The Democratic Action Party condemns the violent attack by the Israeli army on the “Freedom Flotilla” which was carrying humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza who are suffering from Israeli occupation which has resulted in a reported 16 deaths and scores injured. The Israeli navy has blockaded the Gaza Strip for the past 3 years.
The total and utter disregard for human lives especially those with only peaceful intent and bearing aid for the needy is not only abhorrent, but also evil to the very core. The attack on the flotilla is equal to any attack on Red Cross missions to aid injured civilians during the times of war. What is worst is that the attack by the Israeli navy was conducted in international waters.
The attack comes at a time when “proximity talks” which only started this month, are on-going between the United States, the Israeli government and the Palestinian authorities to resolve the decades old conflict in the Middleast. It appears that this pre-meditated attack is obviously meant to scuttle the attempts by the Palestinians to achieve independent self-rule, free from Israeli occupation.
The DAP calls on the Israeli government to ensure an immediate, sustained and unconditional opening of the crossing for the flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons to and from Gaza. We would also call upon those to ordered the unprovoked military attack on the peace mission to be charged in the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The head of United Nation's Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) mission in Gaza, John Ging has specifically expressed the need for the Flotilla to enter Gaza as due to the “medieval siege”, mass unemployment, extreme poverty, food insecurity and food price rises caused by shortages left four out of five Gazans dependent on humanitarian aid.
We call upon the government of United States, led by Barrack Obama to demonstrate its even-handedness by taking concrete actions against the Israeli government for the outright act of aggression and support a motion in the United Nations Security Council to condemn Israeli aggression. We also call upon the United States Government to end its US$3 billion military aid per annum to Israel.
Finally, the DAP would like to commend the courage of all the 750 people of conscience from 40 different countries including 35 Malaysian and international politicians intent on breaking the Israeli blockade. We offer our sincerest condolences to family and friends who have lost loved ones in the attack.
8 comments:
Hi,
I do not understand why everyone keep on condemning Israel! If something like this would have happen to Malaysia.. and we retaliate againts that country..would we also condemn them? How well do you know that it was all humanitarian people inside the ship? Our Malaysian Secret Service Intell? When someone burned our own Malaysian flag... all the nation was on fire.. wanting to catch the culprit.. but now.. One of our minister is burning Israel flag... fantastic justice... what kind of law do you have? Take action on the fellow who burn the Israel flag and prove to the nation that Malaysia is Democratic Country and a Country that abides by the law in which it sets.. not concerning on who did it.
Who started the violence?
This is disputed. The activists say the commandos started shooting as soon as they hit the deck. Israeli officials say the commandos were attacked first. Video clips show activists wielding a baseball bat and other objects. Photographs have also been produced of metal bars and slingshots. Israel says the activists used axes, knives and fired shots from a gun taken from the soldiers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/10203726.stm
Tony, before you posted this entry, may I ask whether you have had an opportunity to see the video which showed the situation on board before the commandos boarded the flotilla? In the video you can clearly see that at the moment when the first soldier hit the deck he was immediately swarmed by protesters and was attacked relentlessly. It would appear to me from the evidence released so far it was the crew members who had instigated the violence. Yes we have heard account from the crew members claiming the Israeli soldiers were the aggressors. However, do we have any evidence of that? Unfortunately no. Before we have further evidence on this I find it unacceptable and premature to label the Israeli troops as the culprit in this incident. In my humble opinion, they should be given the benefit of the doubt until concrete evidence is adduced that showed they have acted unreasonably and were the party in the wrong. As an analogy, under a court of law a defendant is presumed to be innocent before he is convicted. I see no reason why we should deviate from this presumption here.
Besides, the crew members have also acknowledged the fact that the flotilla was set sailed for Gaza. Under international maritime law, when a blockade is in effect it is ILLEGAL for any ships to break through the blockade. Whilst I regret this incident has turned ugly and caused much unnecessary bloodshed, surely our sympathy should only be reserved for the innocent but not perpetrators who wilfully disregard the law?
From a humanitarian standpoint, it is arguably easy to make a case against the Israeli for the manner in which they conduct themselves in this incident. However, there are other interests at stake when the much complicated issues of national security and public safety come into play. It is not easy to strike a balance between these two competing interests; in fact that's the reason why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been going on for so long without a solution in the horizon.
My point is simply that we need to be rational and consider the issues from all perspectives, something which I think you have failed to do so while writing this article.
It's a navy blockage! Why deliberately breach the blockage when alternatives land route has been offered to the so-called "peace activists"? Watch the video clip, no one can miss the fact that those navy commandos land themselves in an ambush.
DAP and Israel are like brothers with lots of twisted tongues..Both of you love debates !
Why not write about peace Jerusalem , Israel visit by many tourists but keeping writing about war in Gaza , Israel ? Anyway , Msia dont have the right including DAP to condemns Isreal as we also have ISA . We condemn Israel 1000 times but so far how many times Israel condemn Msia ISA ?
Msia condemn Israel the purposes
is only to skip topic about poor
people problem , Sibu anti-flood project and so on
10 years on, One is fighting for the plight of the Palestinians, while the Other is still embroiled with his sodomy.
Toing!
M'sia gov is making use of this issue to sidestep major issue. So many things were neglected:
1. The ship is trying to go past a blockade, y ? No other alternative routes ?
2. Our 12 heroes are so "great", go there for free (or mayb even worse, on tax payers funding), did nothing, peed in the pants facing commandos, gets a hero welcome back. Sicko. More money wasted on stupidity. When they sign up for this volunteer thing, they should have known the danger. What !? Thinking they are going there for a holiday for free ? Even I park my car in a car park area, the management of the car park will not do anything if my car is stolen. Was BSC car park management be held responsible when the rapist kidnapped the girl ?
3. M'sia so generous, send aid to war torn country, but no money is channelled to the hard-core poor in own country. Take 10% of those aid, which is given for free, give to the hardcore poor, then there's no more hardcore poor in our country. Y give these items to ppl, who may use it to throw at each other as weapons ?
and sadly this is what our gov and PKR do:
Waste hours condemning and making plans to protest while knowing nothing will change. Y don't u use these hours to find a better solution to bring a better state of economy to our country ? If we are rich and got nothing better to do, then lets chat and discuss about the issue. Otherwise, work on the tasks that u r being paid to do so with the public funds. Everyone should be sweating on how to prevent M'sia from going bankrupt due to subsidy, but gov waste time condemning this issue. If international pressure can work, Israel is long gone. If Israel is bad, y don't M'sia with all those warships and subs purchased by gov be used to attack Israel, in the name of justice and peace ? Just like the stupid gov of BUSH ?
I'm broke. I ask the bank to loan me some money, and they ask me go screw myself and they donate millions to be wasted in war. Pathetic.
I have a heart, I do feel sorry for the ppl at Gaza. But, maybe when I can sleep better knowing that i've money in my pocket to feel for them. Don't the world understand ? Its about survival of the fittest. If M'sia is having problem surviving, y still channeling and wasting money to help ? Y these funds r not used for local help ?
To Tony: I do support you and PKR, but please do focus back on ur role instead of minding others problems. Jangan jaga tepi kain orang lain. If Benjamin N of Israel will listen to what Malaysia or the world will say, the sun will rise from the west then. Just the same, if Najib will listen to what Anwar says, then we don't need politics anymore.
Sorry if I've offended anyone especially you, Tony, but I'm just very sad to c our gov wasting precious time condemning the issue. Everyone is worth something per hour. Imagine those amount wasted on that day in Parliment.
Post a Comment