Hackney Gaza activist returns and condemns Israeli blockade
Sarah Colborne, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
A Hackney woman who was part of the Palestinian aid flotilla stormed by Israeli troops this week described seeing a man dying on board the Mavi Marmara, on which at least nine activists were killed.
At a press conference held on Thursday in the TUC headquarters, Sarah Colborne, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, described how she had woken up at around 4:10am on Monday to see Israeli military boats speeding towards the ship.
“Helicopters then appeared,” she said. “We then had the first passenger fatally injured. He was brought to the back of the deck. He was shot in the head. I saw him. He was in a very bad way and he subsequently died. There were bullets flying all over the place.”
Ms Colborne said she hoped the deaths would bring wider recognition of Israel’s “crimes” in Gaza.
She said, “I hope this will not be in vain and that this will act as a wake-up call to governments including our own government. Israel has been used to acting with impunity and violating international law. That situation has to change now.”
The Israeli Embassy in London has claimed the activists on the Mavi Marmara attacked Israeli soldiers with clubs and knives – something those on board have disputed.
A statement released to the press by the embassy said Israel regretted the loss of life.
Was an act of genuine goodwill towards the Palestinians through an attempt by Sarah Colbourne and others to provide essential, non-strategic supplies hijacked by another group deliberately seeking a confrontation with the Israelis, which lead to the unfortunate and it seems unnecessary, deaths? Gaza, which was evacuated unilaterally by Israel, remember, is controlled by HAMAS, an avowedly terrorist organisation dedicated to Israel’s destruction and Israel must be entitled to take steps to ensure arms and the means of manufacturing them are denied to the terrorists. A blockade for that purpose is not unlawful, as was the US blockade of Cuba in the sixties, for example. At the same time, there does need to be a sensible route to supply essentials to the people of Gaza (Egypt has since opened the border they had closed for the same reason Israel mounted the blockade). Israel, as a responsible democracy, must act with more restraint than the hotheads on the other side, so that an atmosphere condusive to serious negotiations and the establishment of a Palestinian State can be secured, just as soon as HAMAS is ready to repudiate violence and terrorism.
@ Chris
It is NOT just Hamas who are “hotheads”. Hamas are NOT the only ones who need to repudiate violence and terrorism.
When I think about Israel the first thing that usually comes to my mind is this video evidence of Israeli soldiers using rocks to break the bones of captive Palestinians:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INUeHwdRVKg
And let’s not forget Israel’s treatment of whistleblowers such as Anat Kamm ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anat_Kamm
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/harrass-the-idf-not-alleged-whistleblower-anat-kam-1.736
Or the testimony of people who have served in the Israeli military…
http://www.shovrimshtika.org/index_e.asp
For me the situation is summed up perfectly in Gideon Levi’s 2007 article titled “Demands of a thief”
… “Israel is not being asked ‘to give’ anything to the Palestinians; it is only being asked to return – to return their stolen land and restore their trampled self-respect, along with their fundamental human rights and humanity.”
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/dema…nds-of-a-thief-1.233907
…”Just as a thief cannot present demands – neither preconditions nor any other terms – to the owner of the property he has robbed, Israel cannot present demands to the other side as long as the situation remains as it is.”
…”Just as no one would conceive of killing the residents of an entire neighborhood, to harass and incarcerate it because of … See Morea few criminals living there, there is no justification for abusing an entire people in the name of our security. The question of whether ending the occupation would threaten or strengthen Israel’s security is irrelevant. There are not, and cannot be, any preconditions for restoring justice.”