New boats headed to Gaza to challenge blockade
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Organizers of the Gaza aid flotilla say they’re sending two more ships to the area within the next few days, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement says a cargo boat is already on the way to challenge the blockade on the Gaza Strip. She says a second boat carrying about three dozen passengers is expected to join it.

Thousand’s more Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s coming, Israel. Learn to respect human rights and allow humanitarian aid into Gaza. End the Blockade/Bondage and let the Palestinian people go.

On-board video of Gaza Freedom Flotilla storm, aid workers & Israeli troops clash



Gaza’s real humanitarian crisis




Israeli lawyers: Raid violates int’l law



Turkey recalls envoy over Gaza flotilla deaths, accuses Israel of ’state terrorism’



Middle East Fury: Video of angry protests as Israel attacks Gaza Freedom Flotilla



Gaza Flotilla Attacked: Israeli troops storm aid ships, up to 20 killed



Israeli troops storms and Kills 2 Peace Activists on Gaza flotilla



Gaza flotilla drives Israel into a sea of stupidity



UN aid group: Israel deliberately hampering West Bank, Gaza relief efforts

Gaza’s real humanitarian crisis
By Gregg Carlstrom

A Palestinian man waits at the Erez border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip [EPA]

The Israeli government has, for weeks, insisted that the 10,000 tonnes of supplies on board the Gaza aid flotilla are not necessary. Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister, reiterated that claim on Friday, telling reporters “there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza”.

“Israel is conducting itself in the most humanitarian manner, and allowing the entrance of thousands of tonnes of food and equipment to Gaza,” he told reporters on Friday.

It’s true that Israel allows basic necessities – which Israeli officials often term “humanitarian aid” – to enter the blockaded Gaza Strip. But it tightly controls both the type and quantity of goods allowed into the territory.

Navi Pillay, the United Nations’ human rights chief, called the blockade devastating in an August 2009 report. Pillay said it constituted collective punishment, illegal under international law.

Israel usually allows 81 items into Gaza, a list which is subject to revision on a near-daily basis. It is riddled with contradictions: Zaatar, a mix of dried spices, is allowed into the territory; coriander and cumin are not. Chick peas are allowed, while tahini was barred until March 2010.

“Luxury goods,” things like chocolate, are prohibited altogether.

So are most construction materials, though Israel has relaxed this prohibition slightly over the last few weeks. The United Nations refugee agency has resorted to constructing houses out of mud because other building material are unavailable.

And those products allowed to enter Gaza are permitted only in modest quantities. In January 2007, Gaza received more than 10,000 truckloads of goods each month; by January 2009, that number was down to roughly 3,000.

A 2008 report from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) found that 70 per cent of Gaza’s population suffered from “food insecurity.” As Al Jazeera’s Sherine Tadros reported last week, the Israeli authorities allow little meat and fresh produce into Gaza, leading to widespread malnutrition in the territory.

Medical goods, too, are in short supply. The World Health Organisation says dozens of basic medicines are unavailable in Gaza because of the blockade.

In 2008, Gaza had only 133 hospital beds per 100,000 people, less than one-fourth the hospital capacity of Israel. That capacity was further reduced during Operation Cast Lead – Israel’s three-week war in Gaza, launched in December 2008 – which damaged a number of hospitals.

“The situation is deteriorating due to the closure – there are restrictions of movement, restrictions of food – it causes problems in areas of health, water, [and] sanitation,” Cecilia Goin, a spokeswoman for the ICRC, said on Monday.

“The ICRC is especially concerned about the health situation of the people.”

Fuel, too, is heavily restricted, with many Gaza residents facing hours of power cuts each day. The blackouts force many families and businesses to buy generators, and their widespread use has serious consequences: An Oxfam report released in March concluded that 15 Gazans have died from “generator-related accidents” since January.

All of this creates a scenario in which, according to Amnesty International’s latest annual report, Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants are “cut off… from the rest of the world.”

Amnesty concluded that four out of five Gazans – 80 per cent of the population -depend on external aid to survive.
an Aljazeera article

Israeli lawyers: Raid violates int’l law

Prosecution charges that Israel engaged in acts of piracy.

The State will have to provide a legal justification to the High Court of Justice on Tuesday morning for its takeover by force of eight boats which were on their way to deliver humanitarian goods to the Gaza Strip.

On Monday, a group of lawyers including Avigdor Feldman, Yiftah Cohen, Itamar Mann and Omer Shatz petitioned the High Court, charging that Israel had violated the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea by capturing the boats in international waters.

RELATED:
UNSC holds urgent meeting on flotilla

The petitioners are demanding that the court rule that the sea operation was illegal, and that the passengers be released and allowed to return to their boats, which should be permitted to reach the Gaza Strip.

“To the degree that the State adheres to international law, including the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas, we see that this was an act of piracy, albeit by a state, but one which can be regarded as a robbery by sea of the passengers in the convoy, beginning with the takeover of the vessels, the seizing of the goods on board…and ending with the arrest and hijacking of the passengers and, apparently, the act of bringing them by force to Israeli territory.”

Israel did not sign the convention.

The lawyers wrote that these acts constitute an international crime and that they establish the right to apply the principle of universal jurisdiction by any tribunal, especially by the courts of those countries whose flags were flown by the vessels that were attacked.”

The petitioners also referred to other precedents in international law which, they argued, justified the demands of the petitioners. One was the so-called Lotus Case, in 1927, which involved a French ship which accidentally rammed a Turkish vessel in international waters, killing eight Turks. The French vessel was brought to Turkey and the captain was put on trial. France appealed the Turkish action, arguing that it (France) alone had jurisdiction on the high seas for its own vessels. However, the court ruled that sovereign states may act in anyway they please on the high seas as long as they do not violate an explicit prohibition.

The UN convention calls for freedom of navigation in international waters, states that the high seas shall be reserved for peaceful purposes and that no state my validly purport to subject any part of the high seas to its sovereignty.

The third source referred to by the petitioners, which they said was part of customary law and therefore binding on Israel, was the 1804 Murray vs. Charming Betsy case, in which the court ruled that even during wartime, the US army may not seize goods that are not for military use in international waters.”

Robbie Sabel, the former legal adviser to the foreign ministry, told The Jerusalem Post that the state would almost certainly argue that the seizure of the vessels was an executive act with which the court was not authorized to intervene.

Sabel also said that Israel considered the Gaza Strip hostile territory which is engaged in armed conflict against it. The UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea did not deal with armed conflict.

Meanwhile, the laws of war recognized naval blockades as a legal and established part of the laws of armed conflict. There were many examples of countries that have maintained naval blockades in international waters and they have not been declared illegal, Sabel maintained.

He added that neither of the other arguments regarding the Lotus Case and Murray vs. Charming Betsy were relevant to the present situation.

Kerry: ‘I am saddened by the tragic loss of life’
By JPOST.COM

WASHINGTON, D.C. – I am saddened by the tragic loss of life in the waters off Gaza, US Sen. John Kerry said in a statement released Monday after he learned of the IDF raid on Gaza-bound flotillas.

“At this point, it is unclear what happened and there must be a thorough investigation. This unfortunate incident underscores the necessity of resolving the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians,” Kerry underlined.

Turkey recalls envoy over Gaza flotilla deaths, accuses Israel of ‘state terrorism’
Egypt summons Israeli ambassador after nine activists killed in Israel Navy raid; Arab League urges member states to ‘reconsider dealings with Israel’; Abbas: Israel committed ‘massacre’.

Turkey announced Monday that it was recalling its ambassador to Israel after at least nine international activists were killed when Israel Navy commandoes stormed a ship bringing aid to the Gaza Strip.
Protesters burn an Israeli flag during a demonstration against Israel’s attack on the Gaza aid convo

Protesters burn an Israeli flag during a demonstration against Israel’s attack on the Gaza aid convoy at Taksim square in Istanbul on May 31, 2010
Photo by: AP

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Recep Erdogan said the incident represented a complete violation of international law.

“This action, totally contrary to the principles of international law, is inhumane state terrorism. Nobody should think we will keep quiet in the face of this,” Erdogan told reporters from Chile, where he was cutting short an official visit to Latin America to deal with the crisis.

Turkey and Israel hold diplomatic ties, though they have been strained over the last year.

Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Jerusalem, summoned Israel’s envoy in Cairo in response to the incident.

The Arab League, meanwhile, urged member states to “reconsider” their dealings with Israel. Syria asked for an emergency Arab League meeting to discuss what it described as Israeli aggression on Gaza-bound international aid ships.

“Syria’s representative to the Arab league has submitted a formal memo to the League requesting it to convene,” the official Syrian news agency said.

“Israel’s attack indicates Israel is not ready for peace. Israel attacked the liberty fleet because it feels it is above the law,” Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said in Doha.

“There is no benefit in dealing with Israel in this manner and we must re-assess our dealing with Israel,” he said.

Israeli commandos intercepted the aid flotilla on Monday. Officials said they were met with knives and staves when they boarded the ships, which included a ferry flying the Turkish flag.

Israel’s foreign ministry warned its citizens to avoid travel to Turkey and instructed those already there to keep a low profile and avoid crowded downtown areas.

Turkey denounced Israel’s killing of 10 left-wing activists as “unacceptable” and summoning Israel’s ambassador to discuss the incident – bringing already tense relations between the countries to new heights.

The ministry said that Israel had violated international law and must now carry the consequences.”The interception on the convoy] is unacceptable … Israel will have to endure the consequences of this behavior,” it said in a statement.

Murat Mercan, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party, said: “I was expecting an intervention. I was not expecting bloodshed, the use of arms and bullets.”

“Israel is engaged in activity that will extremely hurt its image,” he said. Erdogan, meanwhile, cut short a trip abroad to deal with the incident.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described the clashes as a “massacre”.

Iran said the killings were “inhuman” and would help lead to Israel’s demise, and some 200 Iranians staged a demonstration near the United Nations building in Tehran to protest against the storming.

“All these acts indicate the end of the heinous and fake regime and will bring it closer to the end of its existence,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told state broadcaster IRIB. Iran is under international pressure over its nuclear program.