Madam, – I am amazed at the space you granted the Israeli Ambassador (Opinion, June 11th) for his desperate attempt to defend the indefensible acts of his government.
Storming a ship under cover of darkness and killing at least nine of its passengers in international waters is a blatant act of piracy, about which there must be a full, independent, international inquiry. Israel has the effrontery to describe this as an act of self-defence. How can piracy on the high seas be regarded as self-defence? If anybody had the right of self-defence, it was the innocent civilians whose ship was invaded by heavily armed soldiers under the cover of darkness. Taoiseach Brian Cowen told the press on the day of the massacre: “The reason why this has happened is that there is a blockade taking place at the moment in respect of humanitarian assistance being provided to the people of Gaza. I believe that that is in violation of international law”.
Israel allows in less than a quarter of the goods needed by the besieged people of Gaza. Today, it allows in only 35 products compared with the 4,000 products, which were imported before the siege began three years ago.
Israel’s excuse is that it doesn’t want Hamas to get its hands on material that is of use for military purposes. According to the Israeli NGO Gisha, Israel is banning the importation of such dangerous material as coriander, chocolate, sweets, biscuits, A4 paper, writing implements and toys. Does any more need to be said? The truth is that Israel is collectively punishing the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza. This is contrary to Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, under which an occupying power is forbidden from applying “collective penalties” on occupied people.
On the other hand, Israel chose darkness in order to tell us, as its ambassador did, a one-sided story.
Because the real purpose of the Israeli piracy was to deter any activist from trying to challenge Israel as an above-the-law country.
Deterrence is the cornerstone of the Israeli existence. This explains why Israel condemned as “hypocritical” the resolution passed by Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty 189 signatory nations last month, to declare the Middle East a nuclear weapons free zone.
Israel is the only nuclear country in the region and would do everything possible to keep the region under its control. This explains as well, the Israeli ignorance of the Arab Initiative which was indorsed by all Arab countries in 2002, calling for full normalisation between all Arab and Muslim countries and Israel in return for the land Israel conquered by force in 1967. This Israeli mentality proves that what Israel claims is self-defence is in fact defence of its nature of terror and apartheid.
Had there been any man-made law which justifies the Israeli piracy, Israel would have waited until the flotilla got into Israel’s waters and chosen to storm the ships on a bright sunny day. Because there is no such a law, Israel is doing all in its power to escape an international independent investigation on this massacre. In this context, I would like to appeal to the international community, and in particular Europe, not to let Israel get away with this crime as it did before.
Because, otherwise, the historians, mentioned by the Israeli ambassador, will hold responsible this international community rather than the extreme right-wing government of Israel for the dark unknown towards which the latter is driving all of us. – Yours, etc,