel. These weapons are used against indigenous peoples and civilians. More children are killed in Israel than in any other nation.
Sincerely,
Demopoly
Where the Hell did you come up with your comment about the USA “invading Palestine” in 1948 and installing the Israeli government? Do you have any knowledge of the history of the founding of Israel at all?
And your other comments are just as looney. “More children are killed in Israel than any other nation?” Where on earth did you come up with this “fact?”
Your comments are outrageous lies that you cannot support with any valid references. “Where’s the beef?” Show me a reference that substantiates anything you say here.
This person seems to me either to be a troll deliberately provoking w. loony arguments (possibly a plant of some kind) or else a truly deluded person. Such hate isn’t appropriate for any legitimate forum I’m afraid. I’m glad to see that other commenters here take a more sober & balanced approach to their politics.
Maybe they’re worried that the boats will smuggle weapons?
What peace loving Paletinians smuggle weapons,… Nah!
This writer makes somewhat effective use of rhetoric and false or deceptive language forms. A- on the argument forms and F on the content. Keep working at it. This piece is only going to appeal to the hardcore Jew-hater with no critical thinking skills or the very young with no life experience.
In the following paragraph, for example, the writer seems to imply skills, training, and years of experience as a military analyst.
This seems typically out of proportion to the %u201Cthreat%u201D represented by the enterprise. And one wonders what %u201Cdangerous precedent%u201D it could create? Hamas militants disguised as peace activists smuggling Iranian missiles into Gaza by boat? It seems ludicrous that Israeli gunboats will have their weapons targeted on a group of defenseless peace activists attempting to do something no more dangerous than deliver two tons of medical supplies to the local population.
Seems %u201Ctypically out of proportion%u201D to whom? What is the %u201Ccorrect%u201D proportion? One does wonder %u2026
COMMENT INTERRUPT:
This article is an excellent example of bullshit. Its fake. The arguments are invalid and deceptive. The facts cited are twisted and distorted. The language used is so biased against the Israelis as to be laughable, until you remember that %u201Cthe writer%u201D is supporting a murderous group who dance for joy as they cut their victims bodies into pieces(or burn). The writer cannot be enough of a moron to be unaware of this.
So, what is the writers goal here?
Do I hear Islamophobe…?
I’ve a helluva lot more experience analyzing Israeli military issues than this commenter, that’s for sure.
Careful Phil. While you are making an argument, you’re dangerously close to making personal attacks, which we don’t allow.