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Alison
Roh Park,
apark@ccrjustice.org, (347) 944-0114
Discussions at the Human Rights Council (HRC) continued today following the
release of a report of the fact-finding mission that investigated the May 31,
2010 Israeli attacks on the flotilla of ships travelling to Gaza, in which it
found that Israel violated international law in attacking the flotilla and by maintaining
a blockade of Gaza. Nine people were killed during the Israeli attack on the
flotilla in international waters. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR),
the Free Gaza Movement (FGM), an
organizer of the flotilla, and the National Lawyers Guild (NLG)
responded to the report and the comments made by the United States at the
Council today.
Today, at the HRC, the
United States criticized what it termed as the report's "unbalanced language,
tone and conclusions." Rather than
acknowledging the harm to the "peace process" that comes from the on-going
blockade of Gaza and the building of settlements on occupied Palestinian
territory, the U.S. urged that the report not be used to "disrupt" direct talks
between Israel and the Palestinians.
"Unfortunately, the United States
used the opportunity of the HRC's discussion on the flotilla fact-finding
mission's report to promote its political agenda instead of engaging on the
issue of legal accountability for Israel's illegal blockade of Gaza and the
unlawful attack on the Gaza flotilla," said CCR attorney Katherine Gallagher. "The U.S. must recognize that there can be no peace without
justice, and that until it supports accountability for violations of
international law - even when violations committed by Israel - instead of a
culture of impunity, it lacks the legitimacy necessary to serve as a broker of
peace."
"It has always been
the position of the Free Gaza Movement that when governments fail to act, it is
up to civil society to stand against injustice," said Audrey Bomse, Legal
Coordinator of the Free Gaza Movement. "The Fact-Finding Mission rejected
the notion that such intervention by civil society is meddlesome and called for
space for both humanitarian intervention to alleviate the crisis in Gaza, and political action
to address the causes creating the crisis. The Second Freedom Flotilla now
being organized, like the one so brutally attacked by Israel, will aim to do both. We
will continue sailing until the illegal siege of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza is ended."
Among its findings, the
report stated that "one of the principal motives behind the imposition of the
blockade was a desire to punish the people of the Gaza Strip for having elected
Hamas [and there is] no doubt that Israel's actions and policies amount to
collective punishment as defined by international law."
The report also found:
That the flotilla
presented no imminent threat but the Israeli attack was based in concerns
regarding a "possible propaganda victory" of the flotilla organizers;That "the Israeli interception of the flotilla was
unlawful," and "the use of force by the Israeli forces in seizing control of
the...vessels was also prima facie unlawful";
That "much of the force used by the Israeli
soldiers...was unnecessary, disproportionate, excessive and inappropriate and
resulted in the wholly avoidable killing and maiming of a large number of
civilian passengers";
That based in forensic evidence, at least six of the
killings [including U.S.
citizen Furkhan Dogan] can be characterized as "extra-legal, arbitrary and
summary executions";
That "the conduct of the Israeli military and other
personnel towards the flotilla passengers was not only disproportionate to the
occasion but demonstrated levels of totally unnecessary and incredible
violence. It betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality"; and
That Israel's
confiscation of "a large amount of video and photographic footage...by
passengers, including many professional journalists... represents a deliberate
attempt by the Israeli authorities to suppress or destroy evidence and other
information" related to the flotilla attack.
"As a retired US Army Reserve Colonel and a former US diplomat, and as a
passenger on the Gaza flotilla, I am grateful that the UN Human Rights Council
commissioned an investigation into the Israeli military attack on the six
unarmed, civilian ships that formed the 'Gaza flotilla,'" said Ann Wright, one of two US diplomats who were passengers on the Gaza flotilla.
"Despite the passengers' notification to their respective diplomatic
representatives of criminal incidents that took place on the ships, including
murder, shootings, assaults, kidnapping on the high seas and theft of personal
property, the lack of required accountability by the Israeli government
pertaining to these crimes is outrageous. The lack of investigation on the part
of the U.S. government of the death of an American citizen and the assaults on
other American citizens by the Israeli military is a total renunciation of the
responsibilities of my government toward its citizens."
Sixteen U.S. citizens were part of the
flotilla, five of whom were on the U.S.-registered vessel Challenger I and one of whom was killed on the Mavi Marmara. U.S. citizens were injured, and their property,
including computers, video and photographic equipment which contain potential
evidence for investigations, was seized and appropriated by Israel and has not
been returned.
Marjorie Cohn, immediate past president of the NLG, said, "Israel could not maintain its illegal occupation
of the Palestinian territories without the support of the United States. Three weeks after
the flotilla attack, 329 out of 435 members of the House of Representatives and
87 out of 100 senators wrote letters to President Obama supporting what they
called Israel's right to 'self-defense.'
The Human Rights Council report says unequivocally that Israel had no
need to 'defend' against the flotilla because it posed no imminent threat and
that Israel's actions were illegal."
The Free Gaza Movement is a
human rights group that in August 2008 sent the first international boats to
land in the port of Gaza in 41 years. FGM seeks to break the
siege of Gaza, to raise international awareness
about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip and pressure the international
community to review its sanctions policy and end its support for continued
Israeli occupation.
The National Lawyers
Guild, founded in 1937, is the
oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United
States. It is a member of the International Association of Democratic lawyers,
headquartered in New York with chapters throughout the United States.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to
advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States
Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by
attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a
non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of
law as a positive force for social change.
For more information on
CCR's response to the attack on the flotilla and the blockade of Gaza, go to: https://www.ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/gaza-freedom-flotilla.
The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. CCR is committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.
(212) 614-6464"Banning asylum and punishing people seeking safety only causes more chaos and dysfunction at the border, and more refugee deaths," said one advocacy center.
While fearful of what a second Trump administration would mean for immigrants, rights advocates this weekend sounded the alarm over messaging on the southern border from Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.
The vice president traveled to Douglas, Arizona on Friday for her first campaign trip to the U.S.-Mexcio border. There, she met with Border Patrol agents—she was photographed walking with them next to a barbed-wire-covered wall—and delivered what The New York Timescalled "one of her party's toughest speeches on immigration and border policy in a generation."
After Harris' address, the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS)
expressed agreement with her that "we need to build a fair, orderly, and humane immigration system," while also warning that her "proposed border policies would do the opposite."
"Banning asylum and punishing people seeking safety only causes more chaos and dysfunction at the border, and more refugee deaths," CGRS said. "We want real solutions to the humanitarian challenges at our border, too. But these policies of cruelty and exclusion fail us, every single time."
CGRS urged Harris to embrace the #WelcomeWithDignity Campaign's policy
solutions: restore access to asylum at the border; support existing systems and launch new ones to receive and integrate people seeking safety; create a more effective and timely immigration system; and strengthen refugee resettlement programs and other pathways to the United States.
During the speech and on social media, Harris emphasized combating drugs. She said: "As attorney general of California, I prosecuted transnational criminal organizations that trafficked guns, drugs, and human beings. I know the importance of safety and security, especially at our border. Today, I visited the U.S.-Mexico border and spoke with Customs and Border Protection officials about our progress to secure our border and disrupt the flow of illegal fentanyl into our nation."
She also took aim at her GOP opponent, former President Donald Trump, for his infamous family separation policy and for killing a bipartisan border bill. While the Republican attacked the legislation so he could campaign on immigration and promise mass deportations, progressives in Congress and rights advocates opposed its "extreme and unworkable enforcement-only policies."
The Democratic nominee also vowed to strengthen asylum restrictions that President Joe Biden imposed in June, which are being challenged in court by critics including the ACLU. The administration's policy change has been followed by a drop in border numbers but also "rampant rights violations," according to migrant rights groups.
Pushing back against Harris' framing that asylum-seekers simply need to go to legal entry points rather than crossing the border unlawfully, Christina Asencio, a research director at Human Rights First, explained on Friday that the border bill would do what the June asylum ban has already done: suspend processing at ports of entry unless people obtain an appointment.
"Human Rights First has documented the life-threatening harm families with children and adults face in Mexico while forced to wait up to nine months for an appointment [through] an app that's only available in three languages," she added. "This is not a solution."
In a social media thread highlighting reports of agents "removing asylum-seekers who explicitly communicated their fear of return in violation of refugee law" since the introduction of Biden's ban, Robyn Barnard, an attorney with the group, said:
Human Rights First and others have interviewed asylum-seekers who expressly requested asylum, relayed their past persecution, explained their asylum claims, showed agents their injuries, had anxiety attacks, sobbed, and begged to be heard, but were ignored.
Other families recounted that not only were they not asked whether they had a fear of return or why they came to the United States, they were not even allowed to speak.
Harris' pledge to toughen the June policy followed Thursday reporting by CBS News that the Biden-Harris administration "is planning to soon issue a regulation to cement the sweeping asylum restrictions it enacted at the southern border" earlier this year.
In response to the reporting, the immigrant youth-led group United We Dream (UWD)
declared, "There's no other way to say this: Turning your backs on people seeking asylum is WRONG and it keeps us stuck in the past with failed policies."
"Communities nationwide agree that our immigration system must be humane, efficient, and fair above all else. Those seeking safety deserve respect and dignity," UWD said. "Our message to the Biden-Harris administration remains clear: We will organize—now and in the future—against any attempts to gut asylum and put our people's lives on the line."
UWD also pointed to a September 4 letter in which it led over 80 groups in warning Biden and Harris that the bipartisan Border Act of 2024 "would cause irreparable harm to our asylum system, our standing on the global stage, and most importantly, it would cause countless deaths at our borders and in other countries."
While many immigrant rights advocates are frustrated with both Biden and Harris, multiple groups continue to support her candidacy—given that the alternative is Trump—and even some critics praised certain parts of her Friday remarks.
"It was good to hear [Harris] recognize the need for more asylum officers and immigration judges, which are a must to tackle asylum backlogs and enable timely asylum decisions," said Eleanor Acer, director of Human Rights First's refugee protection program. "Real solutions like these are needed, NOT bans and bills that cut due process and deny access to asylum."
Immigrant rights advocate Erika Andiola, "who has lived through some of the most traumatic experiences because of our broken immigration system," said that "I was so glad to hear her talk about our undocumented community and a promise to fight for a path to citizenship."
"I'm so glad to see Harris pushing back on Trump's scapegoating of immigrants," she continued. "I wish she would have also talked about his plan for mass deportations and the consequences that could have. Consequences not only for our immigrant community, but also for millions of mixed-status families and our economy overall."
The advocate also expressed sadness over her "promise to criminalize reentries" and urged Harris to "move away from starting the conversation on this issue speaking about drugs and criminal activity at the border," stressing that "yes, those are important issues for voters, but conflating security with human migration just creates more fear in the public about our people."
"We must change the narrative about our immigrant community," she argued. "We must show the humanity, tell the stories, and detangle the problems we as immigrants face from the need of the American people to feel safe. Immigrants, we are part of the fabric of this country. We are your neighbors, classmates, and coworkers. That's where the conversation should start."
"To those insisting that, 'This is not the time!' to have those other conversations, I say: This is *exactly* when we need to be having them," said one climate scientist.
This is a developing story. Please check back for possible updates...
As emergency crews have worked through the weekend to rescue people and restore essential services across several southeastern U.S. states, green groups in recent days have pointed to the death and damage from Hurricane Helene as just the latest evidence of the need for sweeping action on the climate emergency.
Helene made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with 140 mph winds in Florida's Big Bend region late Thursday, then left a path of destruction across hundreds of miles of Georgia, the Carolinas, and Tennessee. As of early Sunday, at least 64 people are confirmed dead—including at least two people in Virginia—though that figure is expected to rise.
"Moody's Analytics said it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage," The Associated Pressreported Sunday on what is now a post-tropical cyclone. "AccuWeather's preliminary estimate of the total damage and economic loss from Helene in the U.S. is between $95 billion and $110 billion."
The youth-led Sunrise Movementsaid Sunday that "any reporting about Hurricane Helene needs to be clear—this is not normal. This is not just a tragedy. This is a crime. Fossil fuel companies have known this would happen for the last 50 years. They lied to the public and bought out our government just to make a profit. Make them pay."
Greenpeace USA similarly declared on social media Saturday that "#HURRICANEHELENE MUST BE A WAKE-UP CALL FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE!"
"We are heartbroken," the group said, noting the dozens of people killed. "Communities have been devastated. The corporations heating the climate must be held accountable."
Dozens of communities across the United States have already
launched climate liability lawsuits against Big Oil, which knew for decades that fossil fuels would heat the planet but promoted disinformation and raked in huge profits. Recently there have been calls for legal action by the U.S. Department of Justice and potential homicide cases brought by state and local prosecutors.
"Our hearts and solidarity go out to everyone facing the devastation. Please support mutual aid relief efforts and demand oil companies #StartDrillingStartPaying!" Greenpeace said Saturday.
Sunrise executive director Aru Shiney-Aja on Sunday offered a "friendly reminder that fossil fuel companies get 20 BILLION dollars in [government] subsidies every year," while the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) "runs out of money to respond to disasters like Helene."
Both Shiney-Aja and Greenpeace shared footage from Asheville, North Carolina, which endured what Ryan Cole, the assistant director of Buncombe County Emergency Services, described as "biblical flooding."
Just two years ago,
The New Ledereported that "from wildfires racing through the drought-stricken West, to heavy flooding in the central and eastern regions of the United States, extreme weather events are spurring many Americans to seek refuge in more environmentally stable cities, so-called 'climate havens,'" including Asheville.
This weekend, Asheville—which is over 2,000 feet above sea level and more than 250 miles from the coast—and surrounding communities are contending with disrupted water, power, and communications services due to what officials are reportedly calling "Buncombe County's own Hurricane Katrina."
Noting Asheville's elevation and distance from the coast, Lucky Tran, director of science communications and media relations at Columbia University in New York City, said Sunday that "no place is safe from climate change. We all suffer the consequences. We must all take action. We are all in this together."
As
The New York Timesreported Sunday:
People across western North Carolina chainsawed their way to loved ones and drove for hours Saturday on dwindling gas tanks in search of food and power, in what one resident described as a "mini-apocalypse" after Hurricane Helene.
Authorities said the region was facing a historic disaster a day after the powerful storm swept through the Southeast, downing power lines and washing out highways. Landslides, spotty cellphone service, and a gas shortage complicated rescue and recovery efforts. Some stranded people were being airlifted to safety.
Antonia Juhasz, a senior researcher on fossil fuels at Human Rights Watch,
said Saturday that "Asheville, North Carolina is being wiped off the map by the worst storm to hit the region in a generation. This is what the climate crisis looks like: the production and use of fossil fuels changes the climate, intensifying extreme weather events and making them more frequent."
As hurricane scientist Jeff Masters detailed Friday, fossil fuel-driven climate change "makes the strongest hurricanes stronger," boosts rainfall from such storms, leads to more rapid intensification, and causes sea-level rise that increases storm surge damage.
In an effort to emphasize the climate change connection to extreme weather, from heatwaves to hurricanes, some climate campaigners have suggested naming such events after oil and gas companies.
"What did a Helene ever do to deserve getting this horrific hurricane named after her? We should be naming hurricanes after fossil fuel CEOs instead. How about Hurricane Darren?" said Fossil Free Media director Jamie, taking aim at ExxonMobil's Darren Woods.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist focused on extreme weather, said on social media Saturday, "The images and stories just beginning to emerge from eastern TN and western NC in the aftermath of widespread catastrophic flooding wrought by Helene are genuinely horrifying, and the full scale of the disaster is likely as yet untold."
"This was, by far, the most extreme rain event in observed record across much/most of the region, where reliable records date back over 100 [years]. Unsurprisingly, the flooding which resulted has also been widespread, historic, and generally catastrophic across a broad region," he explained. "These floods, which were concentrated in valleys containing rivers and typically modest creeks and streams, involved extremely large volumes of water moving downhill at high velocity. This was not a gradual or 'gentle' inundation by any means."
Swain stressed that "sometimes 'worst-case' scenarios really do come to pass, and I think we often lack the collective imagination to fully envision what that looks like. That's a problem, because being honest about risks that exist is [the] first step toward mitigating them and preventing harm!"
"Ultimately, there many folks in FL, GA, NC, and TN who are in need of urgent assistance—and that is/should be foremost priority," he added. "But to those insisting that, 'This is not the time!' to have those other conversations, I say: This is *exactly* when we need to be having them."
The AP reported that "in Atlanta, 11.12 inches (28.24 centimeters) of rain fell over 48 hours, the most the city has seen over two days since record-keeping began in 1878," while "in Florida's Big Bend, some lost nearly everything they own, emerging from the storm without even a pair of shoes."
Along Florida's Gulf Coast, "Helene shoved a wall of water estimated at least 10 feet high into the lowest-lying areas of Steinhatchee," according toUSA Today.
South of there, in Pinellas County, officials have identified over 18,000 homes damaged by Helene—and at least 11,000 are "uninhabitable," as the Tampa Bay Timesput it.
Highlighting the connection between climate change and more intense hurricanes, Congressman Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) said Thursday that "the climate crisis is here. We must act to save lives."
"The U.S. government are conspirators to the war criminal Netanyahu's genocidal plan," said the Michigan Democrat.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib on Saturday had notably different responses to Israel's intense bombing campaign in Lebanon over the past 24 hours, which killed hundreds of people including key Hezbollah leaders.
"Our country is funding this bloodbath," Tlaib (D-Mich.) said on social media Saturday morning, sharing a post from Zeteo's Prem Thakker with videos of the Israeli assault on Lebanon that began Friday, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in New York City to address the United Nations General Assembly.
"Sending more of our troops and bombs to the region is not advancing peace," added Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress and a leading critic of Israel's yearlong genocide in the Gaza Strip. "The U.S. government are conspirators to the war criminal Netanyahu's genocidal plan."
In the post shared by Tlaib, Thakker noted that "the U.S. was reportedly informed of this mass Israeli attack on Beirut in Lebanon shortly beforehand," which "comes just one day after [the] U.S. released $8.7 billion more in aid to Israel."
Tlaib also shared that her office is fielding "desperate calls" from U.S. citizens who are struggling to leave Lebanon. She declared that "the mission of the U.S. Department of State is to protect Americans, and they are failing AGAIN."
Biden, meanwhile, began his Saturday afternoon statement by noting that Israel killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, which the Iran-backed Lebanese political and paramilitary group confirmed earlier in the day—a development that elevated fears of a broader regional war.
"Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, Hezbollah, were responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade reign of terror," Biden said. "His death from an Israeli airstrike is a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis, and Lebanese civilians."
The president continued:
The strike that killed Nasrallah took place in the broader context of the conflict that began with Hamas' massacre on October 7, 2023. Nasrallah, the next day, made the fateful decision to join hands with Hamas and open what he called a "northern front" against Israel.
The United States fully supports Israel's right to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and any other Iranian-supported terrorist groups. Just yesterday, I directed my secretary of defense to further enhance the defense posture of U.S. military forces in the Middle East region to deter aggression and reduce the risk of a broader regional war.
Ultimately, our aim is to de-escalate the ongoing conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through diplomatic means. In Gaza, we have been pursuing a deal backed by the U.N. Security Council for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. In Lebanon, we have been negotiating a deal that would return people safely to their homes in Israel and southern Lebanon. It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability.
While the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) thanked Biden "for standing with our democratic ally Israel," journalists from around the world and other critics highlighted that his statement "has not a word on civilian casualties."
Ali Abunimah, director of The Electronic Intifada, was among those who pointed out that Biden said the "assassination of Nasrallah, in an Israeli massacre that killed hundreds, 'is a measure of justice for his many victims.'"
"Utterly depraved, and by this twisted, criminal Biden logic, those who tried to assassinate Trump were also instruments of 'justice," Abunimah said, referring to former U.S. President Donald Trump, Republican nominee for the November election.
Middle East expert Assal Rad said: "Biden calls massive bombs in a densely-populated area that leveled six apartment buildings in Lebanon 'a measure of justice.' The torching of international law and the precedent that is being set should terrify us all."
Rad also slammed Biden's cease-fire call, saying: "This is nonsense. You can't provide the funding and weapons to continue the conflict *without* conditions, twist humanitarian law to give Israel total impunity, and reject every international institution that seeks accountability, and then say your 'aim is to de-escalate.'"
Others recalled Israel's 2004 assassination of Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin, which also killed seven other people. The administration of former Republican U.S. President George W. Bush—who launched the global War on Terror in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks—didn't issue a forceful condemnation like some European leaders, but a spokesperson for the State Department said at the time that "we are deeply troubled" by the attack.
As'ad Abukhalil, a Lebanese American professor at California State University, Stanislus, declared Saturday that "there has been no U.S. president EVER who has unconditionally allowed unrestrained Israeli savagery in the Middle East as Biden has done."
Abukhalil warned that "the U.S. will suffer for years to come from the policies of Biden in the Middle East," which he described as "more far-reaching [than] Bush's."
Biden, a Democrat, was initially seeking reelection in November, but after a disastrous summer debate performance against Trump, he passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris. After putting out Biden's Saturday statement, the White House released a similar one from Harris—which was also lauded by AIPAC.
"Hassan Nasrallah was a terrorist with American blood on his hands. Across decades, his leadership of Hezbollah destabilized the Middle East and led to the killing of countless innocent people in Lebanon, Israel, Syria, and around the world. Today, Hezbollah's victims have a measure of justice," Harris said. "I have an unwavering commitment to the security of Israel. I will always support Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis."
"President Biden and I do not want to see conflict in the Middle East escalate into a broader regional war," she added. "We have been working on a diplomatic solution along the Israel-Lebanon border so that people can safely return home on both sides of that border. Diplomacy remains the best path forward to protect civilians and achieve lasting stability in the region."
In response, Margaret Zaknoen DeReus, executive director at the California-based Institute for Middle East Understanding, said: "Like Biden, not a word from the VP , from the candidate of joy & freedom, about the 1,000+ Lebanese men, women and children Israel obliterated. Not a word about hundreds of thousands of Lebanese displaced, entire city blocks destroyed. We don't exist as human beings to this [administration]."
Responding to both statements on social media, the anti-war group CodePink said that the Biden-Harris administration "believes flattening a residential area with... bombs is 'justice.'"