The long-awaited United Nations inquiry into Israel’s attack on the Mavi Marmara, the flagship of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, on May 31, 2010 has ruled that Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip is both legal and appropriate. 

The UN-mandated inquiry also ruled that Israel’s action, in which nine Turkish citizens were killed, was “excessive” but not a violation of international law and has held both Israel and the Gaza Freedom Flotilla activists responsible for the violence. 

This is a miscarriage of justice.

According to the UN investigators, the occupied and the occupiers are now the same and there’s no difference between the killers and the killed. 

Israel and some other privileged countries are allowed to flout intentional law.  

For example, the Israelis have been allowed to steal a people’s homeland, build homes and farms there, and confine 1.6 million people in a 360-square-kilometer coastal territory. They have also been allowed to make life a living hell for the Palestinians by besieging them from three sides and coercing former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak to do the same on the fourth side of the Gaza Strip.   

But according to the UN, all this is “legal and appropriate” since the oppressors are given certain privileges by the Western powers and the oppressed are just characters from Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.

And the Palestinians cannot get even the simplest condemnation of the Zionist regime from the UN, even if it launches a full-scale military assault on the people of Gaza, kills over 1400 civilians, and destroys schools, hospitals, mosques, and the infrastructure of the territory. 

UN panels do not regard this as a violation of international law and specifically the Geneva Conventions, which clearly state that the occupier is responsible for providing the basic necessities of life to the people of the occupied territory. 

According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the occupier is bound to “ensure the food and medical supplies of the population” as well as “agree to relief schemes on behalf of the… population” and maintain “public health and hygiene.”

Articles 55 and 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention are related to the protection of civilians in time of war.

Article 55 says: “To the fullest extent of the means available to it the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate. 

“The Occupying Power may not requisition foodstuffs, articles or medical supplies available in the occupied territory, except for use by the occupation forces and administration personnel, and then only if the requirements of the civilian population have been taken into account. Subject to the provisions of other international Conventions, the Occupying Power shall make arrangements to ensure that fair value is paid for any requisitioned goods. 

“The Protecting Power shall, at any time, be at liberty to verify the state of the food and medical supplies in occupied territories, except where temporary restrictions are made necessary by imperative military requirements.”

Article 56 states: “To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties. 

“If new hospitals are set up in occupied territory and if the competent organs of the occupied State are not operating there, the occupying authorities shall, if necessary, grant them the recognition provided for in Article 18. In similar circumstances, the occupying authorities shall also grant recognition to hospital personnel and transport vehicles under the provisions of Articles 20 and 21. 

“In adopting measures of health and hygiene and in their implementation, the Occupying Power shall take into consideration the moral and ethical susceptibilities of the population of the occupied territory.”

But it seems that none of this applies to Israel, according to the UN.  

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