By M. Zajam, TwoCircles.net,
It is always stated that History repeats itself but we rarely get chance to see one. But boarding of Israeli commandos on Mavi Marmara full of peace activists bound for Gaza provided just that. In 1947, the ship SS Exodus carried Jewish emigrants, who had no legal immigration certificates, to Palestine. The British Royal Navy foiled this effort by boarding the vessel. This incident is considered very important in establishment of Jewish state.
A book titled “The Exodus 1947: The Ship that launched a Nation” by Ruth Gruber and a documentry made by Elizabeth Rogers and Robby Henon sums up its importance.
Ship Exodus 1947, originally called the "President Warfield," took part in Normandy Invasion. After World War II it was acquired by the Hagana (an underground Jewish military organization). Hagana personnel arranged to dock the ship in Europe in order to transport Jews who sought to illegally immigrate into Palestine. The British Royal Navy cruiser Ajax and a convoy of destroyers trailed the ship from very early in its voyage, and finally boarded it some 20 nautical miles (40 km) from shore. The boarding took place in international water and was challenged by the passengers. British soldiers used force which resulted in death of two passengers and one of the crews and several injured. British government deported emigrants back to France. British could not offload emigrants in France, due to non cooperation of French government. Finally they were settled in Germany. Scuffle took place between emigrants and British troops while disembarking in Germany. A large, homemade bomb with a timed fuse was found on one of the three ships. It was apparently rigged to detonate after the Jews had been removed.
The whole saga was widely publicized in international media, and caused the British government much public embarrassment. This incident also made USA actively involved in finding a solution brokered by United Nations after rejecting British mandate for Palestine. This forced British to return this mandate to UN. In November 1947, the United Nations voted in favor of the partition of Palestine, proposing the creation of a Jewish state, an Arab state and an UN-administered Jerusalem. Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948.
Now question is that similar incident which provided Jews a state will provide freedom to Palestinians?
Ship Mavi Marmara
Gaza is under blockade since June 2007. UN termed this blockade as “medieval siege” and Amnesty International has called it “collective punishment”. Gaza’s 1.5 million population is surviving on less than 25% of imported supplies than they use to receive in December 2005. As per UN figure, 80% of population is surviving on some kind of food aid. Charity group Oxfam’s research showed houses across Gaza without power for 35-60 hours a week. Israel has not allowed petrol or diesel from Israel for vehicles since November 2008, except for fuel for UN cars and five other shipments in three years. WHO highlighted the fact that Gazans had only half the water they needed according to international standards, and 80% of water supplied did not meet WHO drinking standards. The World Health Organization says the blockade has led to a general "worsening of the health conditions of the population" and "accelerated the degeneration" of the health system.
Israel has successfully used and continue to use its favorite weapon “Self Defense” to kill, harass, imprison, starve and isolate whole Palestinian population. Latest show of self defense was onboard Mavi Marmara. This vessel carrying aid for Gaza was intercepted and boarded by Israeli commandos in International waters against the International Law. After boarding the vessel, commandos shot dead many unarmed peace activists.
Neither violation of International Law nor killing unarmed civilian by Israel sprung any surprises.What has really caught attention is widespread condemnation of this act even from its closest allies except USA. United Nations Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and the Human Rights Council have all called for an “impartial” and “independent” investigation into the flotilla crisis. Obama administration as usual worked overtime to curb some of its harsher language.
Failure of UN to enforce earlier resolution on Israel had given it a chance to treat all countries and international bodies as powerless and ineffective. Earlier Israel tested strength of Arab nations and now it is turn of European countries. Israel has started mocking at the USA and Western countries. Israel humiliated USA when it announced construction of settlement in disputed East Jerusalem during US Vice president Joe Biden visit. Israel freely used cloned British, German, Australian, French and Irish passport for its agents to carry out murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. All these nations let Israel go without any severe punishment or even reprimand. Effect of this was visible in incident involving Liberty Flotilla, when citizens of European nations were attacked. If these governments fail to take action, in future they should prepare for more.
Flag of Arab League Arab countries’ apathy towards Israel and its atrocities committed against Palestinians are shocking. In spite of Arab Nations being closest allies and biggest business partner of West. they wield no power when it comes to Israel. It seems all these Arab Kingdoms and west sponsored democracies have found an issue to keep its people distracted from internal problems. Whole Arab population is very much emotionally attached with Palestinians and any atrocities committed on them evoke strong reactions. These Arab rules are more than happy to offer aids of millions of dollars after every Israeli atrocity as long as it keeps their people busy. This issue is helping these rulers to run their empire and rigged government smoothly. For them Palestine problem is blessing in disguise and they are not interested in solving this. Egypt is partner of Israel in this Gaza blockade.
Arab and Muslim countries should learn a few tricks from Israel especially in the field of public relation and lobbying. They have been puppet of western power too long only to get humiliated, isolated, neglected and targeted. Now they should ignore west and work towards improving relation with upcoming power like Russia, China, India, South Africa and Brazil. They should also work on plan to create awareness among masses in these countries about atrocities committed by Israel. This in turn will help pressurize their government to act against Israel. If they fail to do so they will continue to suffer even in next century. Israel has realized the importance of these nations and already started working on those lines by improving relation.
World is looking towards West and USA for long overdue action against this lawlessness. West is very good in creating monsters but when it comes to controlling they fail miserably. West always claims to stand for Freedom, Justice and Democracy but their action must match their claim. Inaction on the part of USA, UN and West, the Axis of Good will give so called Axis of Evil something to smile about.
Source : http://www.twocircles.net/2010jun07/palestine_will_history_repeat_itself.htmlFor Palestine, will history repeat itself?
It is always stated that History repeats itself but we rarely get chance to see one. But boarding of Israeli commandos on Mavi Marmara full of peace activists bound for Gaza provided just that. In 1947, the ship SS Exodus carried Jewish emigrants, who had no legal immigration certificates, to Palestine. The British Royal Navy foiled this effort by boarding the vessel. This incident is considered very important in establishment of Jewish state.
A book titled “The Exodus 1947: The Ship that launched a Nation” by Ruth Gruber and a documentry made by Elizabeth Rogers and Robby Henon sums up its importance.
Ship Exodus 1947, originally called the "President Warfield," took part in Normandy Invasion. After World War II it was acquired by the Hagana (an underground Jewish military organization). Hagana personnel arranged to dock the ship in Europe in order to transport Jews who sought to illegally immigrate into Palestine. The British Royal Navy cruiser Ajax and a convoy of destroyers trailed the ship from very early in its voyage, and finally boarded it some 20 nautical miles (40 km) from shore. The boarding took place in international water and was challenged by the passengers. British soldiers used force which resulted in death of two passengers and one of the crews and several injured. British government deported emigrants back to France. British could not offload emigrants in France, due to non cooperation of French government. Finally they were settled in Germany. Scuffle took place between emigrants and British troops while disembarking in Germany. A large, homemade bomb with a timed fuse was found on one of the three ships. It was apparently rigged to detonate after the Jews had been removed.
The whole saga was widely publicized in international media, and caused the British government much public embarrassment. This incident also made USA actively involved in finding a solution brokered by United Nations after rejecting British mandate for Palestine. This forced British to return this mandate to UN. In November 1947, the United Nations voted in favor of the partition of Palestine, proposing the creation of a Jewish state, an Arab state and an UN-administered Jerusalem. Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948.
Now question is that similar incident which provided Jews a state will provide freedom to Palestinians?
Ship Mavi MarmaraGaza is under blockade since June 2007. UN termed this blockade as “medieval siege” and Amnesty International has called it “collective punishment”. Gaza’s 1.5 million population is surviving on less than 25% of imported supplies than they use to receive in December 2005. As per UN figure, 80% of population is surviving on some kind of food aid. Charity group Oxfam’s research showed houses across Gaza without power for 35-60 hours a week. Israel has not allowed petrol or diesel from Israel for vehicles since November 2008, except for fuel for UN cars and five other shipments in three years. WHO highlighted the fact that Gazans had only half the water they needed according to international standards, and 80% of water supplied did not meet WHO drinking standards. The World Health Organization says the blockade has led to a general "worsening of the health conditions of the population" and "accelerated the degeneration" of the health system.
Israel has successfully used and continue to use its favorite weapon “Self Defense” to kill, harass, imprison, starve and isolate whole Palestinian population. Latest show of self defense was onboard Mavi Marmara. This vessel carrying aid for Gaza was intercepted and boarded by Israeli commandos in International waters against the International Law. After boarding the vessel, commandos shot dead many unarmed peace activists.
Neither violation of International Law nor killing unarmed civilian by Israel sprung any surprises.What has really caught attention is widespread condemnation of this act even from its closest allies except USA. United Nations Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and the Human Rights Council have all called for an “impartial” and “independent” investigation into the flotilla crisis. Obama administration as usual worked overtime to curb some of its harsher language.
Failure of UN to enforce earlier resolution on Israel had given it a chance to treat all countries and international bodies as powerless and ineffective. Earlier Israel tested strength of Arab nations and now it is turn of European countries. Israel has started mocking at the USA and Western countries. Israel humiliated USA when it announced construction of settlement in disputed East Jerusalem during US Vice president Joe Biden visit. Israel freely used cloned British, German, Australian, French and Irish passport for its agents to carry out murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. All these nations let Israel go without any severe punishment or even reprimand. Effect of this was visible in incident involving Liberty Flotilla, when citizens of European nations were attacked. If these governments fail to take action, in future they should prepare for more.
Arab and Muslim countries should learn a few tricks from Israel especially in the field of public relation and lobbying. They have been puppet of western power too long only to get humiliated, isolated, neglected and targeted. Now they should ignore west and work towards improving relation with upcoming power like Russia, China, India, South Africa and Brazil. They should also work on plan to create awareness among masses in these countries about atrocities committed by Israel. This in turn will help pressurize their government to act against Israel. If they fail to do so they will continue to suffer even in next century. Israel has realized the importance of these nations and already started working on those lines by improving relation.
World is looking towards West and USA for long overdue action against this lawlessness. West is very good in creating monsters but when it comes to controlling they fail miserably. West always claims to stand for Freedom, Justice and Democracy but their action must match their claim. Inaction on the part of USA, UN and West, the Axis of Good will give so called Axis of Evil something to smile about.
Source : http://www.twocircles.net/2010jun07/palestine_will_history_repeat_itself.htmlFor Palestine, will history repeat itself?
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