YouTube video published by user William Tomg on May 31, 2010

Early Monday morning, 31 May, Israeli military forces stormed an unarmed civilian flotilla delivering humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza killing at least 10 people and leaving many injured, breaking international law yet again without an appropriate response by the world’s major powers. It begs the question, why have international law at all?

A humanitarian flotilla delivering 10,000 tonnes of aid to the people of Gaza was attacked by Israeli forces leaving at least 10 people dead and many injured. The flotilla was part of a convoy of 6 ships containing 700 human rights workers from all over the world including Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Turkey, Malaysia and Israeli nationals.

The attack took place in international waters which means that once again Israel has broken international law. The Israeli government said that soldiers responded to being attacked with knives, however eyewitnesses who were on the ships, including journalists dispute that account saying that Israeli forces began firing before they even boarded the ships.

The Israeli government will not allow any aid to get through to Gaza despite the fact that a UN report mentioned that “Livelihoods and lives of people living in the Gaza Strip have been devastated by over 1,000 days of near complete blockade.” (Frykberg: IPS: May 31)

Palestinian homes destroyed by the Israeli assault on Gaza at the end of 2008 and commencing in early 2009 remain in rubble with no attempts of reconstruction according to the report. Hospitals remain unfinished threatening the health of vulnerable people in Gaza and yet Israel refuses to allow building materials in.

While this latest incident has resulted in many world powers condemning the actions of Israel and human rights organisations such as Amnesty International calling for an independent investigation, the chances of members of the Israeli military and government officials being tried for international crimes is slim to say the least.

Why activists and independent reporters such as Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and current UN Rapporteur for Palestine, are calling for sanctions against Israel is both confusing and futile as they clearly know that as a key U.S. ally and client state Israel remains above the law. Calls from the UN security council for Israel to carry out an independent investigation into the massacre of civilians is a farce to say the least.

Kourosh Ziabari, a frequent contributor to Global Research, an independent research and media organisation based in Montreal dared to ask the right question which was, what if it was Iran who had carried out these attacks? (Global Research: June 1)

Ziabari’s provocative question reveals the corruption of the so called international community.

While Iran, North Korea and other countries labelled ‘enemies’ by the west are the victims of crippling sanctions and even military action, Israel can commit crime after international crime while the major powers stand by and merely murmur their disagreement as if they were debating policy in government.

It is a sham, and this sham continues because international law is not only a joke but arguably non existent for major western powers. (Read Above the law: Leaders not held accountable for crimes)

According to Ziabari Israel “…possess up to 200 nuclear warheads in violation of the United Nations Security Council resolution 487. Interestingly, it receives something around $7 million of military aid from the U.S. per day”, and yet there is no call for Israel to be disarmed or for sanctions to forcibly make Israel comply with so called international law just like Iran which has been subjected to these measures unfairly and unjustifiably. (Read Iran rightfully calls for America to be suspended from IAEA)

How Britain and America formed Israel for influence in the Middle East

The state of Israel was formed from corrupt power politics after World War I. Power politics which involved Britain aiming to counter the progress of the Russian revolution in 1917. According to Steve Palmer in the book, “The New Warlords: From the Gulf War to the recolonisation of the Middle East”, published by Larkin Publications in 1994, British policy was to offer the Jews a home in Palestine so as to deter them from joining the Russian revolution which referred to World War I as a battle for imperialist interests and called for conscious minded people not to take part.

Under a Labour government the Arab inhabitants were bombed and terrorised so that Britain could carry through their plan. In 1918 the Zionists only made up 10% of the population but with the military aid of successive British governments the plan for a Zionist-majority population in Palestine was coming to fruition.

Israel became a key ally of Britain’s strategic and economic interests in the Middle East which was seen as an important region of world power because of the resources. Arab nationalist movements were crushed with the combined efforts of British and Israeli military forces, and after World War II with the U.S taking over as the world’s leading superpower over a bankrupt Britain, they saw an opportunity to suppress nationalist Arab movements and supported Israel, providing military and financial aid to ensure that it remained the leading military power in the region.

It is out of this corrupt political relationship that the volatile conflicts in the Middle East continues to this day.

When you look at the historical relationship between powerful world powers and Israel it makes sense why the government continues unabated in its violation of international laws, after all Israel is only following the unlawful behaviour of the major powers who supports it who themselves are above the law.

This is why when activists and journalists and political commentators call for the Israeli government and military to be held accountable it is bound to bring about expressions of anger, despondency and even indifference among many people because the reality is major world powers like America are the law and Israel can continue with their criminal actions and will continue with their criminal actions because they are a member of this international criminal cartel.

For further research:

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51646

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51671

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19462

http://www.zcommunications.org/those-responsible-must-be-held-criminally-accountable-by-richard-falk

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=18782

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19454

Recommended books:

Palmer, S. British Labour and Zionism (1994) in The New Warlords: From the Gulf War to the recolonisation of the Middle East: Abrahams, E. (Editor), Larkin Publications.

Chomsky, N. (2003) Hegemony or survival: America’s quest for global dominance: Hamish Hamilton.

Author

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *