Irish Ship to Gaza update

Israeli Navy Warships surrounding the humanitarian convoy

The Israeli Navy today intercepted the MV Saoirse and it is being towed to the port of Ashdod by Israeli military after what it described as a peaceful takeover. Former rugby player Trevor Hogan, an MEP and several other politicians are among human-rights activists on board.

Along with the Canadian ship MV Tahrir, which also set sail as part of a humanitarian mission with medical supplies, the vessels are carrying 27 passengers from seven countries. The Israeli military said the boats were "attempting to break the maritime security blockade that is in place in accordance with international law".


MV Saoirse leaving Turkey

Amnesty UK says;

“Collective punishment is prohibited under international law and constitutes a crime against humanity. The primary responsibility for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza lies with the Israeli policy of blockade, which amounts to collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza. All states, including the UK are obligated under international law to intervene to put an end to the blockade.”

The last time Israel enforced its illegal blockade of Gaza at sea ......

Irish Ship to Gaza

MV Saoirse

I am proud as a citizen of Ireland that the Irish ship MV Saoirse is on course to arrive at the port of Gaza tomorrow accompanied by a Canadian ship, in an effort to break Israel’s Illegal naval blockade of the territory. The names of the ships “Saoirse” and “Tahrir” mean the same in Gaelic and Arabic “Freedom” and as Ireland as a nation knows what it is like to fight for its freedom there is great sympathy for the plight of the long suffering people of Gaza. Dr Fintan Lane, co-ordinator of the Irish Ship to Gaza campaign, this morning said the ships were in international waters south-west of Cyprus, some 400km from Gaza. “Everything is going well,” Dr Lane said from the ship this morning. “It’s still early to be contacted by the Israeli navy” he added.

Tonight the Irish Ship To Gaza shore team were informed that Israeli warships were seen 6 miles from the Irish (MV Saoirse) and Canadian (Tahrir) ships attempting to break the siege of Gaza. The ships are currently in international waters around 200 miles from Gaza. Israeli spotter planes were also observed flying overhead according to Dr Lane. Crew and passengers on the boats fear being boarded tonight.



Responding to an urgent call for international solidarity from 46 civil society organisations in Gaza, an Irish ship MV Saoirse and a Canadian ship Tahrir have successfully reached international waters in the Mediterranean Sea on a mission dubbed Freedom Waves to Gaza. The boats, two civilian vessels carrying 27 passengers from nine countries, are currently en route to Gaza, Palestine. They are sailing from international waters directly to Gaza, and will not pass through Israeli territorial waters.



This is the 11th attempt to break the siege of Gaza via the sea, with five missions arriving safely in Gaza between August and December 2008. The remaining six were violently intercepted by Israel. In May 2010, Israel attacked passengers participating in the first Freedom Flotilla in international waters, killing nine civilians and injuring over 50. Israel’s actions were widely condemned and led to protests around the world. Efforts to bring a second flotilla to Gaza were thwarted by the government of Greece last July following pressure by Israel and Western governments.


Palestinian girl in a protest on Nakba Day 2010 in Hebron, West Bank. Her sign says "Surely we will return, Palestine." There are 788,108 Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA in the West Bank, most of whom are the descendants of people whose families hail from areas incorporated into Israel in 1948.

The Irish vessel, MV Saoirse, was sabotaged while in port in Turkey when its propeller shaft was gouged in a manner almost identical to damage suffered by a Swedish ship. The Irish ship has since been repaired, with funds raised via small donations from Irish people. In total, the Irish Ship to Gaza campaign has raised over €140,000 for its mission, a clear sign of the depth of support among ordinary Irish people for the beleaguered people of Gaza.



Israeli warships are on the move tonight, preparing to attack the pair of aid vessels from Ireland and Canada which are attempting to deliver medical supplies to the Gaza Strip, insisting they will “take whatever measures will be necessary” to prevent the ships from reaching Gaza. Israeli officials were quick to condemn the move as a “provocation” and claimed that an attempt to deliver aid amounted to a “deplorable propaganda exercise.” The ships left from the Turkish port of Fethiye today, and were supposed to sail to Rhodes, according to Turkish officials. Instead the ships are heading to Gaza, with 19 activists and five journalists between them.


Gaza University burning during the 2010 Israeli attack

The sail was something of a surprise and activists from the two ships said they deliberately kept a low profile until reaching international waters, fearing that they would be detained in port or sabotaged like previous ships.

Let us not forget in our PC world why Gaza exists is two words never used in Israel; Ethnic Cleansing. Gaza exists because the Palestinians who lived in Ashkelon and the fields around it – Askalaan in Arabic – were dispossessed from their lands in 1948 when Israel was created and ended up on the beaches of Gaza. They – or their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren – are among the one and a half million Palestinian refugees crammed into the cesspool of Gaza, 80 per cent of whose families once lived in what is now Israel. This, historically, is the real story: most of the people of Gaza don't come from Gaza.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/12/free-gaza-free-palestine-free.html

As I have pointed out before the democratically elected Hamas administration in Gaza has had a brilliant master stroke in appointing the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as its recruiting sergeant. Rarely has an organisation had a more effective recruiter in a territory which has been systematically destroyed by Israel (The Airport, Port, Hospitals, Factories, Government offices, power generators, etc ;) in flagrant breach of International Law including the Geneva Conventions on administration of occupied territories, protection of non-combatants and two UN Resolutions.



Here is the “Irish Ship to Gaza” website

http://irishshiptogaza.org/

Here is the history of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/05/nakba.html

The Gaddafi war crime

The body of Muammar Gaddafi after he was lynched by NTC forces in Sitre

During the Libyan Civil War which has just ended no doubt many war crimes were committed by both sides and many UN members have stated that NATO has operated outside the UN Resolution authorising intervention. Muammar Gaddafi, rightly or wrongly, bravely led from the front in fighting foreign intervention in Libya. His retreating convoy from Sitre was destroyed by NATO forces that intervened in a civil war on the pretext of a UN Resolution authorising protection of civilians. France, UK, Qatar and Egypt had Special Forces on the ground in Libya with no legal basis. Both Muammar and his son Mutassim (who visited the White House in 2009) were murdered after they were captured. Will the International Court of Justice punish this clear war crime?


The lynching of Gadaffi by the NTC forces bring law and democracy to Libya?

The intervention by Western Powers again in Libya is a very dangerous business. Libya had free education, health, women working freely and equally and with a standard of living which was above the USA's. This intervention happened because of the natural resources that the NATO countries want. The western intervention is cynical while at the same time ignoring attacks on civilians in Syria, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. This time Russia is right to deride the cynicism of the "freedom loving democracies."



Libya has also has suffered terribly from foreign intervention in the 20th Century. The Italians invaded in the "Libyan war" which was fought between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Italy from September 29, 1911 to October 18, 1912. As a result of this conflict, Italy was awarded the Ottoman provinces of Tripolitania, Fezzan, and Cyrenaica. These provinces together formed what became known as Libya.


Mutassim Gaddafi after his capture as a POW by NTC troops


Mutassim Gaddafi after his summary execution in the field

During the conflict, Italian forces also occupied the Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean Sea. Italy had agreed to return the Dodecanese Islands to the Ottoman Empire according to the Treaty of Ouchy[in 1912 (also known as the First Treaty of Lausanne (1912), as it was signed at Ouchy Castle in Lausanne, Switzerland). However the vagueness of the text allowed a provisional Italian administration of the islands, and Turkey eventually renounced all claims on these islands in Article 15 of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. In Libya Italy subjected the country to a bloody pacification campaign which saw public hangings in the main towns. Resistance petered out only after the execution of the rebel leader Omar Mukhtar on September 15, 1931. The “War in the desert” against Rommel’s Afrika Corps took place in the Libyan Desert and the country was left destroyed in its aftermath.


Sitre, Libya showing how NATO protected its civilians

This was the genesis of Gaddafi’s strident Libyan nationalism and of the 1969 coup deposing Idris Senussi, leader of the Senussi Sufi sect and a Libyan patriot who opposed the Italians. He was installed by the British in 1951 as the one and only King of Libya. It was also why he closed the British and American bases in Libya, expelled 20,000 Italians and nationalised the foreign owned oil industry.


Mutassim Gadaffi visiting Hilary Clinton in 2009

My point is simple and is nothing to do with pro or anti Gaddafi. Whatever we think otherwise Gaddafi and his son were clearly captured combatants who were entitled to the protection of the Geneva Conventions. The NTC has been recognised as the government by NATO countries and these were their armed forces that captured Gaddafi & his son after NATO attacked a retreating convoy. They were being directed and supported by NATO (including Special Forces on the ground) who used air & naval power (including HMS Liverpool) to capture Sitre. The Allies have executed German & Japanese commanders who breached the Geneva Conventions and Nuremberg established that ignorance of them or "obeying orders" were no defence. These conventions have afforded protection to American, French & British prisoners. The Geneva Conventions are not optional for victors - they ARE International Law.



Who gave coalition forces in Libya the right to eliminate Gaddafi? That's the question Vladimir Putin's been asking, during an official visit to Denmark. The Russian Premier also said NATO's effectively joined one of the warring sides in the conflict. And more responsible action should be taken instead. This has been a murky intervention in a civil war and the war crime committed and recorded in Sitre won't go away, neither will the Geneva Conventions.