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*PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity) # 493, **July 23, 2010* ** It is one thing to criticize the Geneva conventions or International Humanitarian Law. It is utterly different to construe IHL itself and its advocates as a threat to the existence of a state and to initiate a systematic process of combating them. Many details remain to be established about the Israeli commando assault on the Mavi Marmara - the lead ship in a flotilla intent on carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip - in the early hours of May 31, 2010. But whatever the investigation of the incident ultimately reveals, the killing of nine activists is indicative of a dramatic recent transformation in Israel's relationship to civil society organizations and international humanitarian law itself. With very few exceptions, direct and intentional attacks on aid workers or human rights advocates have hitherto been largely the work of undisciplined militias, ragged armies, criminal gangs, and police-states. The perpetrators have included the Taliban, the Bosnian Serb army, Iraqi insurgents, and the organizers of Latin America’s "dirty wars." Now, with the lethal raid on the Mavi Marmara, Israel is following in their footsteps. Israel’s deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon declared that "there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza" and that the flotilla was not, in fact, a relief mission but "a provocation intended to delegitimize Israel". The Israeli government press office even emailed copies of a Gaza restaurant menu to reporters in an attempt to prove this point. And, after the attack, Ayalon called the flotilla an "armada of hate and violence in support of the Hamas terror organization". Nothing could more clearly indicate the Israeli government’s fear and demonization of civil society activists and of international humanitarian law.* * *Adapted from "Israel: the third strategic threat", written by Thomas Keenan *** *and Eyal Weizman and published on line on June 7, 2010. See text at : *** * http://www.opendemocracy.net/thomas-keenan-eyal-weizman/israel-third-strategic-threat *<http://www.opendemocracy.net/thomas-keenan-eyal-weizman/israel-third-strategic-threat> ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
