Foreign Ministry advises IDF: Don't stop Gadhafi ship until it approaches Gaza waters
Ministry's legal department says uncertain whether ship intends to break Gaza blockade since its documentation indicates it is headed for El-Arish, Egypt.
By Barak RavidThe Foreign Ministry advised the defense establishment yesterday to wait until the Libyan aid ship reportedly headed for Gaza approaches or enters the coastal strip's territorial waters before making any attempt to stop it. The ministry made the recommendation to avoid the risk of breaking international law.
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Workers load supplies on to a cargo ship at the Lavrio port, about 60 kilometers southeast of Athens, Greece, on Friday, July 9, 2010. |
| Photo by: AP |
The Foreign Ministry made the same recommendation over the previous flotilla from Turkey, but was not heeded.
The recommendation, which was written by the Foreign Ministry's legal department and distributed to the defense establishment and the Prime Minister's Bureau yesterday, said that the ship's documentation indicates it is headed for El-Arish, Egypt, and not Gaza, and so it cannot be determined whether the vessel intends to break the naval blockade.
The ministry advised that unofficial statements by the ship's crew indicating that they do intend to reach Gaza might not be legally sufficient to justify stopping the ship at sea.
"We recommend that any enforcement be carried out only if the blockade is actually breached or at least at maximum proximity to the closure zone, so as to create a clearly justified basis for the action. As will be recalled, we recommended [in the Turkish flotilla] that action be taken as close as possible to the blockade zone. It was explained that this was operationally impossible, however certainly in this case, when there is only one ship, this is possible."
The Foreign Ministry and the navy continue to follow the ship and collect information about the passengers. There are 12 crew members and 9 passengers on board, 6 of whom are Libyan citizens. Although the ship is owned by a charity belonging to the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi, the Libyan government has officially denied any official affiliation with it, and says it is a private organization.
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Make an example of this ship if given the opportunity. Ghadaffi? I don't think he has forgotten 1986 when the US dropped a 2000 lb bomb in his bedroom and destroyed his palace. He then stopped shooting his mouth off. I doubt that he is in control today, probably in name only. The Libyan government doesn't want to mess with the IAF ! It would be their worst nightmare.
Make an example of this ship if given the opportunity. Ghadaffi? I don't think he has forgotten 1986 when the US dropped a 2000 lb bomb in his bedroom and destroyed his palace. He then stopped shooting his mouth off. I doubt that he is in control today, probably in name only. The Libyan government doesn't want to mess with the IAF ! It would be their worst nightmare.
Are you suggesting Israel doesn't have the right to intercept shipping on the high seas and kill the passengers? Israel needs to stand tall here. Please. Keep standing tall.
I heard the soldiers boarded the ship with paint guns,is that right?
so whats your point
what an un-intelligent comparison.. in dubai a well-known murderer of the israelis got what he deserved , lockerbie attack --the 271 victims were civilians , many of them were children and havent ever heard of lybia or gaddafi.
So whats your point?
well, that's a first.
to alienate them.
is really suspicious. I wouldn't get near it lest it's wired to explode. First, it's suspicious that it's keeping its destination ambiguous, as this deternines its legal status, and everyone is an expert on maritime law these days. It makes no legal difference in who's waters the ship is stopped. Presuming the blockade is legal (and according to judge Goldstone it can be easily argued in any real court that it is not) then a ship can be stopped, searched, and even siezed as soon as it declares an intention of running a naval blockade. The Turkish ship was clear about its destination because it was their aim to be stopped, giving them a chance to a) challenge the legality of the blockade or b) instigate a violent incident to sabotage Israel-Turkey relations. This ship is obveously heading toward Gaza, yet legally this is not clear, and this lack of clarity is shielding it from intercept. Why? What does it really want? Second, the Lybian government has officially washed its hands of this ship, absolving itself of anything bad that happens. Why? What do they expect to happen, sending this ship? My sinsere hope is that the government takes this seriously, this time, I have a bad feeling about this particular ship, especially considering its port of origin.
"It makes no legal difference in who's waters the ship is stopped." The Sanremo manual says that a blockade must be DECLARED, and the blockade zone must be DEFINED, and once that is done then that navy CAN NOT arbitrarily change the location of that zone without first declaring that change. So this ship can be captured the moment it enters the 20-mile zone, and not a moment before.
it's coming from libya so wouldn't it pass el-arish anyway, maybe stopping to refuel before going into gaza? if they have declared that they are going to gaza and going to egypt, has it not crossed israel's mind that... they might be going to both? also, is the FM admitting that israel broke international law in the previous raid?
This is good, but sensible advice. The IDF must heed the advice of the Defense Minister - that the IDF will ignore it is not believable. There could be collusion, but no ignorance of the Defense Minister by the IDF. Makes no mistake about it.
while the UN looks the other way and cries Palestine as expected with all the vote buying going on.
haiti has received hundreds of billions of dollars in aid. the UN has an entire committee devoted to it. are you so heartless that you refuse to focus on more than one issue at a time? are you that short-sighted?
Care to provide your sources for the" hundreds of billions" recieved by Haiti????
excuse me for interrupting your conversation, but i can: the us and the eu have each signed on to contribute about half a billion for each year in a decade, south american states have pledged a combined $250m/year for the same period, the arab states (including saudi arabia) the same amount, the UN $50m/year, CERF $30m/year, world bank $80m/year, other organizations $100m/year (combined). not counting individual companies and charities of course (which also are a combined millions per year). over a decade it reaches into the hundreds of billions, yes. of course, actually getting haiti's government to USE that money is the hard part... a lot of corruption there.
From Jordon?
Israel DOES have the legal right to enforce it's blockade of Gaza. Israel is the Legal Occupying Power and as such has the right to control access to Gaza. Thus WHEN a ship enters the territorial waters of Gaza Israel has the right to stop, inspect, and turn back any ship it does not wish to land in Gaza. Such actions are NOT piracy on the high seas as were the actions against the Turkish Flotilla.
Does Israel have the right to lay siege to Israeli-occupied territory? The answer must surely be "no", and so its blockade of Gaza must be illegal.
every single independent commission has found the gaza blockade illegal, especially before its easing but still now, because it prevents the flow of CIVILIAN goods (strike 1) into a territory it has NO claim to (strike 2) and is ILLEGALLY occupying (strike 3)!
Indeed, the 2nd intifada ENDED before the blockade of the Gaza Strip even BEGAN. Dare I suggest that you are somewhat.... chronologically-challenged?
He is known and remembered to sentencing one swiss guy in reiteriotion for the swiss police to arrest his son . isreal will still pay more if this ship is attacked .Not forgetting the lockerbie bomb . he is one the reknown sturborniest leaders we have today and proud of .;he attended a arab conference and fell out with the saudi klng for working with westerners .
WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME, DID ISRAEL NOT BREAK INTERNATIONAL LAW CONCERNNG THE TURKISH FLOTILLA?. ISRAEL SAID IT DID NOT VIOLATE ANY INTERNATIONAL LAW, WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW, WHAT HAS CHANGED, HAS THE SEAS SHIFTED. WELL I WILL TELL YOU, ISRAEL HAS LEARNED THAT IT DID VIOLATE INTERNATIONAL LAW ON LAST FLOTILLA ATTACK, AND THAT IT IS THE SAME SEAS AND THE SAME INTERNATIONAL LAWS. MR TURKEL WILL PROVE THAT. ISRAEL GOVERNMENT, AND MY FRIENDS MR NETANYAHU, MR BARAK AND LIEBERMAN (better known as the 3 stooges) HAS SOME EXPLAINING TO DO CONCERNING INTERNATIONAL PROBE INTO ISRAEL CONDUCT. please publish. ISRAEL IS AGREAT COUNTRY BUT ITS BEEN RUN DOWN BY HYPOCRITS SUCH AS NETANYAHU AND FRIENDS. 55 BILLION WAS SPENT ON IDF LAS YEAR I BELIEVE. WHY NOT SPEND THAT ON EDUCATION, HEALTH, WELFARE, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, JOB CREATION, PEACE?
I wish the IDF would have tailed the Marmara flotilla with drones 24/7 for intel on the ships and the activists' intentions while on the open seas and then boarded them only as they entered the imposed 20 mile limit, but Israel already relayed that they did not have the expertise to stop such a breach by so many vessels without potentially endangering the safety of the boats. Also, there was more of an element of surprise noted by the passengers to be boarded earlier than expected. BTW, it still shouldn't be news to you that this is a war zone between the militant proponents of Hamas's Charter of Death & Destruction of Israel and the IDF countermeasures. The provocateur shahids and their opportunistic planners were hell bent on appearing like angelic beings delivering aid to the needy Gazans, aid that ended up collecting dust at the Gaza border because Hamas' nose was out of joint over the outcome of the operation and the more important world cup was soon to be underway. Remember there was no aid on the Marmara, just hyped up Islamic fanatics who made sure to take innocent civilians along for cover for the dirty deeds they planned against the IDF. I recommend that you don't show up to a local protest with steel pipes, chains, knives, and axes and not only disobey repeated police warnings to vacate a closed off area of conflict but to also start beating the police with your weapons and throwing them around, as you might get fatally shot too. The activists on board the other vessels were more normal and the IDF didn't have to resort to using their paintball guns or pistols on them.
""We recommend that any enforcement be carried out only if the blockade is actually breached or at least at maximum proximity to the closure zone, so as to create a clearly justified basis for the action" Hallelujah!!!! Someone in Israel who actually takes the time and the trouble to UNDERSTAND the law, rather than simply recite the hasbarah mantra by rote: everything Israel does is legal.... everything Israel does is legal.... everything Israel does is legal... legal... legal.... legal....
whether you do notknow anything about legality or pretending that you do not know,read the history of the area, paleatines, israel, lobenan. when you understand properly, you do not comment everything is legal, your comment.