On May 31 the Israeli military attacked six civilian ships bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza. Nine aid workers were murdered and some 60 volunteers were injured. The attack is not piracy because piracy is an act of aggression by individuals and not sponsored by a state. The Israeli attack was against people on ships flying the flags of countries that are not at war with Israel. Since no state of war existed at the time of the attack, the attack is an act of war against Turkey, Greece and the United States.
Although the Israeli government has declared there is no Gaza humanitarian crisis, in my summer 2009 visit to Gaza I saw first-hand how the people of Gaza are suffering and dying as a direct result of the siege. I am sad because I know that as long as the siege continues the children in Gaza will continue to die.
The Gaza invasion and blockade have created a humanitarian crisis, as declared by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International. Aid is needed to save the lives of children. Without media scrutiny the aid does not get delivered when sent through Israel. This is why volunteers from 37 countries traveled with the aid ships that were recently attacked by Israeli commandos.
My prayers go to all the people suffering including the families of the nine murdered aid workers and the Israeli commandos who killed them. The murder of US citizen Furkan Dogan is not the first time Americans have been killed by Israel’s military. Rachel Corrie, a US college student, wearing a bright orange vest and waving at the Israeli soldier driving a bulldozer, was crushed to death in 2003 when Israel’s military ordered the house of Samir Nasrallah in Gaza destroyed. Another horrific example is the intentional 1967 murders of 34 US military personnel on the USS Liberty. Sailors that were on the USS Liberty have worked for decades to educate the public that Israel tried to sink their ship and put the blame on Egypt in order to trick the US into entering their 1967 war (see www.usslibertyveterans.org and on June 8, 2005 the USS Liberty Veterans Association report of Israeli war crimes committed against the US military).
In January, General David Petraeus warned US soldiers are being put in harms way by Israel. He said, "Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing US standing in the region." Just a few days ago US college student Emily Henochowicz lost an eye because she was shot in the face with a tear gas canister by an Israeli border guard. The list of crimes is long and sadly rarely reported by the US media.
Israel’s leadership argues that they needed to inspect ships for guns but they know that the ships are inspected and certified as “gun free" before they leave port. In addition, Israel routinely has Mossad agents pretending to be aid volunteers to make sure the ships are not transporting guns.
The decision to authorize an act of war and attack the six aid ships was likely influenced by wanting to sideline a much more damaging revelation. Recently, the formerly top secret documents showing Israel offered to sell nuclear weapons to South Africa were published online. This is the first official proof of Israel’s nuclear weapons program.
Israel’s leadership is trying to fool people that an attack on Iran is necessary. The revelation that Israel stole nuclear technology from the United States and is willing to sell nuclear bombs to the highest bidder could not come at a worse time for advocates of war with Iran.
Israel attacked the ships in international water because they needed the cover of darkness. To wait for the ships to be near the established boundary would have allowed independent camera crews, not with the aid ships, to film any Israeli action. By attacking at night and seizing all cameras on the ships, Israel’s leadership controlled the message for days. It was not until three days after the murders that the world learned that aid volunteers took action to make sure the Israeli commandos were not killed. Erol Demir was on the Mavi Marmara and said the Israeli commandos “even shot those who surrendered” and handcuffed people were shot. Multiple aid workers reported a journalist trying to take a picture was murdered. Other passengers including ?dris Simsek reported wounded activists were thrown into the sea by the Israeli commandos.
As a result of the numerous first-hand accounts from the victims, videos and testimonies produced by Israel’s leadership are being dismissed. Critical-thinking people know if the Israeli military really showed the videos of what happened, they would show the videos from the Apache helicopters only 35 feet above the Mavi Marmara and the video recorded by both passengers and the commandos of the execution style gunfire.
Israel’s government should be embarrassed to claim self defense. This is like a house robber claiming he machine-gunned the occupants in self defense because they tried to repel his illegal entry with a baseball bat.
Israel’s government will resist an independent investigation at all costs. The reason is the same reason they fear the Goldstone Report and that is they fear the truth. An independent investigation will prove that the ship was gun-free and aid workers were murdered. The truth is had the commandos not brought guns and used them, not a single person would have been shot or killed. How do I know? Canadian peacemaker Kevin Neish was on the Mavi Marmara and he was one of many people who confirmed there were no guns until the commandos attacked with guns. In addition, I know from experience that aid organizations are careful to make sure no one does anything stupid like bring a gun, which would compromise aid delivery. Had I, or any of the people I have worked with, seen an aid worker with a gun, we would have been the first to take action to preserve the peaceful intent of the aid project.
Israeli propaganda has used the rockets fired into Israel to justify all kinds of violence. Rarely does Israel’s government reveal that according to Israel’s military that in the last 10 years fewer than 30 Israelis have been killed by Palestinian rockets. The United Nations Goldstone fact-finding team concluded that prior to the Gaza invasion not thousands of rockets were fired by Palestinians but maybe two with zero rocket casualties (read the Haaretz article on Feb. 10, 2010 “Hamas fired ‘something like two’ rockets before Gaza war”). On the Palestinian side however, in 2009 there were multiple days where Israeli rockets killed over 30 Palestinian children per day, killing 355 children in a 22-day period.
Almost all the aid the Teach Peace Foundation delivers is in Africa. Teach Peace was never criticized, never, until we delivered medicine to save children in Gaza. I am still surprised by the mean-spirited false attacks that accused us of being Holocaust deniers, self-hating Jews, or people who do not support the Israeli people because we delivered medicine in Gaza. The truth is we want only good things for Israelis and Palestinians.
Increasingly we, and the world, are seeing that the enemy of Judaism, the Jewish people, and the truth, are pro-violence Zionists who have the audacity to justify illegally attacking humanitarian aid ships. Zionist are attacking Judaism when they try to turn being Jewish into something material and when they lie to justify murdering humanitarian workers. Fortunately, the vast majority of Israelis and Jews around the world are peaceful and do not support killing humanitarian workers.
In summary, diplomacy is needed because Israel committed an act of war by attacking the ships, boarding the ships, capturing the ships, attacking the passengers, imprisoning the passengers, forcibly removing the passengers from the ships, torturing passengers in prison, stealing personal property, and of course murdering humanitarian aid workers.
People sincerely interested in the truth need to know the facts on the ground are often completely different from what the media reports. This is why the courageous Israeli soldiers speaking out for the organization Breaking the Silence are important to hear (www.breakingthesilence.org.il).
The time has come for President Obama to earn his Nobel Laureate. Please call upon President Obama to demand that Israel immediately end the Gaza siege and all military funding for Israel be redirected to creating jobs here at home.
Peace is possible when the truth is known. Nonviolence and love for the Israeli and Palestinian people is the answer. Israel’s approach of stealing nuclear technology from the United States, offering to sell nuclear weapons, murdering humanitarian aid workers, and enforcing a siege killing children, creates the perfect storm to fuel anti-Semitism.
The truth can be upsetting. I understand that and if anything I have written is upsetting, please be my dinner guest. I have found that active listening to get to know people who disagree with me is a fantastic way to not only make friends, but also find solutions to difficult problems.
If you are like us and care deeply for the Israeli and Palestinian people, as well as for disadvantaged people in other parts of the world, please consider supporting the Teach Peace Foundation. Our programs to help children are explained in detail at www.teachpeace.com. Humanitarian aid is good for Israel’s security and is literally life-saving for thousands of Palestinians.
Dave Dionisi is president of the Teach Peace Foundation. This commentary first appeared on http://www.teachpeace.com/.
