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(Cross-posted.)
This Monday, Israeli forces boarded and captured the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla", a convoy of ships carrying food and medicine to the besieged territory of Gaza. Nine activists were killed, many more activists and some Israeli soldiers were injured.
Gaza has been under a near-total blockade since 2007, though Israel formally ended their occupation in 2005 and denies that their near total control of the land, sea, and air borders, complete blockade (save for limited humanitarian aid imports), and complete prohibition of any kind of military development qualifies them for any of the responsibilities of an occupying power. It's not clear at all that the blockade is legal under international law.
Meanwhile, the organizers of the flotilla had a stated intention of breaking the Israeli blockade, but they were sailing under the Turkish flag (the lead ship was a Turkish ship, the convoy departed from a Turkish port, though the vessels in the convoy were from a bunch of different countries) and attacked in international waters. The activists claim that Israeli soldiers fired on them before boarding, Israel claims the soldiers only returned fire after coming under attack (with improvised weapons and their own weapons).
There's a lot of interesting stuff going on here. ( More... )
This Monday, Israeli forces boarded and captured the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla", a convoy of ships carrying food and medicine to the besieged territory of Gaza. Nine activists were killed, many more activists and some Israeli soldiers were injured.
Gaza has been under a near-total blockade since 2007, though Israel formally ended their occupation in 2005 and denies that their near total control of the land, sea, and air borders, complete blockade (save for limited humanitarian aid imports), and complete prohibition of any kind of military development qualifies them for any of the responsibilities of an occupying power. It's not clear at all that the blockade is legal under international law.
Meanwhile, the organizers of the flotilla had a stated intention of breaking the Israeli blockade, but they were sailing under the Turkish flag (the lead ship was a Turkish ship, the convoy departed from a Turkish port, though the vessels in the convoy were from a bunch of different countries) and attacked in international waters. The activists claim that Israeli soldiers fired on them before boarding, Israel claims the soldiers only returned fire after coming under attack (with improvised weapons and their own weapons).
There's a lot of interesting stuff going on here. ( More... )
