Responses to Israel’s high seas massacre
Note: The IHH website is currently under a DOS attack. IHH was the human rights organisation out of Turkey that organised the shipment of 10,000 tonnes of aid to Gaza.
What follows are some decent statements on the Israel’s attack on humanitarian ships in international waters:
“Hillary Clinton on North Korea: ‘I think it’s important to send a clear message to North Korea that provocative actions [sinking a war ship] have consequences. We cannot allow the attack on South Korea to go unanswered by the international community.’ … Hillary Clinton on Israel’s attack on a humanitarian aid convoy: Silence.” – Diana Buttu
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“If an armed group of Somali pirates had yesterday boarded six vessels on the high seas, killing at least 10 passengers and injuring many more, a Nato taskforce would today be heading for the Somali coast. What happened yesterday in international waters off the coast of Gaza was the work of Israeli commandos, not pirates, and no Nato warships will in fact be heading for Israel. Perhaps they should be.” – The Guardian editorial
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“It is unclear how anyone could credibly adopt an Israeli narrative of ‘self-defense’ when Israel had carried out an unprovoked armed assault on civilian ships in international waters. Surely any right of self-defense would belong to the passengers on the ship. Nevertheless, the Freedom Flotilla organizers had clearly and loudly proclaimed their ships to be unarmed civilian vessels on a humanitarian mission.” – Electronic Intifada
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“If we needed any evidence of the degree to which Western TV journalists are simply stenographers to power, the BBC, CNN and others are amply proving it. Mark Regev, Israel’s propagandist-in-chief, has the airwaves largely to himself.” – Jonathan Cook
We are not — are we? — at the mercy of our political institutions. If we created them, we are responsible for them. We have the right and the duty to overhaul them, to change them.
