At a certain point during the Israeli attack, the Mavi Marmara turned sharply west and sped up significantly, directly away from Israel and the Gaza Strip.

It is unclear whether the Israelis already controlled the ship at that time or whether its change of course was an attempt by the crew to escape the Israeli attack.
If the Israelis controlled the ship already it seems more likely that they would have turned east, toward Ashdod, rather than west.

The crime of high jacking

Hijacking boats in international waters and killing passengers is, of course, a serious crime.
The editors of the Guardian are quite right to say that “If an armed group of Somali pirates had yesterday boarded six vessels on the high seas, killing at least 10 passengers and injuring many more, a NATO taskforce would today be heading for the Somali coast.”

It is worth bearing in mind that the crime is nothing new.
For decades, Israel has been hijacking boats in international waters between Cyprus and Lebanon, killing or kidnapping passengers, sometimes bringing them to prisons in Israel including secret prison/torture chambers, sometimes holding them as hostages for many years. Israel assumes that it can carry out such crimes with impunity because the US tolerates them and Europe generally follows the US lead.

Much the same is true of Israel’s pretext for its latest crime: that the Freedom Flotilla was bringing materials that could be used for bunkers for rockets.
Putting aside the absurdity, if Israel were interested in stopping Hamas rockets it knows exactly how to proceed: accept Hamas offers for a cease-fire.

In June 2008, Israel and Hamas reached a cease- fire agreement. The Israeli government formally acknowledges that until Israel broke the agreement on November 4, invading Gaza and killing half a dozen Hamas activists, Hamas did not fire a single rocket.

Hamas offered to renew the cease-fire. The Israeli cabinet considered the offer and rejected it, preferring to launch its murderous and destructive Operation Cast Lead on December 27.

Evidently, there is no justification for the use of force “in self-defence” unless peaceful means have been exhausted. In this case they were not even tried, although — or perhaps because — there was every reason to suppose that they would succeed.
Operation Cast Lead is therefore sheer criminal aggression, with no credible pretext, and the same is true of Israel’s current resort to force.

The siege of Gaza itself does not have the slightest credible pretext. It was imposed by the US and Israel in January 2006 to punish Palestinians because they voted “the wrong way” in a free election, and it was sharply intensified in July 2007 when Hamas blocked a US-Israeli attempt to overthrow the elected government in a military coup, installing Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan.

The siege is savage and cruel, designed to keep the caged human beings barely alive so as to fend off international protest, but hardly more than that. It is the latest stage of long-standing Israeli plans, backed by the US, to separate Gaza from the West Bank.

A pariah state like South Africa

Will change come about as a result of the role played by world public opinion, perhaps in the manner of what happened in South Africa?

South Africa is an interesting case, and it’s worth looking closely at the history. In about 1960, South Africa was beginning to realise that it was becoming a pariah state, and the South African foreign minister called in the American ambassador ‘we know we are becoming a pariah state, and everyone is voting against us at the United Nations, but you and I understand that there’s only one vote at the United Nations — yours,’ meaning that as long as you back us up we don’t care what the rest of the world says. And that turned out to be very accurate.

2010 Central Council Motion

Liberation considers that the Middle East is one of the most dangerous regions for war throughout the world.Israel, as the gendarme of American imperialism, armed with nuclear weapons, is a constant threat to the peace of its Arab neighbours and its citizenry.

This was recognised with the adoption of the United Nation’s General Assembly resolution 181(II) of 29 November 1947.Israeli practices since that day constitute flagrant violations of international agreements and international humanitarian law, in particular, the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The latest attack on the unarmed flotilla, led by the Mavi Marmara, delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza trip, has outraged world public opinion, with: dockers, musicians, trade unions and human rights agencies taking action, making declarations against Israel which killed nine activists aboard the ship.

Liberation calls on the TUC and all United Kingdom trade unions to increase their support and actions for boycotts until Israel lifts the siege of Gaza and withdraws to its original 1947 borders in order to ensure a lasting peace in the Middle East.