Email |  Print | RSS | Comment |  

 Email |  Print

Mon, June 21, 2010 | Israel was the first victim–It won’t be the last | Also published in the National Post | by Asaf Romirowsky and Nicole Brackman

An international peace activist arrives in Gaza on a successful 23 August 2009 attempt to break the Israeli siege on the coastal enclave. Two boats carrying international campaigners sailing from Cyprus carried about 40 international peace and human rights activists from Free Gaza Movement and medical supplies for children.The trip was the first of three successful voyages, with the subsequent seven prevented from arrival by Israeli forces. (MaanImages/Wissam Nassar)

Israel was the first victim – It won’t be the last

Since 2007, Israel has maintained a legal maritime blockade around Gaza. Gaza is a territory ruled by a known terrorist organization — Hamas — whose explicitly stated goal is the elimination of Israel through violence. Past experience has proven that Hamas keeps its promises of terror, cravenly using its own citizens as civilian shields in order to launch attacks on Israelis.

Preventing this terror has been a full-time occupation for Israel, and the goal of the maritime blockade has been the protection of Israeli citizens. Keeping rockets and other weapons out of the hands of Hamas, while simultaneously letting food and other humanitarian aid in, is a constant exercise in measured risk. World media outlets have bought into the widespread Palestinian propaganda that the Gaza blockade is a humanitarian crisis — going so far as to conflate the situation in Gaza with a “holocaust” and comparing the Israelis to “Nazis” for failing to allow basic human services to reach Gazans.

This inflammatory language does get attention. It also effectively masks the reality on the ground — the fact that it is Hamas itself which blocks humanitarian aid from reaching its citizens, diverting funds and materiel instead to building arms caches. In what has become a brilliant public relations ploy, the Hamas leadership has managed again to use its civilians to shield its true intentions and actions.

Nearly half a decade ago, Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in order to disengage from that territory and create a chance for peace. Hamas (a recognized terror organization by both the United States and Israel) took advantage of internecine Palestinian fighting and took control of Gaza. The putative “government” of Gaza is not one which values human life (at least not that of its citizens, much less Israelis); the civilian infrastructure in Gaza Strip has been exploited by Hamas to launch attacks — inviting Israeli response (which is then condemned as targeting civilians). By using hospitals, mosques and offices of international aid groups to conduct terrorist activity against Israel, Hamas is swaying public opinion in its favour.

Hamas found a willing and able partner in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). It was UNRWA’s director of operations in Gaza, John Ging [an Irish national and former officer in the Irish Army and head of the United Nation’s Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip since 2006],^[1] who was quoted in The New York Times in early 2009 as saying that Israel’s blockade was choking off basic humanitarian supplies like medicine, clothing and blankets, as well as food supplies. Moreover, it was Ging who called upon the international community “to shoulder its responsibility on this issue” by “sending ships to break the siege.”

In an interview with a Norwegian newspaper in early May, Ging reportedly urged the world to send ships to the shores of Gaza. He added,

“We believe that Israel will not intercept these vessels because the sea is open, and human rights organizations have been successful in similar previous operations proving that breaking the siege of Gaza is possible.”

This was a leading official of a United Nations NGO acting in the capacity of his position. He was urging other non-governmental actors to engage in what is clearly an act of international war–invading the territorial waters of a United Nations member state and sovereign nation.

Israel seems to have been the only state to recognize this and, as was reported by Middle East Monitor, will make an official request to the United Nations for clarification of how an official representative of the United Nations could call for European countries to send ships to Gaza without authorization and prior co-ordination with Israel.

Though it is not surprising that this aspect of the issue went unreported in the world media, it is an extremely dangerous and discomfiting precedent. UNRWA has long been a co-opted (and corrupted) actor on the Gaza scene; but as UNRWA is still under United Nations auspices, it retains the responsibility of at least pretending to act in a fair and objective manner. Ging’s actions belie any facade of accountability and teeter on the edge of outright incitement.

During the latest flotilla saga, Mr. Ging has continued to defend Hamas when questioned about the terror organization’s credibility regarding the allegations that they might misuse aid. According to Ging, Hamas does not steal and any aid delivered via UNRWA and the UN is respected by Hamas. As such, had the flotilla reached Gaza it would have alleviated the mass unemployment, extreme poverty, food insecurity and food price rises caused by shortages which left four out of five Gazans dependent on humanitarian aid — i.e. UNRWA facilities. Such a view is not only overly optimistic, but downright disingenuous. The boats’ cargo contained weapons as well as foodstuffs — and it was clear from the outset that the flotilla was meant as a provocation and a media stunt designed to challenge Israel and open a new route for weapons smuggling.

In inciting the flotilla, John Ging has dishonoured UNRWA and the United Nations. UNRWA itself should long ago have been absorbed into the Office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Now the matter is more urgent than ever.

Moreover, the hyper-sensitive focus on Israel by the global media outlets not only embarrasses Israel (an imperfect, yet law-abiding democracy); it actively encourages Hamas and other terror organizations. It is long past time for the media to examine its own role in sponsoring and promoting acts of violence against civilians, and in creating an atmosphere in which the perpetrators of said violence are rewarded by vast media coverage and heralded as “militants” rather than called out for their murderous actions.

The international community is also guilty. While rogue states like North Korea, Iran, Syria, Sudan and China (to mention just a few) wantonly engage in human rights abuses and abhorrent violence against civilians, it is Israel that brings the UN Security Council together for more commissions and inquiries than any other nation.

Of course, the stark contrast is nothing new. It’s much easier to target Israel than it is to address the entrenched violence and inhumanity perpetrated in so many other United Nations member states. And, more recently, focusing on Israeli “sins” diverts attention from the real threat — a nuclear Iran. Iran’s recent announcement that it now has enough uranium for two nuclear bombs was completely obscured by the media frenzy surrounding the Gaza flotilla

Israel may be the first country to have been directly challenged by an open act of war in this flotilla episode. But if other nations think they are exempt or immune, they are wrong. Terrorists and those who sponsor them have taken notice of the world’s response. And they are nothing if not emboldened.

Notes:

[1] The Gaza Flotilla was also co-organized by Irish Human Rights Activists and the Irish-owned ship Rachel Corrie was part of the Gaza Flotilla but arrived days later because of mechanical failure. In this respect it needs to be noted that many of the Irish nationalists (supporting an united Ireland) have strong sympathies for the Palestinian issue and are outspoken anti-Israel. The Irish Republican Army (an Irish terrorist organization), made common anti-colonialist cause with the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), with the PLO allegedly providing arms and training for the IRA as early as the 1970s. The (Provisional) Irish Republican Army (IRA) is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a United Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion.

Mural, Beechmount Avenue, Belfast, 1982 - "PLO IRA one struggle"; member of Irish Republican Army and member of PLO with rifles and rocket launcher, Irish tricolour and Palestinian flag - "RPG Avenue" - Painted by the Irish Republican Youth Movement. (2)

[2] www.usm.maine.edu.

Mural, Falls Road, Belfast, 1983 - "Solidarity between women in armed struggle"; women militants of (from left to right) Palestine Liberation Organisation, Cumann an mBan (women's section of Irish Republican Army) and Southwest African People's Organisation (Namibia), contained within women's symbol. (3)

[3] www.usm.maine.edu.

About the authors:

Asaf Romirowsky is a senior fellow at EMET and an associate fellow at the Middle East Forum. Nicole Brackman is a former Soref Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.