Open Gaza Now

We condemn the Israeli attack on the flotilla to Gaza and the blockade this attack seeks to enforce. The attack killed 9 people and the blockade has killed many more.

On 31 May Israeli commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara in international waters, 72 nautical miles off the coast of Israel. In South African parlance this violation of international law is known as a hijacking.

We believe that the state of Israel has the right to self-defence in terms of its pre-1967 borders. However, the flotilla posed no security risk to the state that could have justified the deployment of military force used by Israel. The risk to the commandos – who were assaulted by some of the flotilla’s activists – was created by their unlawful and provocative boarding of the ship in international waters.

We call for an independent, international and credible investigation into this attack.

The flotilla aimed to deliver aid to Gaza whose civilian population of about 1.5 million is blockaded by both Israel and Egypt. According to a report cited recently by the Economist, Israel prevents the following goods, amongst many others, from entering Gaza: fresh meat, cement, wood, fabric (for clothing), fishing rods, nylon nets for greenhouses, spare parts for tractors, heaters for chicken farms, musical instruments, size A4 paper, toys, heaters and goats.

A report by the World Food Programme and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation released in November 2009 states that over three quarters of Gaza's population is food insecure or vulnerable to food insecurity. The report states the population of Gaza is being sustained at "the most basic or minimum humanitarian standard."

Israel remains the occupying power in Gaza, in full control of all entry and exit of goods and people from the territory; the blockade proves this. The Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict (aka the Goldstone Report) found that “Israel continues to be duty-bound under the Fourth Geneva Convention and to the full extent of the means available to it to ensure the supply of foodstuff, medical and hospital items and other goods to meet the humanitarian needs of the population of the Gaza Strip without qualification.”

It further found that the blockade constituted “collective punishment intentionally inflicted by the Government of Israel on the people of the Gaza Strip.”

We condemn this blockade as a crime against humanity and call for it to be immediately lifted by both Israel and Egypt. We call on Israel to fully withdraw from all occupied territory, to end all illegal restrictions on Palestinian life, and to recognise the results of Palestinian elections.

Israel attempts to justify this siege on the grounds that Gaza’s democratically elected Hamas government is committed to Israel’s destruction. In this regard we note Hamas’ offers to negotiate with Israel on the basis of the 1967 borders; however we call on Hamas to desist from any attacks on Israeli civilians, to remove the anti-semitic clauses from its Charter, and to recognise Israel’s existence.

Israel has shown over the past decade that it seeks to avoid a diplomatic process leading to two free and independent states. Israel’s ongoing disregard for international law undermines institutions created after WWII to protect human rights for all people.

We therefore call on the South African government to use its offices to disclose all public information pertaining to the South African companies and representatives profiting from, or doing business with those profiting from, the ongoing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and to convey this information to NEDLAC to discuss appropriate action in this regard until such time as there is compliance with international law.

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This statement is Open Shuhada Street’s official position following the attack on the Gaza flotilla. The text of this statement was developed by some of the members of the 2008 South African Human Rights Delegation to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, who appear below as its signatories.

Andrew Feinstein

Pregs Govender

Zackie Achmat

Janet Love

Fatima Hassan

Nathan Geffen

Jack Lewis

Doron Isaacs

Jeremy Routledge

Jonathan Berger