Cultures of Resistance the film is a feature-length documentary directed by Iara Lee. The film draws connections between people on every continent and highlights the work of artists, musicians, and dancers throughout the world who are re-conceiving resistance as a fundamentally creative act. The Cultures of Resistance website seeks to get audiences involved with the activist groups and campaigns featured in the film.
Delegitimize.com is a new media library project by Nigel Parry that plans to publish a series of both topic-specific and current event-focused archive websites, with the help of the pro-Palestinian community and beyond.
The Gaza Flotilla archive is a freely-available research resource on the events that took place in international waters off the coast of Gaza on 31 May 2010.
Image: chemicallygreen.com
“Hindsight bias is the inclination to see events that have occurred as more predictable than they in fact were before they took place. Hindsight bias has been demonstrated experimentally in a variety of settings, including politics, games and medicine. In psychological experiments of hindsight bias, subjects also tend to remember their predictions of future events as having been stronger than they actually were, in those cases where those predictions turn out correct. This inaccurate assessment of reality after it has occurred is also referred to as ‘creeping determinism.’” — Wikidpedia
BP would have done all those things differently if they could turn back time, I’m sure.
Read: British Petroleum has a long record of bold claims and clever slogans.
Tony Blair takes a photo of himself in front of the human rights travesty he helped create in Iraq.
Shut the hell up. Here’s what you had to say on the Israeli massacre of nine humanitarian aid activists from Turkey and the illegal boarding and abduction of others in international waters and the theft of their cargo legally bound for Gaza under international law: “I am 100% on Israel’s side.” … “There are no questions at all. There have been rockets fired from Gaza, there are people in Gaza who want to kill innocent Israelis.” (entirely unrelated) … “When it comes to security, I am 100% on Israel’s side.”
Thus, Tony Blair, you are in 0% support of international law, human rights, a peace process, the United Nations or common sense. People need to stop blathering on about Helen Thomas and look at a real hate monger: You.
Quite the envoy of “The Quartet” you are in the name of coming up with some sort of solution to a conflit: A war criminal with a great smile. I don’t get why so many in Labour actually seem to miss you. I’m waiting for someone to actually explain to me what you brought to the table that could be identifiable as “helpful.” You pretty much delivered UK foreign policy to the White House, dragged your country into the most ridiculously insane war in modern history that Iraq is still in ruins from, and you did so knowingly based on false information.
And is now here you are proselytizing for Israel’s right to ethnic cleansing and apartheid and to pop a bullet in the head of anyone it wants to in international waters. You display nothing but disdain for the poeple in the entire region of the Middle East it seems, and you’ve managed to propel this into a profitable business opportunity for yourself. Way to go, you.
IMEU has a great synopsis with regardss to the various laws that Israel’s attacks on the Free Gaza flotilla are in violation of, as well as the legal status of the Gaza blockade and occupation…
Some of the participants of the humanitarian flotilla. (Maan Images)
Israel exercises “effective control” over Gaza and as such remains an occupying power. Under international law Israel’s blockade of Gaza is illegal. Its attack on the humanitarian aid flotilla – meant to enforce an illegal blockade – is illegal as well.
1. Why is Israel’s siege of Gaza illegal under international law?
2. Why does the international community continue to consider Israel an occupying power in Gaza?
4. Did Israel have the legal right to prevent the passage of the humanitarian aid flotilla?
5. Did Israel have the right to board the flotilla ships in international waters?
6. Can maritime blockades be imposed in international waters?
7. Did Israel’s actions constitute self-defense?
It’s actually very simple. Men with guns descend from helicopters onto boats in international water. Civilian passengers on boats killed. Done. Another vessel in the Free Gaza movement, The MV Rachel Corrie is set to arrive in Gazan waters soon. Israel has threatened to attack this legal shipment of humanitarian aid as well with similar deadly violence. What follows are some facts of the case with sources provided.
UPDATE: MV Rachel Corrie crew is requesting a UN escort and has said they will allow UN observers to inspect cargo for anything that is outside of international law. That should be sufficient for Israel . I’m still in favor of the Turkish option.
Products (source: the Israeli human rights organization Gisha) barred from Gaza by the Israeli occupation. Graphic by that bastion of the radical left, The Economist
“UN statistics show that around 70% of Gazans live on less than $1 a day, 75% rely on food aid and 60% have no daily access to water. Humanitarian aid is in theory allowed in, but UN agencies and charities claim that the Israelis have banned any items that are humanitarian in nature but could be put to alternative use. Items said to face delays getting into Gaza include shelter kits, health and paediatric hygiene kits, bedding, kitchen utensils, school textbooks and stationery. The World Bank estimates that 80% of Gaza’s imports are smuggled in by tunnel. The goods, which are taxed by Hamas, attract inflated prices that are out of the reach of most ordinary residents.” — The Guardian
freegaza.org
The embargo on goods to Gaza is illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has called for it to be lifted. — UN Security Council Resolution 1860
The Israeli embargo meets the definition of “collective punishment,” a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention. “Art. 33. No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.” — ICRC
No foreign power, even an occupying power, has the authority to restrict delivery of Humanitarian aid under any circumstances according to the Fourth Geneva Convention. — ICRC
“Israel has no right to control Gaza’s sea as its own territorial waters and to stop aid convoys arriving that way. In doing so, it proves that it is still in belligerent occupation of the enclave and its 1.5 million inhabitants. And if it is occupying Gaza, then under international law Israel is responsible for the welfare of the Strip’s inhabitants. Given that the blockade has put Palestinians there on a starvation diet for the past four years, Israel should long ago have been in the dock for committing a crime against humanity.” — Jonathan Cook
A ship delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza was flying under the Turkish flag when it was attacked by Israeli commandos last night leading to a still unknown number of civilian deaths. Turkey is a member of NATO. Article 5 of the NATO charter declares that armed attacks against any NATO member in Europe or North America will be considered an attack against all of them, with each taking action. Article 6 lists the Mediterranean Sea as one location where an attack will bring about a response. — NATO
The Law of the Sea also applies to the attack on the Turkish vessel, and the U.S. was wrong to suggest in the UN that Israel should lead (or even take part) in any investigation of the incident. In international waters, the applicable laws are those of the country whose flag the ship where the altercation took place was flying. It was a Turkish ship, hence it’s Turkish territory and Turkish laws and jurisdiction apply. — The Law of the Sea
Unless…
Because the action took place on open waters, one of two scenarios currently exists provided by Craig Murray (citation link at bottom):
So, if Israel isn’t at war with Turkey then it should turn over any suspects to Turkish authorities. If Israel claims it has the authority, it’s an act of war. — Craig Murray, former British Ambassador and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Lancaster School of Law
Taking all this into account, you’d think the MV Rachel Corrie would find some smooth sailing into the Port of Gaza. But then you’d be thinking about a government that was behaving in a rational manner. Think again.
— 
It’s absolutely deplorable that this country treats ideology and intellectual debate the way it does. But: we owe to this its ironies. Its tolerance. Its decision not to take too seriously what in other countries have proved fatal challenges. It is my conviction that had the infinite rhetorical genius of Adolf Hitler been tested on Hyde Park Corner, people would have said, ‘Ah, come off it,’ and walked away.
Interview with Gaza Flotilla participants
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