The Rachel Corrie has now been illegally boarded by the Israeli military in international waters.
As usual the BBC’s immediate reaction is simply to retail Israeli propaganda. The Rachel Corrie has been boarded “with the full compliance of the crew”, BBC News tells us. That is almost certainly not true, unless you count without violent resistance as “full compliance”.
If that were true, you might wonder why Israel had jammed – again contrary to maritime law – all the Rachel Corrie’s communications with the outside world, and why they are still jammed. The BBC did not mention that.
The organisers have just posted this:
“For the second time in less then a week, Israeli naval commandos stormed an unarmed aid ship, brutally taking its passengers hostage and towing the ship toward Ashdod port in Southern Israel.”
But the BBC is much more concerned to help ensure that the Israeli version has unquestioned domination of the initial news.
knows about flickr of israel?
hope u can give this information tp your readers
Just had a look at that short BBC news online article; it includes the likes of ‘Israel says’ six times, in a piece just 253 words long. Interesting.
For a civilian vessel to break a blockade is as much an act of war as for a belligerent to enforce one.
In his previous comment that there is no war, Craig Murray makes himself look more stupid than he really is.
On 19 September 2007 the Israeli government declared Gaza to be a hostile entity, and Hamas received this as a declaration of war.
So the San Remo Manual applies.
Go study.
Of course the organisers said that. They would, wouldn’t they?
The only law appliacable is Israeli law. We don’t have a world government, or any comparable body with the moral right to tell sovereign countries what to do. International law is nothing more than an agreement between some countries… it isn’t real law at all.
How about that free book?
Now I’m a Zionist troll, I suppose?
Are you sure the ship was boarded in international waters, Craig? all I can make out is that it was ‘close to the Gaza coast’.
Michael Petek,
I’d be interested to know which version of which browser you were using when you found this site, and how you found it.
If you wish to expound on the morality of this situation, that could be interesting, too.
For my part, I expect that many people on that ship feel that they have to try to do something rather than permit the enforced starvation of the people of Gaza. I feel that way too, which is why I question your motives.
I found this line in the BBC article a bit odd:
“Israel has blockaded Gaza since 2007, when the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of the territory.”
Seized control? In an election, you mean?
I’m aware there was a war between Hamas and Fatah after the late-2006 election but it was Hamas who won power in the election so doesn’t that mean they were defending control of the territory, not seizing it?
I’m not pro-Hamas but I am pro-democracy.
@Neil Barker:
I’m also perplexed by comments (both yours and elsewhere) from people who seem to think international law is a fiction that can be ignored.
Do you think if Iran ignored international law, to anywhere near the extend Israel does, that the rest of the world would turn a blind eye?
Might does not equal right.
And “getting away with it” does not mean a law or enforcement of it is an illusion, any more than getting away with nicking a newspaper from a shop would mean that shoplifting was fine & dandy.
@Michael Petek:
If Israel are at war with Gaza/Hamas, why aren’t they treating all their prisoners as PoWs, among other requirements of countries at war?
You seen anyone starving in Gaza, Clark?
You have a right to your idiotic opinion, but I would never accuse you of being an Islamist troll.
Now how about that free book, O rich Craig?
Leo, I didn’t say it was a fiction. I said it’s not really any kind of law, and I explained why I made this claim.
What is law, in your opinion?
Nor do I think might is right.
Incidentally, being “illegal”, however defined, doesn’t mean being wrong. It means someone’s rule is being broken – no more, no less. In the case of international “law” it means that a rule decided by some countries is being broken. So what?
Maicahel Patek
Care to comment on the legality of Blowing up Americans on the USS Liberty or the Lavon Affair or for that Matter the murder of Rachel Corrie or Tom Hurndall, James Miller……. to name a few?
Thanks for mentioning the book Neil – so have these people:
“I thought that diplomats like Craig Murray were an extinct breed. A man of the highest principle”
?”John Pilger
“An important and well-told story from a frontline on the war of terror”
?”The Spectator
“The Uzbek people know only one word for Craig Murray: hero”
?”Mohammad Salih, Uzbek opposition leader
“Heroic. This darkly comic tale…rings horribly true. It helps explain the moral bankruptcy [of] the Blair government”
?”Sir Max Hastings, Sunday Times, 16 July 2006
“The book is fantastic. It is very, very funny…It also deals with the fact that the reason he is no longer ambassador is that the British Government was using information obtained from torture and he thought that was wrong”
?”Michael Winterbottom, Director
“This candid account…looks set to ruffle a few feathers”
?”Bookseller
“The actions of this brave and principled man have certainly exposed the ‘war on terror’ for the sick charade that it is”
?”Morning Star
“Excellent”
?”Sunday Express
Michael Petek:
Go back and reread the original blog.
“They ignore those parts of San Remo that specifically state that it is illegal to enforce a general blockade on an entire population.”
Neil Barker:
How cheap are you? Go to the library or save a little. Do you not expect to be paid for something you produce? Do you go and ask farmers for free fruit and veggies?
Neil Barker,
you are a scrounger.
Craig,
I have found a link that may lead to a torrent of a scan of Murder in Samarkand. May I post it for our regular scrounger? He seems incapable of using Google.
Update – Neil Barker,
I refer my questions to Michael Petek to you, also. What software, how did you get here, and do you deny that there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza?
Well I am sure the Somali and Other Pirates will welcome this Statement, they can ask ships to accompany them to Mogadishu and handover their Cargo. If the Maritime law does not Apply to Israel than it applies to no one.
” Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the US national security council, said in a statement.
“In the interest of the safety of all involved, and the safe transmission of assistance to the people of Gaza, we strongly encourage those on board the Rachel Corrie and other vessels to sail to Ashdod to deliver their materials to Gaza.”
ten copies in my local library system, get yourself signed up Neil, it’s for free!
michael – i guess jamming emergency radio signals in international waters is also acceptable to the zionist apologists?
Israel is basically a failed state, it is doomed!
Why is the BBC the mouth piece for the Zionists?
The BBC is the mouth piece of the British government.
The British government is just a tool of the American government.
The American government is just department under the Israeli government.
The Israeli government takes their orders for satan himself.
Lame.
Everyone knows that Israel takes it’s orders from Vulcan!
Well, at least there’s a new angle being used here by the Tel Aviv trolls, one I haven’t seen before:
“What is The Law, after all?”
Yes, let’s get existential about it. The Law is an illusion, didn’t you know?
This bit of propaganda has no legs though. It’s a bit too deep for the average right-winger to grasp.
And since the trolls are admitting now there’s a war-footing between Israel and Gaza, they need to explain:
1. Why Israel is complaining about rocket attacks and other military actions by the Gazans?
2. Why they are not giving the Gazans in their jails the rights of POWs, as Craig stated previously?
3. Does this mean they consider themselves to no longer occupy Gaza, and so Gaza can proclaim itself a sovereign state?
Let’s not hold our breath while awaiting answers.
Question for Craig Murray: Could Gaza declare itself a sovereign state? Since Israel is effectively at war with it, it seems like it should be their right to do so, to form a proper military response.
BTW a little off topic but any updates on the issue of the Mavi Marmara’s flagging? I dunno, but I think that if it really was flagged to the Comoros Islands, the hasbara machine would be all over it by now. The fact that they’re not is surely telling. Isn’t it?
Dave:
My understanding is that the most important aspect in becoming a sovereign state is for other states to recognise this. As Israel and Egypt surround the Gaza strip it is most important for them to recognise the state. Currently the chances of this happening are close to 0. Also I would assume that there is some Palestinian reluctance to declare the Gaza strip as being a separate state to the West Bank.
Mr Avey is one of the “Heroes of the Holocaust.” and has been awarded by Gordon Brown a solid silver medallion inscribed with the words “In the Service of Humanity.”
Mr Avey smuggled food and cigarettes to Jewish prisoners at Auschwitz during his incarceration in the adjacent prisoner of war camp. The Telegraph reported him saying, “We were faced with this bestiality every day and we knew exactly what was happening in there, and I suppose being an Englishman I recognised this and wanted to do something about it.”
Unfortunately well meaning people trying to relieve the suffering of the Gazans inflicted by the Israelis just get a series of bullets in the head.
Cheeba–I see your point. But at the same time, it seems easy to make a case that neither Israel, as the party making war, nor Egypt, as a party helping the blockade, is in any position to be objective. Wouldn’t the rest of the world, besides the US, jump on the bandwagon? Certainly most of the Muslim world would do so, as would most of Europe, and I suspect most of the former Soviet countries.
Can the entire world be so afraid of Israel?
Neil Barker,
you are a scrounger.
Ah, I understand! Anyone poor man who asks a rich man for something for nothing is a scrounger! Right, got it.
And anyone who draws a parallel between this simple, personal request and the poor Palestinians asking for aid is, er, a Zionist troll.
How hilarious is that!
Disagree with someone? Then blacken their name and reputation…. bit like what Ian Blair used to do, innit?
Thanks for mentioning the book Neil – so have these people:
“I thought that diplomats like Craig Murray were an extinct breed. A man of the highest principle”
?”John Pilger
“An important and well-told story from a frontline on the war of terror”
?”The Spectator
“The Uzbek people know only one word for Craig Murray: hero”
?”Mohammad Salih, Uzbek opposition leader
“Heroic. This darkly comic tale…rings horribly true. It helps explain the moral bankruptcy [of] the Blair government”
?”Sir Max Hastings, Sunday Times, 16 July 2006
“The book is fantastic. It is very, very funny…It also deals with the fact that the reason he is no longer ambassador is that the British Government was using information obtained from torture and he thought that was wrong”
?”Michael Winterbottom, Director
“This candid account…looks set to ruffle a few feathers”
?”Bookseller
“The actions of this brave and principled man have certainly exposed the ‘war on terror’ for the sick charade that it is”
?”Morning Star
“Excellent”
?”Sunday Express
I know. That’s why I badly want to read it! Craig’s other book was superb. But I have no money, no credit card, no library…..
So I must be a Zionist troll.
O tempora, O mores!
Whatever one says about the Israelis one cannot dispute that when it comes to respect for human rights & international law they are thousands of times ahead of the Nazi scum who attacked Yugoslavia. It is a matter of record that the number of people killed in the entire Gaza war, overwhelmingly combatants, is less than the number of civilians, in nominal peacetime, dissected while alive, by NATO “police” (formerly the KLA) under NATO authority to steal their body organs.
It seems clear that anybody who complains more about the Israelis, let alone who supports racist & pro-Nazi parties, such as the LibDems responsible for such atrocities, unmatched even by Mr Hitler, cannot, under any circumstances claim to be motivated by concern for human rights.
Perhaps if the author here disagrees he will be able to explain.
Craig, a significant proportion of your supporters appear to believe that everyone has money or library access. How many of these supporters actually live and work in third world countries? Don’t they have the slightest idea how difficult it is to get hold of an English book? They are all sitting at home in their middle class armchairs with their always-on internet connection and their wallets full of plastic.
You of all people ought to know this.
Neill Barker–since you say you have no money and no library, but somehow have a computer and an Internet connection, I suggest you sell your computer and cancel your Internet service, and use the money instead to buy a copy of Craig’s book. Obviously, the need to read it is consuming your life.
Doesn’t Israel have a free clinic you could visit? I believe my tax dollars helped build it.
Neill Barker–since you say you have no money and no library, but somehow have a computer and an Internet connection, I suggest you sell your computer and cancel your Internet service, and use the money instead to buy a copy of Craig’s book. Obviously, the need to read it is consuming your life.
Ah, here we go again. Have you no idea how many people don’t have a computer or internet service? Clearly not. Have you any idea how people access the internet in poor countries? Obviously not.
But Craig knows.
Doesn’t Israel have a free clinic you could visit? I believe my tax dollars helped build it
Ah, here we go again…. I must be a Zionist troll.
Grow up, travel, work in a poor country, then reply.
Dave:
Of course Israel and Egypt aren’t objective. Unfortunately those are the rules of the game. I think you would be surprised at how few Islamic states would be prepared to piss off the US and Israel. From their perspective the choice is helping a few million poor Palestinians (who can’t offer anything in return) or keep the global and regional powers happy. ‘Regime change’ is a real concern for many states. From a real politics perspective it is a no brainer. Europe and Russia have even fewer reasons to rock the boat. Think about how much effort China and Russia have expended just to protect the pre-existing state that is Iran (I understand that altruism has no part in their reasoning).