Free Gaza Movement, United Nations, Palestinian "victims" of Israeli "aggression"

The Obama Administration Sides With Hamas

By Joseph A. Klein
Friday, June 4, 2010

Hamas’ allies have achieved what they set out to do – to push Israel into a corner by provoking a confrontation against the blockade-breaker flotilla of ships and then using Israel’s response to force an end to the blockade against the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

If the humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza were the first concern of the Free Gaza Movement and their co-sponsors from Turkey and elsewhere, they would have accepted Israel’s repeated offers to allow their cargo to be delivered to Gaza after the Israelis had an opportunity to inspect to ensure that there were no weapons aboard. They refused because embarrassing Israel was their primary objective.

Israel’s blockade, which Egypt was also instituting at its border, is perfectly legal under international law according to the law of blockade which was derived from customary international law, codified in the 1909 Declaration of London and updated in 1994 in a legally recognized document called the “San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea.â€