Has Israel Declared War On The International Community?
By Pablo Ouziel
01 June, 2010
Countercurrents.org
Yesterday, with amazement, many of us around the world witnessed through a
live-feed on the Internet how heavily armed sea pirates dressed in full
military combat gear descended from Israeli military helicopters unto the
decks of the Mavi Marmara a Turkish flagged humanitarian aid ship carrying
hundreds of nonviolent peace advocates from around the globe.
These events took place in International waters, 100 kilometers off the
coast of Gaza. The nonviolent peace advocates were on a life-saving mission
to liberate the people of Gaza, from the open-aired prison imposed on them
by Israel under the consent of its ally, the United States. After being
surrounded by Israeli military vessels and with helicopters hovering over
their heads, these courageous nonviolent peace advocates watched with
amazement and terrorized, as Israeli commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara
shooting randomly and killing and wounding many of the advocates on board.
Following the massacre, the ship was taken to Ashdod port where those who
survived have either been arrested awaiting deportation, or are being
treated in hospitals across Israel.
As these events have unfolded, popular furor has grown across continents,
and demonstrations have been witnessed in front of Israeli embassies around
the globe. The UN Security Council has had an emergency meeting to discuss
the issue, spokespeople of different states have expressed deep concern
about the events, and as Israeli ambassadors stationed in different nations
jitter at the possibility of being expelled, the group of elders the
eminent leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela has condemned the
attack as ³completely inexcusable.²
It was only a few weeks ago that the Israeli authorities denied entry to
professor Noam Chomsky at the Allenby Bridge border crossing from Jordan to
Jericho, in the Palestinian West Bank. Professor Chomsky was on his why to
speak at Bir Zeit University. To many of us here in the West, at the time,
it seemed bizarre that the Israeli government would commit such a foolish
act, by barring academic freedom and freedom of speech in such an open and
hostile manner. Professor Chomsky is after all, one of the world¹s most
renowned academics, and without a doubt, a source of inspiration to many who
are advocating nonviolently for peace. What was hard to imagine at the time
of this incident, was that professor Chomsky¹s refusal of entry into the
Palestinian Occupied Territories, although in one sense a continuity of
Israeli policy against the Palestinian people and all who befriend them,
also marked an intensification of Israel¹s open assault on the values and
rights of the citizens of the broader international community.
As Western citizens, we have become accustomed by now to the brutal
treatment of Palestinian people by Israeli security forces through their
daily acts of orchestrated state-terrorism. It comes as no surprise to us,
when we hear of the continued extermination of the population of Gaza, and
its non-stop humiliation and degradation. A crime which is beyond
comprehension and which has already tragically led to the 22-day onslaught
on Gaza in late 2008 early 2009 a destruction of such magnitude, that it
is now referred to by many around the world as the Gaza Massacre. An event
during which, according to the United Nations Fact Finding Mission¹s
Goldstone Report, Israeli Defense Forces committed war crimes and possible
crimes against humanity.
As Western citizens, we are also used to the ongoing suffering of the people
of Gaza, whose physical, psychological, and spiritual hardship is tested on
a daily basis as they endure the reality of living in an open-air prison,
which their jailers are free to bomb and destroy whenever they please. A
situation against which, although condemnation has been strong,
international pressure has not succeeded. What we are not accustomed to in
the West, however, is to witnessing the Israeli government blatantly
attacking hundreds of nonviolent peace advocates from around the globe,
congregated on ships navigating in international waters. Peace advocates,
whose aid campaign to Gaza has been widely publicized, and who have clearly
informed their respective governments of their initiative.
In the West, we have become accustomed to the propaganda machine of the
Israeli government filling the global airwaves with fabrications,
defamations and outright lies following each crime committed, each violation
of international law. Like the Israeli military, the Israeli propaganda
apparatus is highly sophisticated. Nevertheless, this latest act seems like
a challenge to the world, and I am not sure whether propaganda can bury it.
Perhaps in the West, we have become immune to the daily deaths of
Palestinians, or to the tragic death of a Western nonviolent peace advocate
being shot by the Israeli defense forces while in Palestinian territory. I
do not think however, that populations from around the globe can tolerate
Israel¹s interception of a peaceful convoy in international waters, with its
subsequent shootings and killings of citizens from many different
nationalities. Parliamentarians, Nobel laureates, spiritual leaders,
humanitarian aid workers, and journalists amongst others, forced to endure
the terror inflicted upon them by lethal Israeli military commandos.
Clearly, the attack on the Mavi Marmara is a premeditated act, and one for
which the Israeli propaganda machine has been preparing for a while.
Professor Norman Finkelstein has described Israel as a lunatic state, and
has warned of the risk of such a state having hundreds of nuclear weapons.
Watching through the Internet live-feed, Israel¹s attack in international
waters on global citizens brought together by a call to civic duty, all
one can hope for as a member of the global nonviolent peace advocacy
community, is that the pressure we exert on our governments forces an end to
Israel¹s ongoing crimes against humanity. If Israel is not stopped following
this tragedy, it will become clear to us, that just like the Palestinians we
have all become targets for the Israeli military, and thus, are no longer
protected from Israel¹s lunacy.
The world has failed to defend the Palestinians for years, but yesterday
Israel made a geopolitical turn by declaring war on the citizens of the
world. It made all of us Palestinian, and now it is the responsibility of
our governments to respond. Will the nations of the international community
defend the rights of their citizens as well as the rights of the
Palestinians? Will the siege on Gaza end, and those who have repeatedly
broken international law, committed war crimes and crimes against humanity
be tried and punished? Or has Israel just declared war on the citizens of
the world with the implicit consent of its international allies? One cannot
predict the outcome of this massacre; nevertheless, there are clear signs
pointing to the potential beginning of a new epoch, for Israel, for
Palestine, for the Middle East, and for the citizens of the world. Defining
this epoch will revolve around determining whether Israel¹s latest act, is
an act of war against numerous members of the International community.
