- Seeing the footage dispatched from London to TV stations
around the world following the massacre of peace activists onboard the
Freedom Flotilla embarrassed me for several reasons.
-
- First and foremost, as an Iranian Muslim who ideologically
supports and upholds his brothers in religion during crucial times, I found
myself incomprehensibly ineffectual as I saw British citizens storming
onto the streets of London, holding the flags of Turkey and Palestine,
chanting "Free, Free Palestine".
-
- Although the vicious regime of Israel has been successful
in uniting Muslim and non-Muslim nations around the world in support of
the cause of the suffering people of Palestine, the sentiments that emanated
from the British citizens offered a different, an unprecedented feeling
this time.
-
- In the past, they would demonstrate to condemn the brutalities
of Tel Aviv. It was a perceptive sympathy that propelled them to the streets
to chant for the freedom of Palestine. This time was different, however.
This time the insight came together with a patriotic resentment against
those who had mistreated their fellow citizens.
-
- The British protestors were touching the pain that the
Palestinian people have suffered over the past 60 years. 42 British citizens
were among the 480 people whom the Zionist regime had arrested. This time,
the British citizens saw how Israel does not draw a distinction between
Palestinian and non-Palestinian; to the racist leaders of Israel and their
agents, a human being does not have any value, so imprisoning, torturing,
killing or massacring people from different nationalities, races and religions
is viewed as normal. Since September 2000, 1,441 Palestinian children have
been killed by Israeli forces. Children do not pose a threat to the national
security of Israel, so these killings emanate from the essential nature
of Israel - one of atrocity and butchery.
-
- Interestingly, Israel's ambassador to the United States,
Michael Oren, lauded his country's massacre of the international peace
activists, likening it to "America's fight against Nazi Germany in
the Second World War". In an interview with Fox News, he called this
mass killing by the Israel Defense Forces "perfectly legal, perfectly
humane and very responsible".
-
- The intensified cruelty and violence of the past years
has cost the Israeli regime its diplomatic relations with five countries,
namely Qatar, Mauritania, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua. Once again,
Israel has exhibited its inhumanity and parades before the eyes of the
international community how it ignores law and globally recognized regulations.
-
- Aside from breaching the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel
violated Article 3 of the Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts
against the Safety of Maritime Navigation that was adopted on March 10,
1988 in Rome. This article obligates measures that insure the safety of
marine passengers. According to this Convention, any person or entity that
intentionally and unlawfully resorts to violent action against the passengers
of any type of vessel is considered criminal.
-
- Let's get back to my own sentiments. I found myself slack-jawed
as I saw the people who had come to chant their dissatisfaction with the
ongoing aggression of Israel. They did not have anything to do with the
nation of Palestine religiously or nationalistically. They came from different
continents, different races, different religions and spoke different languages,
but their message was strong and that was what made them impressive and
inspiring.
-
- They chanted that they don't want to tolerate the incessant
bloodshed of Israel anymore. They don't want to hear of the killing, kidnapping,
torturing and bombing that Israel does every day. They don't want Israel
to be singled out as the state that is never held accountable for what
it does or what it intends to do. They don't want the arbitrary approach
of the superpowers toward Israel to continue. They don't want the United
Nations or other international organizations to sit back and watch apathetically
while Israel tortures and murders.
-
- The message of the citizens who have poured into the
streets around the world, like the tens of millions of them who had chanted
and rallied for the freedom of Gaza in the early days of 2009, is clear
and unambiguous. They don't want Israel to be treated as if it has tumbled
to the Levant from another planet. They don't want Israel to be exempt
from international law or regulation.
-
- Looking back at the calamitous days of the 1982 Lebanon
War in which 17,852 Lebanese were unjustifiably killed by Israeli forces,
you might remember that Israel finally withdrew after the United Nations
Security Council issued six consecutive resolutions, demanding that Tel
Aviv pull its troops out of Lebanon. Israel has a strange take on the language
of logic and ration. It continually violates Resolution 487 which calls
on it to put its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA safeguards.
This resolution was adopted 29 years ago, but Israel has yet to comply.
-
- What we witnessed in the Freedom Flotilla carnage was
not something totally unexpected. The Israeli regime, since its establishment,
has engaged in killing, denials of any wrongdoing, and then killing again.
The peace activists aboard the Freedom Flotilla came from 44 countries;
the least thing these countries can do is to sever ties with the Israeli
regime, a criminal entity that does not understand the language of peace.
However, the man who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 simply offered
his "deep condolences" and called for a "credible, impartial
and transparent investigation" into the issue. It seems that news
is possibly being obstructed en route to Mr. Obama. Perhaps he is waiting
for an investigative group to tell him what has happened.
-
- Let Mr. Obama find a pretext which he thinks will exempt
him from condemning the felony of Israel. We are the citizens of the world
who all chant together: "Free, Free Palestine!"
-
- - Kourosh Ziabari is an Iranian freelance journalist
and media correspondent. He has interviewed political commentator and linguist
Noam Chomsky, member of New Zealand parliament Keith Locke, Australian
politician Ian Cohen, member of German Parliament Ruprecht Polenz, former
Mexican President Vicente Fox, former U.S. National Security Council advisor
Peter D. Feaver, Nobel Prize laureate in Physics Wolfgang Ketterle, Nobel
Prize laureate in Chemistry Kurt Wüthrich, Nobel Prize laureate in
biology Robin Warren, famous German political prisoner Ernst Zündel,
Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff, American author Stephen Kinzer, syndicated
journalist Eric Margolis, former assistant of the U.S. Department of the
Treasury Paul Craig Roberts, American-Palestinian journalist Ramzy Baroud
and the former President of the American Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Sid Ganis.
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