Online Journal Contributing Writer
Jun 14, 2010, 00:15
Courtesy Of "The Online Journal"
On May 31 in international waters, Israel attacked and hijacked a flotilla of six vessels carrying 600 human rights activists from more than 30 countries and their cargo of medicine, construction materials and other humanitarian aid to the 1.5 million Palestinian people in Gaza which has been under siege since 2007 by Israel and Egypt, supported by the U.S. Siege is defined as a military blockade of a city to compel it to surrender.
Nine of the humanitarian activists were killed and 46 wounded by Israeli commandos boarding the largest ship, the Turkish Mavi Marmara. Five were fatally shot in the back and a total of 30 bullet wounds were found in the nine dead.
Israel confiscated all phones, cameras, computers and released a video showing commandos rappelling down to the ship while men with clubs waited for them. There was no mention of tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and live ammo fired upon the ships before boarding as some of the activists are saying now that they have been released.
Gaza has been referred to as the largest open air prison in the world, since its people have no access to the outside world under the blockade and are totally dependent upon limited Israeli trucks bringing in U.N. aid and whatever items can be smuggled in via tunnels from Egypt.
The World Health Organization reports, “The closure of Gaza since mid-2007 and the last Israeli military strike between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009 have led to on-going deterioration in the social, economic and environmental determinants of health . . . 70 percent of families are living on income of less than one dollar per day.”
When Hamas, which the U.S. and Israel consider a terrorist organization, won the U.N. certified parliamentary elections in 2006, the U.S. and Israel backed a military coup against Hamas by the Fatah Party which had been defeated at the polls. Hamas then defeated Fatah in bloody fighting and took control of Gaza, but not the West Bank.
The U.S. cut off all aid to Hamas and Gaza, Israel and Egypt instituted the blockade and Hamas shot their wildly inaccurate rockets into southern Israel. In 2008, Hamas and Israel reached a cease fire. The Israeli Intelligence and Information Center reported that “Hamas was careful to maintain the cease fire” but other groups did not, although there were no Israeli fatalities or injuries from them. On November 4, Israel troops entered Gaza and killed six members of Hamas building a tunnel. The rockets from Hamas into Israel started again and a single Israeli civilian fatality preceded Israel’s massive offensive in December 2008-January 2009, justified by Israel as necessary to stop the rocket attacks.
Israel’s Operation Cast Lead resulted in 1,440 dead Palestinians, including 545 women and children. Israel’s casualties were considerably fewer; a total of 13 dead, including three civilians. Four of the military dead were killed by their own Israeli forces. In Gaza more than 4,000 homes, 600 factories and businesses, 24 mosques, 8 hospitals and 26 clinics were damaged or destroyed in addition to sewage/water treatment facilities, roads and bridges.
Israel does not allow construction supplies into Gaza. Something as simple and basic as concrete is banned and the people have not been able to rebuild their homes, hospitals or businesses. The Freedom Flotilla had some construction supplies onboard.
The blockade is collective punishment of a civilian population. The offensive is clearly a disproportionate response. The hijacking of the flotilla is piracy and an act of war. All are violations of international law.
As a believer in human rights and as peace activist I do not sanction rocket attacks or violence of any kind, but then I am not living with my family cut off from the rest of humanity in the world’s largest open-air prison. So I will not pontificate to those that are in this condition. What I will do is demand that my government stop funding and supporting Israel as long as they continue to deny the Palestinian people basic human rights, including the right to return to the land Israel took from them.
Nick Egnatz of Munster, Indiana, is a Vietnam veteran and member of Veterans For Peace. He has been actively protesting our government’s crimes of empire in both person and print for some years now and was named “Citizen of the Year” for Northwest Indiana in 2006 by the National Association of Social Workers for his peace activism. Contact Nick at nickatlakehills@sbcglobal.net.Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal
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