Israel’s interception of yet another aid flotilla to Gaza in international waters is another stark reminder that the regime has complete impunity in the way it treats not only Gaza’s impoverished people but also diplomats.
There is only one way in which the hijacking of civilian ships in international waters can be described: Piracy. As it did before, the Israeli regime’s navy boarded the ship and commandeered it to its own ports against the will of its passengers. The ship had a humanitarian mission and was headed not to territory that is Israeli, but to the Gaza strip that has become a humanitarian catastrophe because of Israel’s policies of ghettoisation. No consideration was made for diplomatic practice, as Munsif Marzouqi, the former president of Tunisia, European MP Ana Miranda and Palestinian-Israeli MK (member of Knesset) Basel Ghattas were on board, but were apprehended and later deported.
Having killed nine activists on a similar mission in 2010, Israel would have been wise to learn from its mistake and not take control of the vessel. Such acts shed more light on the regime’s brutality and its policies in Gaza and no-doubt encourage more people to participate in such campaigns. As Ghattas said, this will encourage “flotilla after flotilla”. What the states neighbouring Gaza fail to realise is that it simply is not in their interest to maintain the siege on the territory, no matter how much they want to punish Hamas. The Israeli-Egyptian siege is a powder keg that can explode when the level of despair rises. Further, if the objective is to weaken Hamas, it may just be achieved, but the alternative to Hamas in Gaza can be significantly worse.
