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An embargo on adequate food and medical aid can never be lawful, so those on board had the right to defend themselves

Sir, The attack by Israeli forces on the Turkish-registered vessel Mavi Marmara in international waters was clearly unlawful.

By virtue of the decision by the Permanent Court of International Justice in the Lotus case (1927), the basic principle under customary international law, is that “…vessels on the high seas are subject to no authority except that of the State whose flag they fly”; in this case, Turkey. Indeed, a 1988 treaty, to which Israel is a party, criminalises the unlawful and intentional seizure or exercise of control over a ship by force and all connected injuries, deaths and/or detentions.

Israel claims that it was lawfully enforcing a legal blockade. Even if the blockade is legal, in order to rely on this legal justification, Israel is required to liaise with the flag state, Turkey, before trying to board the vessel. It did not.

In any event, this blockade is not lawful. An embargo on adequate food and medical aid can never be lawful. As the boarding of the Mavi Marmara by Israeli forces was unlawful, those on board had the right to defend themselves, subject to the constraints of Turkish criminal law. Any force used by Israeli commandos may be judged as unlawful, let alone the use of lethal force.

Turkey must now be assisted by all UN member states to gain access to all of the evidence relating to this incident so that it may conduct a comprehensive criminal investigation, at the conclusion of which the Israeli personnel involved may need to defend their actions before a criminal court. UN sanctions should be imposed against Israel if it refuses to co-operate with such an investigation. Finally, the unlawful blockade of Gaza must now end.

Daniel Machover
Chair of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights
Roy Amlot, QC

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Signatories to the Times letter

1. Daniel Machover, Chair of Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights
2. Louise Christian, Christian Khan Solicitors
3. Phil Shiner, Public Interest Lawyers
4. Roy Amlot QC
5. Kate Maynard, Hickman & Rose Solicitors
6. Raj Chada, Hodge Jones Allen
7. Sam McIntosh, Solicitor, University of Reading
8. Dr Mandy Turner, Department of Peace Studies, University of Bradford
9. Mary Nazzal-Batayneh, Barrister, Chair of Human Rights Legal Aid Fund
10. Haroon Shah, Christian Khan Solicitors
11. Jim Nichol, Solicitor
12. Amer Ahmad, Solicitor
13. Katherine Craig, Solicitor
14. Lisa Davis, Solicitor
15. Margaret Gordon, Solicitor
16. Sarah McSherry, Solicitor
17. Rachael Wellby, Solicitor
18. Anna Mazzola, Solicitor
19. Sophie Naftalin
20. Niall Sookoo
21. Salma Karmi-Ayyoub
22. Dan Carey, Public Interest Lawyers
23. Tessa Gregory, Public Interest lawyers
24. Jim Duffy, Public Interest lawyers
25. Sam Jacobs, Public Interest Lawyers
26. Andrew Post, Barrister
27. Andrew Sanger
28. Blinne Ni Ghralaigh, barrister
29. Smita Shah, Garden Court Chambers
30. Hattie Miall
31. Rachel Bowles
32. Liz Davies barrister and Chair Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers.
33. Livio Zilli Garden Court Chambers
34. Peter Rowlands barrister
35. Mark George Q.C.
36. Rachael Rowley-fox barrister
37. Keir Monteith barrister
38. Shiraz Aziz barrister
39. Hossein Zahir barrister
40. Nerida Harford-Bell barrister
41. Stephen Marsh barrister
42. John Beckley, Barrister
43. Kirsten Heaven, Garden Court Chambers
44. Jonathan Wilkinson barrister
45. Chris McWatters barrister
46. Richard J. Harvey Garden Court Chambers
47. Lionel Blackman Chair SIHRG Solicitors’ International Human Rights Group
Maya Sikand Garden Court Chambers
48. Martin Huseyin Tooks chambers
49. Pete Weatherby Garden Court North
50. Allison Bailey Garden Court Chambers
51. Stephen Cavalier CEO Thompsons
52. Karen Mitchell Partner Thompsons
53. David Thompson Partner Thompsons.
54. Henry Blaxland Q.C.
55. Anna Morris Garden Court Chambers
56. Anya Lewis Garden Court Chambers
57. Helen Foot barrister
58. Omar Shibli Garden Court Chambers
59. Sean Horstead Garden Court Chambers
60. Jo Wilding Garden Court Chambers
61. James Scobie Garden Court Chambers
62. Rajiv Menon Garden Court Chambers
63. Sharon L Garden Court Chambers
64. Bansi Soni Garden Court Chambers
65. Maya Naidoo Garden Court Chambers
66. Kate Aubrey-Johnson, barrister, Garden Court Chambers
67. Birinder Kang Garden Court Chambers
68. Sarah Hemingway Garden Court Chambers
69. Sarah Hibbin SOAS

http://qik.com/video/7088810

There is something unspeakable about the Israeli attempts to explain away their horrible attack on a peace ship at dawn Monday, something offensive and rotten about their claims that the soldiers, armed with “paint-ball guns,” suddenly had to switch to assault rifles or Uzis or sidearms and murder a bunch of innocent human beings on a ship loaded with supplies for a struggling people. The army has now published a video of what are supposed to be caches of arms secreted in the hold of the Mavi Marmara—one Molotov cocktail, a pile of metal pipes, a pile of wrenches, slingshots, gas-masks—justifying the violent takeover. A “lynch” armed with deadly weapons. Over in reality, the arguments about the presence of firearms have completely deteriorated. Almost no one will accept the claims. Does the Israeli government believe them? Some do, some don’t, although they’ll present a united front. Anyone in the commentariat? For sure. Seth Freedman does, and I think his defense must be a sanitized version of majority opinion within Israel—signs in Ashdod read col hacavod, Hebrew for well-done. Col hacavod, chaverim–assaulting peace activists and destroying the eye of an art student on the same day by squashing it with a propelled tear-gas grenade (Freedman, demonstrating close touch with reality, thinks Huwaida Arraf is male).

The latest video shows Israeli soldiers attacking the ship. They continued attacking after the activists ran up a white flag, surrendering. Every independent data-point—and I have to use ridiculous technical jargon because the observers’ video evidence is hidden or has been destroyed—suggests that Israel kept firing for a long time. Everyone knows that Netanyahu and Lieberman approved this assault. Everyone knows that some sort of approving signal came out of the Obama administration, perhaps—to ensure plausible deniability—through the State Department, perhaps a quiet huddle between under-secretaries accompanied by freighted vacuity like, “We understand the Israeli government’s position on this.” The government didn’t expect Israel to slaughter innocents on the high seas, though. Why didn’t they predict it? Simple. They don’t quite get that the Israeli government is run by thugs, perhaps seeking to see how far they can push their boundaries, perhaps simply because they are incompetent. Who knows. In a way, who cares. What matters is that American support will not waver–not yet. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff, Deputy Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations, said at the United Nations: “mechanisms exist for the transfer of humanitarian assistance to Gaza by member states and groups that want to do so. These non-provocative and non-confrontational mechanisms should be the ones used for the benefit of all those in Gaza. Direct delivery by sea is neither appropriate nor responsible, and certainly not effective, under the circumstances.”

Meanwhile, even Israeli Zionists are commenting, “The damage that Israel has caused itself internationally can hardly be exaggerated.” While the Lobby covers for it. That’s the Zionist lobby again? Odd thing, because it doesn’t seem to be doing much for Zionism nor for the Jews nor for Israel.

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ABC’s Lisa Chinn reports:

Ambassador Edward Peck, 80 years old, and the former Chief of Mission in Baghdad decided to take the trip to Gaza because they were trying to get materials to “Gazans need and are denied.” Peck, who returned from his mission by way of Israel – who ‘deported’ him remains “disappointed that Israel” chose to respond the way it has to what he calls a humanitarian mission.

Abc_edward_peck_100601_wmain

Peck, a retired career diplomat and no stranger to controversy these past few years – he was a bold and loud opponent to Bush Administration’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003, maintains that the bulk of material that was being brought to Gaza was “hospital equipment, building materials, and prefabricated housing.”

Peck saw no serious violence when the Israelis boarded the ship, and in fact, slept through most of it, saying it occurred in the early morning hours, around 4 a.m, and that by the time he got above board, the siege, which was peaceful, was over.

“I jumped out of bed fully clothed because there are no facilities on the ship. No shower, no wash, no nothin’ and went upstairs and there I encountered a group of Israeli commandos who said, ‘sit down,’ we heard that a lot, ‘sit down.’ They were by that time in control of the ship and fine. You know, they didn’t harm anybody after that. They harmed some folks in getting on board as people tried to block them from taking over. “

The ship he was on was far from the main, larger ship that may have seen the most violent action. Peck said they had been told Israelis might attempt to block the flotilla, and that those aboard his smaller ship had discussed in advance how they would handle such an event. After being taken, they were “incommunicado” in the words of Peck, and were unaware of what had happened to others in the flotilla. Peck said he had “concern that it might have been much rougher on some of the other ships. It was. People were tasered. People were shot. You know, people died on some of the other ships because they resisted. We didn’t . We had already talked amongst ourselves as to what we were going to do. I got there too late to lock arms around the wheelhouse because it was all over by that time.”

Ambassador Peck, who was deported from Israel and flown into the U.S. this morning, returning to his Chevy Chase, MD home the way so many Washingtonians do after a long flight – by Metro. Peck returned with only the clothes on his back and the hat on his head, and his take on being ‘deported’ from Israel is bit humorous, given the difficulties he experienced, telling ABC NEWS that the Israelis told him, “You’ve broken Israeli law, I said ‘which one?’ They said you have entered the country illegally. I said I’m sorry. But if I’m brought into the country under armed escort that is not entering the country illegally. Forcibly. We’ll they don’t agree with that. I was deported so I suppose that goes on my record. “

For his part, Peck believes this will be a “major political flap” for Israel and that “bad things have happened, are happening and will happen as long as what’s going on in Palestine and what isn’t going on in Palestine continues, that’s a dead end street, as several of Israel’s leaders have said.”

June 1, 2010 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (25)