Greens out against Israeli attack on humanitarian convoy
01 June 2010
A convoy carrying humanitarian aid has been attacked by Israeli commandos in international waters killing at least 19 people, all civilians, some whilst they slept, and injuring 60 others, according to Turkey's NTV and other news sources.
Prominent Eastern Region Greens have spoken out against this attack:
Peter Offord, Norwich Green Party Councillor, who took aid into Gaza last Christmas as part of the Gaza Freedom March, said:
"These people, many of whom I have met, are peacefully trying to carry out what governments have failed to do: to relieve the suffering of the people of Gaza by carrying in humanitarian aid and raising the Israeli siege of Gaza as the violation of humanitarian law that it is - and since all land borders are blocked and Gaza's airport bombed - what method of transportation are they left with? Their cause has been sanctioned by all people of conscience."
C'llr. Rupert Read, long-time peace campaigner and last year's lead Eastern Region Green Party candidate for the European Parliament, said:
"Foreign Secretary William Hague - a prominent member of the 'Friends of Israel' organisation - has issued a statement deploring the loss of life. But that isn't enough. All of those killed have been civilians engaged in a humanitarian task; and they have been killed by Israeli troops operating outside the law, piratically, in international waters. We in the Green Party condemn their actions; and, if our government fails to issue a similar condemnation, then we will be left with no alternative but to conclude that this new government is soft on Israel, and is not serious about opposing internationally illegal violence, extra-judicial murder and war."
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CONTACT:
C'llr. Peter Offord 01603 405098 / 07757 752 485
Councillor Rupert Read, 01603 219294
Mike Medhust, Eastern Region Green Party Press Officer
Notes for editors: The largest vessel in the convoy, the MV Marmara, is flying the Turkish flag and Turkey is a NATO ally. Over 600 people on 6 vessels, including 24 UK nationals, including Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, European legislators and 85 year old Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, were carrying 10,000 tonnes of aid to Gaza to relieve the Israeli imposed siege that is stopping all supplies into the 25 mile long strip of land. (Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas in the world with 1.5 million people, many of them refugees from the 1948 Nakba surviving on a strip of land of 139 sq miles.)
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