Israel attack freedom flotilla
Israel’s attack on the unarmed humanitarian convoy attempting to break the siege on Gaza, resulted in at least 9 deaths and numerous wounded. It was only the latest outrage committed by the Zionist government over recent years.....writes Zhaleh Sahand....
The monstrous three year blockade of the Gaza strip by the Israelis government has left 1.5 million civilian Gazans in agony and despair, lacking basic sanitation, nutrition, medical care and housing. Backed by unwavering US support and endorsed only a little less uncritically by the European Union and until very recently the Egyptian government the appalling daily violence of the Israeli regime was clear for all to see after Monday’s attack.
The Israeli government brazen assault on the peace activists hit the predominantly Turkish boat the Mavi Marmara hardest, with around 600 of the 700 activists on board. The Freedom Flotilla was carrying 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian supplies (all checked along with people in board by the Turkish government) through international waters, which is at least nominally out of bounds of Israeli law. But law means nothing to the Israeli army. Israeli naval commandos stormed the ships in international waters, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) from Gaza's coast. The flotilla was unarmed. The Israeli commandos armed to the teeth. The resulting murders inevitable and planned.
Despite being subject to 65 UN resolutions, Israel has never been held accountable for its mounting crimes against humanity. This attack on civilian aid workers will be no different. Today Israel occupies 87% of the Palestinian lands compared to just 2.5% of the land they originally owned in 1917. It is widely reported that Israel officially receives some $3 billion every year in the form of economic aid from the U.S. government, “Total identifiable costs come to almost $3 trillion. About 60 percent, well over half, of those costs—about $1.7 trillion—arose from the U.S. defense of Israel, where most of that amount has been incurred since 1973.”
In1948 after the creation of the Zionist state 355,000 of the one million Palestinian population were forced to become refugees. When the Gaza Strip and West Bank were occupied in 1967, the UN reported that a further 200,000 Palestinians fled their homes to other parts of the world.
By 2005 the total numbers of the refugees had risen to approximately 7.2 million Palestinians, equivalent to 74% of 9.7 million entire Palestinian population. Israel has 226 Jewish settlements and outposts built on confiscated Palestinian land and has demolished 24,145 Palestinian homes since 1967. Israel claims that it is impossible to allow the Palestinians the right of return to their homeland. This basic democratic right, is not however, the only just basis for a settlement of the Palestine question, it is both practicable and possible;
“The right of refugees to return is not only sacred and legal but also possible. Demographic studies show that 80% of Israelis live in 15 percent of the land and that the remaining 20% live on 85% of the land that belongs to the refugees.
From the 20%, 18% live in Palestinian cities while the remaining 2% live in kibbutzim and moshavs. By contrast, more than 6,000 refugees live per square kilometer in the Gaza Strip, while over the barbed wire their lands are practically empty. Ninety seven percent of the entire refugee population currently lives within 100 km of their homes. Fifty percent live within 40 km. While many live within sight of their homes.” Al-Awda-Factsheet-2006
Justice is denied the Palestinians because of the interest of the United States government, which continues to bank role the Zionist state as a critical geo-political pawn in the Middle East, as a gendarme to control Israel’s Arab neighbours and a justification for its own continued interventions into the region.
It is Israel’s dependence on US support which provides the motive for the sanctions boycott and disinvestment campaign and also explains why it is so virulently opposed by the Israeli authorities, without US support and its legitimation through a relentless ongoing media campaign, then the basis for the Zionist segregationist racist apartheid state would cease to exist.
We therefore must put on the forefront of our struggle a two fold propaganda campaigns, both against US sponsored occupation of Palestine that has guaranteed the ongoing war against Palestinians through its moral and economic aids in years and Israel acting as the predators and the territorial police state for the US government In the region and abroad. And salute the courage of the flotilla's brave crew and the sacrifice they have made to break Israel's inhuman blockade.
Thu 03, June 2010 @ 10:23
discussion of this article
George B said…
Fri 04, June 2010 @ 19:30
pr webby said…
Fri 04, June 2010 @ 21:31
Anonymous said…
Thu 17, June 2010 @ 14:38