Editorial: Israel’s brazen foul play to fore
Small mercies, indeed, because Israel’s recent track record with regards to humanitarian aid has come under the scanner and received widespread denunciation and opprobrium.
File photo)
NEW DELHI: There were strong indications that Israel would not allow a ship carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza sailing with the avowed objective of symbolically breaking the 17-year-long blockade enforced by the Jewish state. As expected, Israel took control of the vessel and detained the human rights defenders, including environmental activist Greta Thunberg and French member of European Parliament Rima Hassan, on board.
Israel’s foreign ministry announced on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that the ship will be steered to Israel from where the “passengers are expected to return to their home countries” and the aid material, including baby food, medicines and essentials,it confiscated would be transferred to Gaza through humanitarian channels.
Small mercies, indeed, because Israel’s recent track record with regards to humanitarian aid has come under the scanner and received widespread denunciation and opprobrium. There have been repeated instances of shootings of desperate and starving Palestinians who come to the aid distribution centres run by Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an initiative backed by Israel and the US.
The latest attack happened on Sunday (June 8) in which, according to media reports, Israeli troops and US contractors opened fire killing 13 Palestinians and injuring over 150 others who were waiting at the aid centre. Even the United Nations has been critical of the GHF which bypasses the work of UN aid agencies.
Following an earlier similar deadly shooting of civilians, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk described such attacks as “unconscionable”. Israel tends to use its propaganda machinery to discredit any initiatives that question the “immoral” and unequal war and the consequent unleashing of disproportionate violence that causes human suffering to civilians. Naturally, it tried to vilify Greta Thunberg and others by calling them “celebrities” on a “selfie yacht”.
It tried the same trick to curtail and end the activities of the UN aid agencies in Gaza. Israel had always been averse to the UN aid initiatives, which it perceived to be a thorn in the flesh as the multilateral body and its agencies could not but be critical of the brazen and blatant acts of Israel on many fronts. Israel would cast aspersions on its neutrality hoping that it would justify the attack on aid workers or shutting down relief operations.
Ironically, in the past, the UN was perceived to be biased as its actions often aligned with the Western interests and strategic goals in international conflicts. As a face-saving measure, it brought in the GHF which is problematic because of its “security” or military dimension that comes in the form of use of armoured vehicles for transport, coordination with Israeli forces and a section of its own leadership and staff having military background. Such militarisation of humanitarian assistance not only violates international standards on aid distribution but has also endangered the lives of civilians who throng the aid centres.
The larger problem is the “weaponisation of starvation” by Israel by cutting access to food and other life-sustaining relief supplies. In a measured statement, the UNHCR chief said such acts “may constitute a war crime”. Israel is widely criticised for not adhering to international humanitarian conventions or playing by the rules that are aimed at minimising the suffering, especially of civilians, caused by armed conflict. By obstructing the group of human rights defenders Israel proves them right.
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