Ref: 42/2010

The Palestinian Center for Human
Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns the crime perpetrated by Israeli Occupation
Forces (IOF) earlier this morning, 31 May 2010, when Israeli Naval Forces
attacked the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” in international waters as it
was sailing towards the Gaza Strip. IOF
used excessive and lethal force in its attack on the ships, which left dozens
of international civilian solidarity activists who were on board dead or
injured.

Today’s crime is hideous, and it is
a shame for the international community to remain silent while IOF commits
systematic war crimes against civilians.

PCHR believes that Israel would not
continue to commit crimes and attacks against civilians, including the crime
committed today against the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” and those
international solidarity activists aboard, if the international community did
not remain silent, thereby failing to fulfill its obligations and duties to
enforce international law and provide protection for civilians.

Today’s attack is characteristic of
a long series of war crimes and grave violations carried out by IOF against
civilians, including the latest Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip,
in addition to the imposition of collective punishment measures against
civilians through the ongoing siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.

Unfortunately and regrettably, the
world has remained motionless and there has been no intervention to stop such
crimes or prosecute the perpetrators.

Rather, attempts have been ongoing
to foil the report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Gaza Conflict (i.e. the
Goldstone Report), which provided for the first time practical mechanisms to
prosecute Israeli war crimes; such attempts seek to undermine justice and
preclude the prosecution of Israeli war criminals, thereby offering them
impunity.

Members of the international
community, particularly the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions,
are required to fulfill their obligations to protect civilians and immediately
intervene to stop crimes perpetrated against civilians.

The ongoing silence of the
international community is effectively an open invitation for IOF to continue
to challenge international law, to act as a state above the law, and to
continue to commit crimes against civilians.

It is time now to put an end to
offering impunity to those who commit crimes of the nature outlined above. The
impunity with which these criminals operate results from a policy held by the
influential member states of the United Nations of favoring political interests
and considerations at the expense of international law and civilians, and it
comes with the heavy price of sacrificing human rights, international law, and
the rule of law.

Today’s crime reconfirms the
duplicity of Israel’s claims regarding the end of its military control of the
Gaza Strip, and further proves that the Gaza Strip will remain an occupied
territory so long as the Israeli military control of the air, sea and land is
ongoing.