61 Jordanian civil society organizations condemned the crime committed against the relief convoy

Demanding the dismantling of the blockade clamped on Gaza
And the referral of the Israeli’s war criminals to International Justice 

We, the civil society organizations in Jordan, strongly condemn the crime of the armed assault on the Freedom Convoy which was committed by the special units of the Israeli Navy at orders by higher authorities at 4:00 hours of Monday, 31 May 2010. As a consequence of the crime, the armed forces killed at least 10 activists on the boat "Mavi Marmora" and wounded dozens of persons on the boat coming from several countries.

The action taken by Israel is a clear and outright violation of the rules and principles of public international law and the humanitarian international law: the Fourth Geneva of 1949 convention in particular

 

This aggression constitutes an act of piracy which is prohibited by public international law and humanitarian international law which guarantee for the ships the right of innocent passage in international waters in accordance with the principle of the freedom of navigation. They also allow the passage of relief convoys to civilians in the cases of blockade and armed conflict.

Therefore, the storming of the convoy, the killing or wounding of some of its passengers, and threatening to tow by force the ships to the Israeli`s port of Ashdod constitute a crime of international piracy stipulated by the public international law and is a blatant violation of the humanitarian international law which bans attacks on relief ships and blocking their arrival to the needy civilians, children, women, the sicks and others if they are hosting the flag of a certain country and if they declare their route, load, and ports of embarkation and disembarkation, and the goal behind their journey.

Moreover, the Israeli decision to expand the area of its military exercises from 20 to 68 miles within the regional waters of Gaza to confront the Freedom Convoy is a "violation of international law of the sea, particularly that the expansion of the scope of the military exercises to such a large area is only done to confront military ships carrying arms and ammunition, not freight and passenger ships carrying humanitarian and relief aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip."

Obviously the international criminal court and the Geneva conventions prohibit such actions which are tantamount of war crimes, particularly the legal provisions which prohibit the attacks on ships and the relief crews which belong to neutral countries.

The issue of running relief convoys is based on two essential factors The first one is the provisions` enforcement of public and humanitarian international law. In other words, it should not be permissible whether in the state of peace or in the state of war to block the outlets of humanitarian relief aid or to deny this relief aid to any group of people or to starve them.

The second factor is the aim to forestall giving a political reward to the aggressor for the war crimes and for the crimes against humanity which this aggressor had committed. In other words, to forestall the consolidation of the blockade of civilians and starving them so as to gain political concessions from the won party.

The action taken by Israel is a crime that violates the provisions of the public international law which guarantees the right of passage in the High Seas or in the international waters.

 The aim of the Freedom Convoy was to offer medical and food assistance to the residents of the Gaza Strip.

This makes the Israeli action of intercepting the convoy and storming it by military force one of continuing to starve the civilian population who are living under the occupation`s yoke. This fact is prohibited by the rules and conventions of international humanitarian law. Consequently, the states which the ships are hoisting their flags or the persons who belong to several nationalities are entitled, as states or individuals, to take legal action against Israel in the international courts, particularly against the leaders who issued the orders of storming and killing or wounding the passengers of the convoy.

Therefore, this action constitutes at all a crime of international piracy and It is a war crime which is prohibited and punishable by the Articles of Association of the International Criminal Court because the action was taken in violation of the provisions of Article 8 of these Articles of Association.

The signatories of this statement believe that failure by the international community to pursue the Israel`s war criminals who have committed shameless and  massacres as, for example, was the case of the massacres committed in Dayr Yaseen, Kafr Qassem, Qibyah, Al-Samu’, the Bahr Al-Baqar school, the first and second massacres committed in Qana, Gaza in 2008/2009 and other places that encouraged the war criminals to commit this ugly crime in international waters.

Moreover, It`s necessary to underline that the continued attempts to outflank the Report of the Goldstone Committee in order to abort criminal justice and block the trial of the Israeli war criminals by the relevant international courts has specifically encouraged the mentality of arrogance of the Israeli`s leaders who took the decision of the military storming thinking that they were acting above the law.

While we appeal to the international community that it should support the issues of justice, freedom and human rights, not have double standards in its judgment and not fail to draw a clear line between the victim and the executioner, as we have been frequently accustomed to see.

We appeal to the international community to adopt the standards which can hold to accountability those who committed this massacre against civilians coming from several countries and to impose "smart" sanctions on the racist occupation State (exactly as was done with South Africa during the rule of apartheid).

We also appeal to the international community to place the Israel`s nuclear arsenal under international control and supervision so as to preclude the use of this arsenal against the people of the region.

All the crimes committed by the Israel, which we have seen in these days against can only represents the beginning of the end of the Israel`s apartheid state.            

Finally, we would like to appeal to the United Nations and the international community to work for the immediate dismantling of the blockade clamped on Gaza.

Names of the organizations signing the statement according to alphabetical order:

1. Amman Center for Human Rights Studies [ACHRS]

 

2. Amnesty International/ the Jordan Group.

 

3. Adel Center for legal support

 

4. The Arab Organization for Human Rights/ Jordan.

 

5. Al-Badil Center for Studies and Training

 

6. Center for International Law and Human Rights

 

7. Center for families awareness

 

8. Center for defense the freedom of the Jordan‘s journalists

 

9. Equal center for democratic studies in research

 

10. Electronic society ghrorg for human rights culture

 

11. Human Rights group and postal Arab Society

 

12. The Arab-European Center for Human Rights.

 

13. The Academy of Change and the Studies of Democracy and Development.

 

14. The General Federation of the Societies of the Young women Christian Association [YWCA] in Jordan.

 

15. The Jordanian Network for human rights organization (included 18 organizations).

 

16. The Jordanian Alliance Opposed to the Capital Punishment.

 

17. The Jordanian Alliance of the international Criminal Court.

 

18. The Jordanian Society for Human Rights.

 

19. The Jordanian network for Human Rights Trainers (included 41 trainers)

 

20. The Jordanian coalition against Death Penalty

 

21. The Jordanian Women Union

 

22. The Jordanian Workers Forum.

 

23. The Cultural Society for Youth and Childhood.

 

24. The Chechen Society.

 

25. The International Institute for Solidarity with Women.

 

26. The Legal Network of Arab Women.

 

27. The National Forum for Youth and Culture.

 

28. The Humanitarian Forum for Women’s Rights.

 

29. The Jordanian Association of Democratic Culture.

 

30. The Al-Karamah Association Against Violence.

 

31. The Society of Working Women.

 

32. The Association of the Al-Sukhnah Women.

 

33. The Society of Khawlah Bint Al-Azwar.

 

34. The Society of Arab Women.

 

35. The Society of the Rights of the Jordanian Child.

 

36. The Society of Housewives.

 

37. Al-Mahabah Society/ Madaba.

 

38. The Society for the Development of the Family.

 

39. The East and West Center for the Development of the Local Community.

 

40. The Al-Hayah Center for the Development of the Local Community.

 

41. The Arab Al-Jisr Center for Development and Human Rights.

 

42. The Center of Arab Women media Workers.

 

43. The Al-Phenix Center for Economic and Information Studies.

 

44. The Al-Janub Center for Strategic Studies.

 

45. The Empowerment Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights.

 

46. Al-Adl Center for Legal Aid.

 

47. The Societal Rehabilitation Center.

 

48. The Charity Society for Rehabilitation.

 

49. The Observatory of Man and the Environment.

 

50. The Al-Wahdat Cultural Forum.

 

51. The Al-Ard Organization for Supporting Development.

 

52. The Al Musawah Center for Democratic studies and research.

 

53. The Madaba Organization for Supporting Development.

 

54. The Al-Thuraya Studies Center.

 

55. The Club of the Alumini of the Iraqi Universities and institutes.

 

56. The Al-Wahdat Sports Club.

 

57. The Women Union/Zarqa

 

58. Mizan/the Series of Laws on Human Rights.

 

59. The Club of Alumni of Universities and Institutes of the former Soviet union and the Federal Republic of Russia.  

 

60. Adaleh Center for Human Rights Studies.

 

61. Jordanian establishment for humanitarian culture.