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The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Kate Maynard, Hickman and Rose, UK
+ 442077025331
kmaynard@hickmanandrose.co.uk

Flotilla Passengers to Israeli Government: "Release all illegally-seized evidence of the shootings as well as all personal property"

Passengers from the flotilla from several countries (listed below) are
urging their governments to demand that Israel release the property
illegally seized from the passengers in international waters on 31 May,
in particular the many cameras, camcorders, mobile phones etc. that
contain evidence of at least the beginning of the shooting of civilians
by Israeli soldiers. (This demand is for property only and is
independent of the many legal briefs already being worked on due to
death and wounding of the passengers.)

LONDON

Passengers from the flotilla from several countries (listed below) are
urging their governments to demand that Israel release the property
illegally seized from the passengers in international waters on 31 May,
in particular the many cameras, camcorders, mobile phones etc. that
contain evidence of at least the beginning of the shooting of civilians
by Israeli soldiers. (This demand is for property only and is
independent of the many legal briefs already being worked on due to
death and wounding of the passengers.)

That evidence will be vital to any search for the truth concerning
the events on all six boats and must be secured urgently if Israeli
military personnel are ever to be held to account for the deaths of at
least nine civilians and the gunshot wounds of at least 40 others who
were aboard the Mavi Marmara ship.

Israel's 31 May 2010 attack on the civilians on the Freedom Flotilla
had terrible consequences, resulting in the death of (at least) nine
civilians and the wounding of over 40. It was unprovoked, unwarranted,
and illegal.

As recognized by the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC), the United Nations (UN) and every government in the world,
Israel remains the occupying power in Gaza. When Israeli military
forces took control of the six ships in international waters on 31 May
2010, the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 then applied to the
civilians on board.

The early testimonies of those participating in the flotilla and the
video evidence that activists managed to prevent being seized by the
Israeli military, provides prima facie evidence of the commission of
grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention (i.e. war crimes) by
Israeli military personnel involved in the attack on the flotilla and
in the detention of its passengers. That evidence suggests that the
following crimes were - and/or continue to be - committed:

  • wilful killing
  • inhuman treatment
  • wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health
  • unlawful deportation or transfer
  • unlawful confinement
  • taking of hostages
  • extensive appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly
  • theft by use of credit cards of some of the passengers by Israeli military personnel

Therefore, on behalf of the main organizers of the six-vessel Gaza
flotilla carrying approximately 700 human rights activists,
journalists, members of parliament and other civilians and crew, the
Freedom Flotilla coalition calls on all governments to comply with
their duties under article 1 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949
and take the following action due to Israel's theft of the property of
those participating in the flotilla. We call on all governments to join
us in urgently demanding that Israel:

  • immediately relinquishes control of all the property seized on 31 May 2010 during its illegal boarding of our ships.
  • releases the property that constitutes evidence and send
    all those items of property seized on the six boats on 31 May 2010, to
    the UN by June 30, 2010, including all cameras, mobile phones, laptops
    and recording devices which recorded the events aboard the six ships.
  • releases the remainder of the property (including clothes, credit cards and hard currency) to its rightful owners.
  • account for every stolen credit card or mobile or satellite telephone usage, which, if true, appears to have turned acts of illegal appropriation of property into straightforward pillage.

We also call on all governments to urgently demand from Israel that:

  • It will preserve all evidence in its possession in its original
    form (i.e. computer disks, hard-drives, SIM cards, memory cards, as
    well as any other physical evidence which could be considered relevant
    to any investigations) for handing over to the independent, impartial
    investigation ordered by the Security Council and/or UN Fact Finding
    Mission ordered by the Human Rights Council and in anticipation of the
    opening of criminal investigations.
  • It confirms that none of the film and photographic evidence seized
    on 31 May 2010 has in fact been destroyed and that it will not do so
    and to account for every single destroyed or disappeared item.

These crimes have focused international attention on the illegal
blockade of Gaza, leading to a welcome international review of the
policies of governments across the world towards the closure. There is
no natural disaster in Gaza. Therefore, Gaza does not need long-term
humanitarian aid, but instead needs to be allowed to rebuild its
economy and trade normally with the rest of the world. It cannot do
this while the closure and naval blockade continue.

Contact: Audrey Bomse, France +33 638 972 443

Audreybomse@hotmail.com

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Kate Maynard, Hickman and Rose, UK + 442077025331

kmaynard@hickmanandrose.co.uk

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Rochelle Harris, UK - +44(0)7785 116672

rochelle@humanrightsfund.org

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Rifat Audeh, Jordan +962 797 397742

rifataudeh@yahoo.ca

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Huwaida Arraf, Palestine +972-598-336-215,

huwaida.arraf@gmail.com

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  • The detailed statement sent to several governments today can be
    accessed on the front page of our website for the next week and in
    survivor testimonies https://www.freegaza.org/en/testimonies-from-israeli-jail/1230-demands-to-israel-regarding-property
  • The countries where the full statement is being sent to governments are:

Turkey, United Kingdom, Spain, Netherlands, Jordan, Ireland, USA, France, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Holland

Free Gaza is a human rights group founded in 2006. Our mission is to break the Israel's illegal siege on Gaza's 1.8 million civilians, since it inflicts collective punishment on the Palestinians who live there and has destroyed its economy. Free Gaza believes in direct action in confronting Israel's abuse of Palestinians using non-violent means and has found these voyages to be one of the most effective ways to alert the world to the prison-like conditions of Gaza. Ultimately, there is no better example of direct action than Free Gaza's sustained attempts to break the siege on Gaza which Israel claims it no longer occupies