<html>
<body>
<font size=3>
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/amiri08272010.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/amiri08272010.html<br><br>
</a></font><font size=2 color="#990000">August 27-29, 2010<br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">The
Stalled Voyage of St. Mariam<br><br>
Why is Israel Terrified of a Ship Full of Women?<br><br>
</font><font size=3>By RANNIE AMIRI <br><br>
<i>“We will not even bring cooking knives.”<br><br>
– Samar al-Hajj, coordinator of the all-women Lebanese aid vessel Mariam
<br><br>
</i>The bloody wake left by the <i>Mavi Marmara</i> after the May 31
Israeli commando raid has not deterred 50 female activists from trying to
break the four-year-old siege of Gaza. To hear Israeli Defense Minister
Ehud Barak speak of their planned relief effort, one would think the very
existence of Israel was at stake. <br><br>
The women plan to set sail aboard the <i>Saint Mariam</i>, a
Bolivian-flagged cargo ship named in honor of the Virgin Mary, a figure
sacred to both Christians and Muslims. Although they intend to depart
from Tripoli, Lebanon, the crew is not only composed of multi-faith
Lebanese but foreign nationals as well, including a group of nuns from
the United States. So as not to give Israel pretext to attack, Hezbollah
deliberately did not sponsor the mission nor were any members allowed to
participate. <br><br>
Its cargo? Books, toys, medical instruments and supplies, and most
importantly, anticancer medication.<br><br>
The ship cannot sail directly from Tripoli to Gaza since Lebanon and
Israel remain technically at war (and Israel controls Gaza’s territorial
waters) and thus must pass through a third country first. The
<i>Mariam</i> was scheduled to leave for Cyprus last Sunday but
authorities in Nicosia, capitulating to Israeli pressure, prohibited use
of its ports for vessels departing to Gaza. Without the green light from
Cyprus, Lebanon’s Transport and Public Works Minister Ghazi Aridi was
forced to cancel the voyage until another country with whom Lebanon
enjoys maritime relations could be found. Negotiations with Greece are
now under way.<br><br>
Barak, however, was outraged at the very notion that Lebanon would even
consider allowing the <i>Mariam</i> to sail, characterizing its mission
as “… a provocation intended to aid a terror organization.”<br><br>
He went on: “The ship that is preparing to sail from Lebanon has nothing
to do with humanitarianism … If the ship insists on arriving, in
opposition to the current blockade, Israel will be forced to stop it and
bring it to the port of Ashdod.”<br><br>
The Israeli delegation to the United Nations submitted a formal complaint
to both the Secretary-General and the Security Council, indicating Israel
reserves the right to use “all necessary measures” to prevent the
<i>Mariam</i>and the toys and medications it carries<i></i>from docking
in Gaza.<br><br>
No rational person believes the all-women crew presents a physical or
armed threat to Israel, either by their persons or cargo.<br><br>
So why is Israel so terrified of the <i>Mariam</i>?<br><br>
It has nothing to do with the activists, Hezbollah or even Hamas. What it
does involve is ensuring the continuation of collective punishment of
Gazans, who continue to wither under a four-year material and economic
embargo. <br><br>
It is why innocuous items like wheelchairs, crutches, books, crayons, or
even chemotherapy pose such a threat; <i>any</i> relief provided to
Palestinians not under the direct jurisdiction of Israel jeopardizes its
role as sole arbiter of deciding whether to enforce or relax punishment
of civilians. Only the occupying power has this right.<br><br>
Collective punishment is an illegal and heinous form of warfare, and
Gaza’s Palestinians have suffered from it as retribution for
overwhelmingly electing Hamas to govern in the January 2006 parliamentary
elections.<br><br>
If the <i>Mariam</i> is allowed to sail and Israel cannot find
justification to stop the nuns, doctors, lawyers, journalists, human
rights workers and a pop star aboard from landingif <i>they</i> are
permitted to break the siegethen the Gaza shore could soon become
inundated with ships, vessels and relief flotillas from the world over.
And the myth of Israel as invincible regional superpower would, yet
again, be shattered. <br><br>
This is why Israel is terrified of a ship full of women, and why they are
being demonized.<br><br>
<b>Rannie Amiri</b> is an independent Middle East commentator. He may be
reached at: rbamiri@yahoo.com<br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>