Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip violates international law, according to a panel of human rights experts reporting to the United Nations on Tuesday.
The finding disputes a conclusion reached by the UN Palmer Report on the Israeli raid of the May 2010 Gaza aid flotilla, which killed 19 activists aboard. That separate report concluded that Israel’s use of force was excessive and unreasonable, but that the blockade was legal.
The conclusions of the new report actually coincide with an earlier fact-finding mission from last September, as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross, which both claimed the blockade is illegal. It has subjected Gazans to collective punishment in “flagrant contravention of international human rights and humanitarian law,” they said.
“In pronouncing itself on the legality of the naval blockade, the Palmer Report does not recognise the naval blockade as an integral part of Israel’s closure policy towards Gaza which has a disproportionate impact on the human rights of civilians,” they said in a joint statement.
Richard Falk, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories and one of the five experts who issued Tuesday’s statement, said the Palmer report “was aimed at political reconciliation between Israel and Turkey” and that “it is unfortunate that in the report politics should trump the law.”
According to another of the UN special rapporteurs, about one third of Gaza’s arable land and 85 percent of its fishing waters are totally or partially inaccessible due to Israeli military measures, while at least two-thirds of Gazan households lack reliable access to food as a result of the blockade.
The high-tension bid for Palestinian statehood, set to be voted upon by the UN this month, would be likely to make such conclusions much more official, leaving Israel susceptible to sanctions or even prosecutions for international crimes, which is reportedly a major basis for Israeli objection to Palestinian statehood.
"Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip violates international law…"
Wow, really? Go figure. You know, the US Congress is not gonna like this. The Israeli Occupied US Congress will absolutely NOT like this at all. I can hear Eric Cantor screaming for the US to get out of the UN right about now…
US Congress are more than occupied territories,in Israeli occupied territories exists a lot of signs of opposition from protest to armed resistance.In US Conress are so humble people that they jump like Pavlov's dogs every time when Netaniahu make a pause in deliver his platitudes,were 29 collective jumps .
How can the UN deny Palestinian rights? How can the U.S. deny the Palestinian rights? It's time the Israeli lobby's influence stops denying the rights of the Palestinians.
How can Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Hamas, and the PLO deny Palestinian rights? None of them give a shit about Palestinians. Why do you think the Arabs in Israel are terrified of being swapped in a land deal? They like living in a free state where they have rights and freedom.
Free state. Muuuuaaaaa haaaaa…and you can say that with a straight face. Aaaaaaamazing!
WHAT ABOUT A NATO NO-FLY ZONE TO PROTECT GAZA CIVILIANS?
Sorry cannot be done – there is no oil here.
Maybe they wouldnt get hit if they werent locked in terrorist bases to increase death tolls.
You know, juvanaya, the same applies to y'all. You know below how you're winning about the rockets and shit? Well, that wouldn't happen if y'all weren't squatting on their land. How about y'all go back to wherever you came from and let them be, eh?
Actually, there is oil, and natural gas, just off the coast of Gaza.
There will be no change till americans decide to respect human rights and world opinion.
For america is only one state i.e. Israelis allowed to all the crimes possible against humanity as congress and senate in america has no power to say any thing to Israeli.
Come now, you're meddling with "divine rights" of the "chosen" race. [Now, where did we hear that line before!] How dare the UN suggest otherwise! Wasn't it enough that Nutty lectured Obama on his home turf on who the master is. Standing ovations! But, of course – Nutty even let your reps sit in between, didn't he? Tsk, tsk.
The Israeli press has articles about Israeli citizens marching by the thousands in protest of the illegal and immoral policies of their government toward Palestinians. Then there is the up and coming vote for recognition of Palestine as a legal state in the UN, which appears to be frightening to Israel and America because their leaders are running around the world begging and threatening governments not to vote for a Palestinian State. Things are getting interesting.
Israelis are marching by the thousands to protest but not the illegal and immoral policies of their government towards Palestinians. They don't give a shit about that. They're only protesting out of greed and selfishness and not for social justice that's for sure.
Obama, a black man, unequivocably supports a state whose core ideologies are racism and bigotry. He spits in the face of every person who fought for the Civil Rights Movement.
Is Obama Netanyahu's bitch? Stay tuned to see if there is a UN veto. My bet is that he already has been had!!!
Obviously it is illegal.
4th Geneva Convention has as responsibility of an occupation "must protect the wounded, sick, children, and pregnant women, enable the free passage of medicines and essential foodstuffs, enable medical teams to provide assistance, and not impose collective punishment."
It is clearly in breach of that.
The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights also gives people the Freedom of Movement. "asserts that a citizen of a state in which that citizen is present has the liberty to travel, reside in, and/or work in any part of the state where one pleases within the limits of respect for the liberty and rights of others"
You can all say this from your comfy residences in the West or whatever. If rockets were fired at your town and you had to run to a shelter every other hour for days, you would demand whoever was firing that shit be killed and their entire neighborhood levelled.
the rockets are not very accurate and kick up a lot of sand but your drone controlled and helecopter fired rockets are quite accurate deliberately murdering whole families and your snipers shoot children straying into scope sight. Do you think all the pals are going to roll over and forgive. If you don't like it there move but don't come back here in the comfy west.
That's very true- and if you lived in the kind of conditions the Israelis have imposed upon the residents of Gaza and the West Bank, you'd be seriously thinking about how to build rockets to shoot at the ones putting you in that spot. If you were walking down the street and were shot for no reason other than being you, you'd be pretty upset at that, wouldn't you? If you were sick and bedridden in your house and your neighbor was preventing the drug store from delivering your medicines, you'd be a little miffed, don't you think?
Yes, there are rockets being fired in to Israel. Those are indisputable facts. However, the question SHOULD be: "Why? What prompted this to happen?" You don't just start shooting rockets at someone, especially an opponent who is a lot stronger and more well-supplied than you are- you've got to have a pretty darned compelling reason to do that sort of thing. Think about it.
Collective punishment is illegal. If someone attacks someone else, you arrest them, you do not destroy their family. If you kill their kids and wives, why would they stop being angry?
Well, juvanya, if you don't like it, you can always move. I'm sure your relatives are still living in Europe, Ukraine or Brooklyn.
And, someone please refresh my memory, when has Israel ever been concerned about international law if it doesn't advance their agenda or conflicts with their policies?
I'm not sure if they were observing international laws when they attacked the USS Liberty, or concocted the Lavon Affair, or bulldozed Rachel Corrie into the ground. I might be mistaken, but using White Phosphorus against civilians is against international laws, and cluster bombs, and… and…. and….
The moral of the story is, Israel makes up it's own reality as it goes along and will continue to do so until somebody lays the smackdown on them, and hard.
"And, someone please refresh my memory, when has Israel ever been concerned about international law if it doesn't advance their agenda or conflicts with their policies?"
Israel has been concerned about international law many times. For example, in 1947 and, most recently, when they complained to the UN about the Palestinians launching firecrackers…errrr…I mean to say rockets. Also recently, they petitioned the UN to give them a portion of Lebanon's international waters containing a large gas deposit. So, you see, they value international law. 🙂
The so-called "Palmer Report" should be called by its rightful name "The Uribe Report" that way, the world knows right off the bat that it was written by a war criminal. If nothing else, that would frame it in the right context.