A sailboat named Madleen, bound for Gaza carrying a symbolic supply of humanitarian aid to break Israel’s blockade of food and medical provisions, was seized by the Israeli Navy in international waters on June 9, 100 nautical miles from Gaza. The detained 12-member crew, which was later deported from Israel, included Swedish climate and social justice activist Greta Thunberg, and Rima Hassan a French Member of the European Parliament.
The Freedom Flotilla coalition that launched the Madleen has since 2008 attempted to break Israel’s blockade with 31 boats, but only 5 reached Gaza. In 2010, Israeli commandos attacked the Mavi Marmara, a ship carrying humanitarian aid and 600 passengers, killing 10 activists onboard and injuring dozens more.
Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Craig Mokhiber, an international human rights lawyer and former director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights who resigned in protest over the unfolding Gaza genocide and the UN’s failure to stop it. Here he discusses the Israeli seizure of the Madleen and pressure on the UN General Assembly to convene under a resolution called, “Uniting for Peace” which would deploy a protection force to Gaza, mandate a ceasefire, an Israeli arms embargo, and sanctions against the Netanyahu regime.
CRAIG MOKHIBER: Israel has attacked and commandeered the UK flagged ship, the Madleen, named by the way, for a Gaza fisherwoman. And it has abducted all 12 of the unarmed civilian humanitarians who were on board, including Greta Thunberg and other humanitarians. Many of them well known. These were citizens of France and Spain and the Netherlands and Sweden and Germany and Brazil and Turkey, who were essentially sailing to Gaza to deliver baby formula for starving infant survivors of a genocide, together with other food and medical supplies. And they were sailing lawfully in international waters in the Mediterranean. They were heading toward Palestinian territorial waters. They were not heading toward Israel. They were never in or directed at Israeli territorial waters. And yet they were attacked by Israeli forces and abducted.
And I should say also, Scott, this is not the first time. Just last month, another part of the Freedom Flotilla, a humanitarian ship called the Conscience was bombed by Israeli quadcopters in international waters off the coast of Malta.
And all of this comes in a context where the Israeli regime literally has the world record for the killing of humanitarians. In just the recent upsurge in genocide in the past year and a half, Israel has murdered 310 UN staff alone — U.N. humanitarians working in Gaza, many of them along with their families. And that’s in addition to blocking of aid trucks and destruction of aid facilities and attacks on aid convoys. And frankly, because the government of the United States guarantees the impunity of the Israeli regime, including through the use of the veto, that regime has grown increasingly more and more bold in the perpetration of its international crimes. And that’s why you see them doing something that people would’ve thought is unheard of, the attacking and commandeering and kidnapping of these humanitarians from the Madleen.
SCOTT HARRIS: Craig, before we run out of time, I did want to ask you about yourself and others who are demanding that the United Nations General Assembly convene under a provision known as Uniting for Peace to deploy a force to Gaza to demand a ceasefire, implement sanctions against Israel, and hold Israeli officials accountable for war crimes committed in Gaza. Briefly summarize it for our listeners, if you would, and the chances that this could succeed.
By getting the permission of those countries, Israel refused, but Egypt in this case agreed. So the emergency force could be deployed there and that could be done here as well. Because the world court, the International Court of Justice, has ruled that Israel has no sovereignty over Gaza has no right to be there, has no authority over it and therefore the authority over admitting the U.N. belongs to the Palestinians.
So with the permission of the Palestinians and the cooperation of Egypt and Jordan, ideally also for the West Bank, it would be possible for the General Assembly to mandate a U.N. emergency force, a U.N. protection force and to send it there. And even if it didn’t go in immediately, although I think that it should — it has the full legal right to do so, it could deploy on the borders in Egypt and the West Bank with monitoring equipment. It would be armed for self-defense. It would be charged with escorting in all of the medical aid and shelter and food and water and sanitation. Everything that’s needed for the survivors of the genocide.
And they could also call, of course, for a ceasefire. They could call for sanctions and a military embargo against the Israeli regime. They could call for the establishment of an accountability mechanism like a tribunal to hold perpetrators accountable. They could reactivate the apartheid mechanisms of the U.N. They could put pressure on the U.S. to lift the sanctions. The U.S. has now put sanctions on the International Criminal Court, for indicting Israeli war criminals and could demand a full return of UNRWA and other humanitarian agencies to the territory. And finally to call for the implementation of the orders of the International Court of Justice in the genocide case against Israel, which has issued several provisional measures.
It could do all of that if it has the political will to do so and that only takes a majority of the member states, but I think it is entirely possible. Whether it will happen, I think is an open question. There is a risk that with pressure from the U.S. and others that the resolution that is adopted will simply again, call for a ceasefire and repeat the worn-out old phrases of previous resolutions. But it is an opportunity for the international community to meet its obligation to respond to an ongoing genocide when the Security Council is unable to act because a co-perpetrator in that genocide, the United States government, uses its veto to block action.
For more information, visit Craig Mokhiber’s website at craigmokhiber.org.
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