Jun 20, 2011
JCRC Provides Tools on Second Gaza Flotilla
On May 31, 2010, a flotilla of anti-Israel ships attempted to break the naval blockade of Gaza. The Israeli Navy peacefully intercepted all but one of the ships – the Mavi Marmara – whose passengers attacked the soldiers attempting to board.
This year, anti-Israel groups, including the Free Gaza Movement, The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza and others, have planned a second protest flotilla. The Free Gaza Movement is a U.S.- and E.U.-based organization that does not recognize the existence of Israel and supports the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state by opposing a negotiated solution to the refugee issue and insisting on the right “of all Palestinian refugees to return without delay to their homes in Israel.” Other participating groups have numerous connections to Hamas and other terrorist entities.
The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation acknowledges and thanks its national and international partners – including the JCRC of Greater Washington and The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and its Israel Action Network (IAN) for contributing to the following report. Members of Miami’s Jewish community are encouraged to share these resources with others.
While the second flotilla was originally scheduled to consist of 15 vessels and 1,500 “citizen activists,” several ships have canceled plans to participate. A French ship was refused permission to dock in Marseilles after France’s Jewish community mobilized international groups and local members of parliament against it, effectively canceling the vessel’s ability to take part in the flotilla. During the week of June 13, 2011, the Islamist Turkish organization IHH, which organized the first flotilla and owns the Mavi Marmara, canceled its slated participation, as well. The IHH chairman cited technical reasons for this change in plans although according to YNet, “several elements credited the measure to the heavy pressure applied on the group by the Turkish government and the international community.” Cyprus has banned the flotilla ships from sailing from its ports.
Reports of the number of ships still intending to participate vary from eight to 10, and the new flotilla stands to sail with approximately 500 passengers with a planned arrival in Gaza the first week of July. Several ships, including an Irish and an American vessel, plan to sail from Greece, and others will sail from various Mediterranean ports, including France. Italian, Canadian, and Spanish ships will participate, as well. However, as of June 28, new reports indicate that withdrawn insurance deeds, alleged sabotage and Greek bureaucracy have dealt a setback to Flotilla 2 organizers, who said that departure might be postponed.
Their goal is to break the blockade of Gaza, a plan that European Parliament members called “an act of provocation” against the State of Israel according to The Jerusalem Post. The organizers of an American ship in the flotilla released a letter stating, “We will carry no goods of any kind for delivery in Gaza… Our mission is from American civil society to the civil society of Gaza.” This concurs with Israel’s recent announcement that it would allow medical supplies donated by the Turkish Red Crescent into Gaza. According to YNet, the transfer will take place as part of daily humanitarian aid transfers. As of June 2010, Israel does not restrict the entrance of civilian goods into Gaza; the only goods that are restricted are weapons, military equipment and civilian items that can be used militarily. In fact, while there is considerable poverty in Gaza, largely the result of Hamas’ extremist policies and actions that have led to its international isolation, according to the Deputy of the Red Cross in Gaza, “there is no humanitarian crisis.” The Israel Defense Forces reports that nearly 6,000 tons of food, fuel, materials and other supplies are transferred into the Gaza Strip on a daily basis.
Israel and Egypt have reached agreement that the ships will be allowed to unload their cargo at the Egyptian port of El-Arish and that humanitarian goods delivered can be checked and transferred overland to Gaza.
The true intention of the planned flotilla is not only to open a sea-lane to Gaza, which would serve the interests of Hamas, a terrorist organization supported by Iran, but also to provoke a confrontation with Israel and win points in the international media. Israel’s Navy head Vice Admiral Eliezer Marom explained that the flotilla’s goal is to “cause a confrontation with IDF soldiers, and create a media provocation and thereby foster delegitimization of the state of Israel.” He called on international officials to “impose all their authority to prevent the departure of this needless, provocative flotilla.”
World leaders, including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, have urged all governments concerned to try to discourage the new flotilla from being launched out of fear that it could deteriorate into violence. The United States government had joined other governments in warning their citizens not to participate in the flotilla, which it called irresponsible and dangerous. CNN reported that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters recently that she didn’t think the plan “is useful or productive or helpful to the people of Gaza,” and the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning advising U.S. citizens “against traveling to Gaza by any means, including via sea.” For statements from world leaders about the flotilla, please click here.
Israel is prepared for the coming flotilla and has made clear that the Israeli Navy will not allow the ships to reach Gaza. Due to concerns that the flotilla’s passengers may intend to greet the soldiers with violence, the Navy plans to bring photographers with them to document what takes place, according to Haaretz. Although the flotilla organizers claim they intend to use non-violent methods, there is a fear that they may provoke a violent confrontation with Israel for political ends or that they may be infiltrated by radicals and terrorists who wish to incite violence or carry out acts or terror or martyrdom.
The naval blockade in place in Gaza, a territory ruled by the internationally recognized terrorist organization Hamas, is of utmost strategic importance to the State of Israel, to the United States and to the international community. Radical elements must not be allowed to establish a port on the Mediterranean Sea. Given Israel’s state of armed conflict with Hamas and its continuing attempts to smuggle arms into Gaza with the support of Iran and Syria and to target Israeli towns, Israel has a legitimate right to impose a maritime blockade in the area west of the Gaza Strip, considered a zone of hostilities.
As friends and supporters of Israel:
We support and thank the world leaders who have publicly denounced the irresponsible and provocative flotilla, exposing its life-threatening intentions.
We support the right of Israel to board and inspect the ships in international waters, which is in compliance with international maritime law applicable to armed conflicts at sea.
We urge the flotilla’s organizers and participants to heed the Travel Advisory against traveling to Gaza by land, air or sea, and we urge them to refrain from attempting to break the legitimate Israeli maritime blockade of Gaza.
We call on the flotilla’s ships to dock and deliver any humanitarian goods at El-Arish. The launching of this provocative flotilla can only lead to further unnecessary confrontations, the advancement of Hamas’ interests and to the harming of efforts to reach a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
We must not allow a provocative media stunt in support of Hamas, couched in the language of human rights and international law to camouflage its extremist nature and divert attention from its terror supporting participants, nor to distract us from the true nature of the threat that Hamas poses to Israel and other democracies around the world. This flotilla is not intended to aid Palestinians, but rather to harm and delegitimize Israel. Any support for Hamas will further serve to undermine the Palestinian Authority, destabilize the region, and damage the possibility of peace.
Click on each link below for additional resources:
Israeli Navy Intercepts Last Boat from Gaza Flotilla
Statements from world leaders about the Flotilla 2
Answers to frequently asked questions
Myths and facts about the Flotilla 2
Updated information from The Jewish Federations of North America
