PIRATES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN: Part II (By YVONNE RIDLEY)
THE arrogance of
On the eve of one of the most damning reports ever to be published on human rights abuses and suspected war crimes, Israel committed an act of piracy. While western naval fleets are patrolling the waters off the coast of Africa, acts of piracy are being carried out routinely in the
But the international community leaders couldn't care less because most of those who are kidnapped, shot at and hijacked at sea are Palestinian fishermen from
However yesterday
The 21 on board included former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire, who were taken prisoner by the Israeli navy after gunboats surrounded and seized the Free Gaza Movement relief boat 'Spirit of Humanity' on Monday.
The aid was seized, their mobile phones confiscated and no doubt cameras capturing the illegal actions of the Israelis were also removed.
"This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip," said Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party's 2008 candidate for President of the
"President Obama just told
In the past the Israeli Navy has claimed that boats have entered their territorial waters and breached their part of the sea in the eastern Med.
However, thousands across the world who followed the progress of the Free Gaza Movement boat Spirit of Humanity by internet, GPS, Twitter and various other means of communications over the last 30 hours know for sure that the boat was illegally stopped in international waters.
This is piracy. Nothing more. Nothing less.
It's anyone's guess what will happen to the Humanity's cargo of medical supplies, cement, olive trees, and children's toys.
But what we need from Barak Obama and Gordon Brown (there are at least half a dozen Brits on that boat) is strong leadership in which
The G8 leaders all know what the Israeli Army did in
And in the next 24 hours Amnesty International will spell out exactly what was done on the ground during that 22-day war.
We know that the fourth largest military in the world, a military given weapons by
During a recent trip to
How long is
I saw, with disbelief, some of the taunting, sadistic messages scrawled on lounge walls in bombed out homes by departing Israeli soldiers - one even left his email for “any complaints”.
I remember when Tony Blair, called the Taliban the most evil, brutal regime in the world and he justified this statement because he said they didn't even allow children to fly kites.
He wondered at the mentality of a regime which could be so cruel to children.
That was way back in November 2001. Well I wonder what he would think of a regime which blocks cherries, kiwi fruit and chocolate from reaching the hands of the children in
Every week, about 10 officers from the Israel Defence Force's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit meet to decide what sort of food the 1.5 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip can eat.
Let's name and shame the men this gruesome threesome - Colonel Moshe Levi, Colonel Alex Rosenzweig, and Colonel Doron Segal. All three decided a few days back that apricots, plums, grapes, avocados, cherries, kiwi fruit, green almonds, pomegranates and chocolate were "delicacies" and therefore expressly prohibited.
I will return to these three shameful soldiers at a later date, but let's return to today's events which has, in my view, reconfirmed
You will notice the top of this story is called Pirates of the Mediterranean II - that's because I wrote an article in December revealing how another free Gaza Movement boat, the SS Dignity, was rammed by an Israeli naval gunboat.
The act of aggression on a peace mission was launched in international waters 90 miles off
Delivering aid to the needy is just such a "peaceful purpose." Deliberately ramming or hijacking mercy ships and endangering its passengers is an act of terrorism and piracy. I say Western fleets should now head to the
For communications and updates from Cynthia McKinney, visit her Green Party page and blog
. * Journalist Yvonne Ridley and film-maker Aki Nawaz sailed to
(*** Saya menentang PPSMI, tetapi saya tidak membenci bahasa Inggeris. Saya memahami dan boleh membaca bahasa Inggeris.)
0 comments:
Post a Comment