Kieran Andrieu, my colleague at @novaramedia & a friend I admire, has now been kidnapped by Israel. What is happening off the coast of Gaza is illegal under international law.
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A British citizen has been kidnapped @Keir_Starmer.
I write as former Head of Maritime Section of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
and Alternate Head of UK Delegation to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea Prepcom.
1) The flotilla is on the High Seas and not in Israel's 12 mile territorial sea. Israel has no jurisdiction.
2) The Israeli maritime blockade has been in place for 17 years and is an intrinsic part of the long term occupation found illegal in the ICJ advisory opinion
3) It is therefore not a short term measure in time of armed conflict as specified in the San Remo manual
4) In any event the San Remo rules explicitly state that humanitarian supplies may not be blockaded
5) The UN Commission of Inquiry has already determined that Israel is committing genocide. The blockade is plainly a part of the machinery of such genocide.
For reasons 1 to 5 the Israeli attack on the flotilla is plainly illegal.
6) On the High Seas, the law applying on each ship is the law of its flag state. An attack by a state military warship on a vessel on the High Seas is an attack on the flag state of the vessel attacked.
7) Acts of illegal possession of vessels or abduction of crew on the High Seas should be pursued by each flag state as crimes within their domestic jurisdiction, not only in international law.
8) So the Metropolitan Police and DPP have an obligation to investigate and act over the abduction of persons from UK flagged vessels on the High Seas.
This applies to each flag state mutatis mutandi.
I hope you find this helpful.
Mission update:
175 nautical miles to Gaza.
CRITICAL WARNING: We are entering the high-risk zone TONIGHT.
Workers across the world are preparing for mass mobilizations. Together, we DEMAND SAFE PASSAGE.
An attack on the Flotilla is an attack on Palest… https://t.co/g00PDdPblt
"This debate is both factually and morally wrong."
Swedish MEP Abir Al-Sahlani destroys far right nonsense during a debate on immigration taken by right-wing parties in Brussels 🔥
If you missed out on tickets, you can still make a difference by donating directly via the charities’ pages.
Together, we can continue to stand in solidarity and create lasting impact.
@MedicalAidPal: https://t.co/fylwZ9r7P8
Gaza Forever UK: https://t.co/UJ29AbzOm5
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I’m thinking of Chris Smalls. And about how, because he’s Black, no Greta Thunberg, no celebrity, no darling of the liberal class, he might not make it out alive. Blackness, when vulnerable and on its knees, is a white supremacist fantasy.
Israeli forces illegally boarded ‘Handala’ in international waters, abducting 21 unarmed civilians.
Demand your government end its complicity in Israeli war crimes, ensure the unhindered delivery of humanitarian aid, and call for the immediate release of all crew members.
If you really don't want to starve kids because you think Khamas is stealing them and selling it. Then flood the place with food.
No child would starve and Khamas wouldn't have any customers.
Watch till the end.
Listen to the outrage, despair, and yes, fear, in @PatinkinMandy's voice.
That is the sound of a person with a conscious.
All our voices should sound like this.
I don’t know if anyone saw this horrific story of Rose, a young carer forced to repay £2000? She’s been looking after her mum since she was EIGHT, and has set up a crowdfund to help clear the debt but has ZERO donations. Can we help Rose??
https://t.co/vxm4iEw8uQ
Persecuting those who fight apartheid is an act of apartheid itself (Convention on the Crime of Apartheid, article 2f).
Perhaps it is time to investigate whether the crime of apartheid can also be committed as part of a joint criminal enterprise?
She’s channeling the energy of so many of us. White British people screeching ‘illegal’. Nope. Illegal is violently & brutally stealing someone’s land, driving them out of their homes, using rape & starvation as a tool of control. All methods pioneered by Britain.