Students Demand Guinea Bissau Stop Genocide By Delay

By Al-Awda NY

STOP GENOCIDE BY DELAY OF HUMANITARIAN FLOTILLA 

Following a call from the Palestinian Assembly for Liberation’s Law Commission on War Crimes, Justice, Reparations, and Return, students at campuses across the U.S., who have been bravely holding down Gaza Solidarity encampments, including University of Chicago, New York University, Columbia University, Princeton University, The New School, multiple City University of New York campuses (CUNY),  Loyola University, Northwestern University, University of Illinois at Chicago, Saint Xavier University, DePaul University, and Moraine Valley Community College all denounce the israeli delay of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla’s critically needed humanitarian aid. This delay is designed to cause deaths of thousands of Palestinians by preventing access to lifesaving medical and food supplies. Each minute of delay means torture and death for injured, vulnerable and malnourished Palestinians, who have been displaced by over six months of bombardment of Gaza and brought to the brink of starvation by the israeli siege that has blocked nearly all food entering the Gaza Strip.

To date, israel has delayed the Gaza Freedom Flotilla for over 72 hours, issuing illegal threats to physically harm the ships, while engaging in training exercises to prepare for a procedurally illegal and violent boarding. In its threat, the israeli government admitted its own intelligence confirms that the flotilla is carrying 5,500 tons of urgently needed humanitarian aid.

After failing to pressure multiple governments from stopping the aid flotilla, and failing to scare away passengers, the israelis have now resorted to pressuring Guinea Bissau to further delay the flotilla, using the pretext of an inspection requirement—despite a thorough Turkish government inspection that unequivocally confirmed the ships are carrying only humanitarian aid. The only goal of these fresh inspection demands is to engineer the deaths of thousands more Palestinians by starvation and lack of medical aid.

In light of the recent UN Security Council Resolution 2728, calling for an “immediate” cease-fire in Gaza, and the two orders of the International Court of Justice in response to the South African prosecution of genocide, as well as longstanding international law including the San Remo principles and Geneva Convention Article 70, rapid transit of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla is required. Any delay will directly cause the deaths of countless more civilians in a population that has already suffered close to 40,000 deaths due to genocidal israeli aggression.

Israeli government actions establish clear precedent, disposition, and intention to:

1. Obstruct, steal, and destroy aid—as they’ve previously done to other attempts to deliver aid—as well as express threats to violently intercept such delivery of desperately needed aid, with the sole purpose of further decimating Gaza’s population and continue decades of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
2. Have practiced violent, murderous raids, both against past humanitarian missions including the World Central Kitchen (WCK), and have undertaken military drills that centered around the same exact illegal and violent practices, as taken against Mavi Marmara in 2010.

PAL Law Commission, who works alongside WOLAS (Worldwide Lawyers Association) on the Flotilla Law Commission, is advising on legal and diplomatic strategy.