<\/p>\n
<\/span>In the early morning of <\/span>The flotilla was sailing <\/span>Human Rights Now (HRN), a <\/span>The Israeli military <\/span>The blockade which Israel <\/span>Israel’s blockade amounts <\/span>HRN emphasizes that a <\/span>International <\/span>However, Israel stands <\/span>Israel has failed to <\/span>If a situation of impunity HRN strongly calls on the Israeli government to: \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 \u2022 HRN also calls on the international community to \u2022 \u2022 <\/span>The Japanese government <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the early morning of May 31, 2010, Israeli security forces attacked the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which was sailing for the Gaza Strip, in international waters. The flotilla was sailing to the Gaza Strip, which is blockaded by Israel, in order to deliver humanitarian aid, on board the flotilla were civilians, including among them activists, journalists and politicians. It has now become clear that at least 9 civilians have died, and approximately 30 injured as a result of the attack by Israeli commandos on the boats of the flotilla. Human Rights Now (HRN), a Tokyo-based international human rights NGO, strongly condemns the attack of Israeli military, which resulted in the loss […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[17],"countries":[242],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-statement","tag-human-rights-violation-under-armed-conflictsmilitary-operation","countries-palestine-opt"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":507,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions\/507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrn.or.jp\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/countries?post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMay 31, 2010, Israeli security forces attacked the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, which
\nwas sailing for the Gaza Strip, in international waters.
\nto the Gaza Strip, which is blockaded by Israel, in order to deliver
\nhumanitarian aid, on board the flotilla were civilians, including among them
\nactivists, journalists and politicians. It has now become clear that at least 9
\ncivilians have died, and approximately 30 injured as a result of the
\nattack by Israeli commandos on the boats of the flotilla.
\nTokyo-based international human rights NGO, strongly condemns the attack of
\nIsraeli military, which resulted in the loss of precious lives.
\nattacked the civilians with guns, and used weapons to attack them, causing
\ninjury and deaths. It is clear that attacking and killing non-combatants is a
\ngrave violation of international law. Even if, as Israel claims, civilians had
\ndisplayed resistance with the use of bats, it would never be acceptable to
\nattack and kill civilians since it breaches the principle of proportionality.
\nFurther, Israel’s act of attacking civilians, based on the mere suspicion that
\nterrorists might be on board, is a violation of the principles of international
\nhumanitarian law.
\nhas imposed on Gaza for more than three years has severely limited the flow of
\nbasic commodities and reconstruction materials into Gaza. As a result, the
\npeople of Gaza live in poverty and Gaza itself has fallen into a situation of
\nextreme humanitarian crisis. The flotilla planned to deliver precisely the
\ngoods which would aid the people of Gaza.
\nto “collective punishment” which is prohibited under Article 33 of the Fourth
\nGeneva Convention. The international community has repeatedly requested that
\nIsrael lift the blockade, however, Israel has completely ignored these
\nrequests. Further, Israel, as an occupying power, has the obligations under
\narticles 55 and 23 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, to ensure the distribution
\nof food and medical supplies for the occupied population and to allow the free
\npassage of humanitarian aid for civilians. While Israel has clearly failed to
\ncarry out its obligations under the Geneva Conventions, it is also clear that
\nIsrael’s act of killing civilians on board the flotilla, who were attempting to
\ndeliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, is unacceptable under international law.
\nsituation of impunity must not be allowed to exist in cases of grave human
\nrights violations, such as this one.
\ninvestigations which are independent, transparent, and impartial should be
\ncarried out without delay, and those responsible must be punished
\nappropriately. The Israeli government must be held completely accountable for
\nthis matter. On 1 June 2010, the U.N. Security Council released a statement
\nregarding this case. The statement calls for a prompt, impartial, credible and
\ntransparent investigation conforming to international standards.
\n(S\/PRST\/2010\/9) On 2 June 2010, the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a
\nresolution in which it resolved <\/i>to dispatch an independent,
\ninternational fact-finding mission to investigate violations of international
\nhumanitarian law concerning the Israeli attacks. (A\/HRC\/14\/L.1) The U.N.
\nSecretary General supported the decision to carry out these investigations.
\nfirm in its rejection of international investigations and plans to conduct its
\nown investigations. However, it seems unlikely that the independence and
\nimpartiality of such investigations can be ensured.
\npursue those responsible for the deaths of numerous citizens during the Gaza
\nconflict which lasted from December 2008 to January 2009. In spite of the
\nrecommendations made by the U.N. Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza conflict, the
\nGoldstone Mission, Israel has not conducted credible investigations and has
\ndenied all responsibility of war crimes.
\ncontinues to exist, in spite of the endless human rights violations and the
\ndeprivation of people’s llives, human rights violations will continue to
\nreoccur.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Disclose all the information regarding this
\ncase;
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Accept and fully cooperate with independent
\ninternational fact-finding missions, and fulfill its accountability, with the
\nview to reveal fact situations and responsibility for the human rights
\nviolations;
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Release all members of the flotilla who are
\nstill detained; and
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Immediately lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Establish an independent and impartial
\ninternational mission to investigate this case with concerted efforts and
\nstrongly call on Israel to accept it; and
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Strongly encourage Israel to lift the blockade
\non the Gaza Strip, which is ina state of humanitarian crisis, immediately.
\nabstained from a vote on the resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council on 2
\nJune 2010, even though it called for a thorough international
\ninvestigation in the talk at the U.N. Security Council on 1 June 2010. HRN
\nexpresses deep concern about Japan’s ambiguous policy and calls for Japan to
\ntake an initiative to bring the truth of this human rights problem to light.