zionist expansionist aspirations are limitless. It is taken for granted that the jurisdiction of the zionist state extends beyond its so-called “borders” to include international waters where zionist military forces carry out acts of piracy and kidnapping.
The zionist state’s attacks, seizure of ships and abduction of passengers and crews in international waters displays a disregard and contempt for international maritime law, customs and expected norms of civilized behavior. Unfortunately the zionist state’s piracy and terrorism have been, are still are, seen through the fog of zionist propaganda and misinformation.
One would expect that the disclosure of attacks and unlawful seizure of vessels, the killing and abduction of passengers and crews in international waters would have sounded an alarm for anyone concerned about the safety of maritime navigation and human rights in the international community. Under the unspoken rules of the media and toadyism of the press, zionist military forces are instead idealized and glorified under the mantra: the ends justify the means. The zionist state’s use of violence in support of their occupation of Palestine, has been carefully blacked out from public surveillance or sanitized as, for example, was the case with the USS Liberty.
On June 8, 1967, zionist military forces in a blatant false-flag attack that was meant to be blamed on Egypt deliberately attacked the USS Liberty. Lifeboats were shot out of the water in an effort to ensure that no one would escape. With 34 crewmen killed and 171 injured it was the worst peacetime US naval disaster of the century, but dismissed as an “error” – a transparent absurdity – and barely known.1 Forty-four years later survivors and families of the dead crew still call for a proper investigation. It is the only attack on a US ship that has not been investigated by the US Congress.
Then again on May 19, 2010, the world was witness to an act of piracy in international waters, when zionist military forces attacked six unarmed humanitarian aid ships in the Freedom Flotilla, executing 9 unarmed civilians including Furkan Dojan a 19-year-old American citizen and kidnapping 700 others. In a premeditated plan by the zionist military, three military ships loaded with 300 specially trained commandos accompanied by military helicopters and high speed attack boats, attacked the Turkish vessel the Mavi Marmara. The ship was transporting 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza. In addition to kidnapping passengers and crews, the humanitarian aid was stolen along with the personal property, such as laptops, cell phones, camera and credit cards to mention some of the items.
The American press and the US government showed no concern or interest in the cold blooded murder of an American citizen even after Dojan’s autopsy report revealed he was shot five times at close range, once in the chest and four times in the head.
But these are not the only zionist attacks on ships in the Mediterranean. This article hopes to jolt the memory and replace the sanitized history to ensure that all zionist acts of piracy and terrorism in the Mediterranean are not forgotten and that they are included in our understanding and knowledge of Palestinian history and experience. It is important to note that more than 100 passengers and crews are known to have been abducted and 21 passengers are known to have been killed between the years 1985 and 1988. While it seems such a long time ago it is an integral part of Palestine’s historic struggle against zionist occupation.
zionist state piracy during this period resulted in the death at sea of at least twenty-one known persons. Further, this spate of piracy resulted in long-term imprisonment of persons who were simply fishing in waters off the coast of Lebanon. The capture, sinking or disabling of foreign ships outside of the zionist state’s “claimed” territorial waters was to become an integral part of its military policy in the Mediterranean sea.
What is an Act of Piracy?
Let us first clarify what is an act of piracy. In the American Journal of International Law, piracy is defined as “committing acts of violence or depredation committed with intent to rob, rape, wound, enslave, imprison, or kill a person, or with the intent to steal or destroy property connected with an attack on or from the sea.” 2
The capture of a ship on the high seas, flying a State flag, is a violation of the sovereignty of the registry State.3 A seldom discussed fact is that the zionist military has attacked, seized and sunk ships flagged to Cyprus, Panama, Australia, England and Honduras to name a few.
Not only had the zionist state grossly exceeded the limits of lawful behavior on the high seas, it has flouted human rights by the wholesale abduction of travelers in international waters, imprisoning them and in many cases, subjecting them to extreme physical abuse to extract self-incriminating statements by which they were to be convicted.
zionist attempts to justify their acts of piracy have no basis in international law, as the authoritative Oppenheimer’s International Law makes clear:
“It must be emphasized that the motive and the purpose of such acts of violence do not alter their piratical character, since the intent to plunder (animus furandi) is not required.”4
From Merchant Vessels to Fishing Boats
As previously mentioned, the period 1985 – 1988 saw an increase in the number of ships attacked in the Mediterranean. According to Alternative Information Center, more than twenty ships and fishing vessels in international waters.5 By November 16, 1987, the zionist state had carried out at least its fourteenth hijacking in international waters. Passengers and crews were kidnapped, their personal items such as money and jewelry stolen under the pretext of links to Palestinian resistance movement. zionist piracy during this period resulted in the deliberate death at sea of twenty-one known passengers. What is crucial to know that these acts of piracy resulted in long-term imprisonment of people who were simply fishing in waters off the coast of Lebanon.
Tactics employed in the hijackings—capture in the open sea of entire boat-loads of people, enabled the zionists to maintain a high degree of secrecy not only about the circumstances of the abductions, but also the number, identity and physical condition of those kidnapped and detained, the majority of whom were Palestinians.
While it is not possible to explore all of zionist military attacks in the Mediterranean during this period, we will look at a few attacks to get some idea of the scope of the zionist state’s legacy of piracy and abductions.
The Alisur Blanco, a Cypriot passenger ferryboat carrying sixty-three passengers was hijacked off the coast of Lebanon on June 29, 1984. The passengers included 56 Lebanese nationals, 3 Palestinians, 2 Syrians, one American and one Netherlander. While none of the 21 member crew was detained, an undisclosed number of passengers, including a young schoolboy of Lebanese nationality Mazim Masi, who was returning from England to spend his school holiday with his family were abducted. On July 11th, all but 2 of the kidnapped passengers were released into the custody of the International Committee of the Red Cross and escorted into Lebanon. The two remaining passengers were brother and sister, it was assumed that they were Palestinian nationals suspected of being PLO soldiers.
On March 29, 1985, the vessel Khalil I was attacked while sailing from Cyprus to Lebanon. Six Palestinian passengers were abducted, imprisoned, tortured and tried before a military court. The fact it was 1985 did not stop Habis Daghlas being convicted of having attempted to “infiltrate Israel” in 1981. He received a 14 year sentence. The amount of $62,000 dollars was stolen from the passengers.6
On April 20, 1985, the ship Ataveros was attacked and sunk. 21 passengers were killed in the attack; only 4 bodies were reported recovered. According to survivors’ accounts of the attack a gunboat ordered the Ataveros, sailing under a Panamanian flag in international waters to stop. Despite the captain’s radio message that it was a civilian ship the gunboat fired a missile at the ship’s engine room. As the ship began to sink, automatic gunfire targeted the men who were floating in the sea. A second missile was fired hitting the side of the Ataveros. Five minutes later, the ship had completely sunk. Some of the passengers were able to put on life jackets, but several who had been wounded by gunfire were not able to.7
Bright spotlights were targeted on the Ataveros as it sank, as well as on the passengers and crew struggling to keep afloat in the water. Survivors recounted how the zionists watched men drowning under the spotlights and commenced firing on them. Other zionist naval vessels circled the survivors, creating intense waves that made it impossible for those men without life jackets or other aids to remain afloat. Men cried for help. After three hours of struggling in frigid, turbulent water under constant gunfire, the survivors were given the impossible order to swim towards the ships with their hands over their heads. When survivors called out that they were carrying injured men, they were fired on. Only after arriving in prison did the kidnapped men learn that only eight had survived. Their accounts indicate that the zionist navy deliberately eliminated, or left those survivors wounded in the attack to die.8
The Australian-owned yacht, Casselardit was hijacked by zionist military forces and detoured and impounded on August 30, 1985. Sixteen months later the eight passengers remained in prison without trial. Australian Barry White, had been operating a regular passenger and charter yacht service in the Mediterranean, which had been advertised and represented by a prominent tourist agency in Cyprus.
The hijacking of the Casselardit sparked attention in the Australian press and among some government officials. Graeme Campbell, Member of the Australian Parliament’s House of Representatives, protested the seizure in international waters of the Casselardit as “an act of sea piracy.”9 Australia’s Foreign Minister, and later Governor General of Australia, Bill Hayden, categorized the zionist state as “a law unto itself.”10
Then on 12 February 1986, the zionist navy pursued and opened fired on a Turkish vessel, the Laroz I, killing its Turkish captain Suleiman Asker. The ship was then forced to make port at Ashdod, and the eight-member crew was detained. Protesting this hostile action, on February 18,1986, the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the zionist charge d’affaires in Ankara, Yehuda Millo to the Ministry to explain his government’s behavior. The official zionist account claimed that Captain Asker had been killed by his own crew. However, the Laroz I crew testified that their captain was indeed assassinated by zionist gunfire, and this was later corroborated by the autopsy report.11
The last hijacking we will look at happened on November 16, 1987 with the seizing of the Honduran-flagged boat ship the Nadija. The hijacking happened between Limassol, Cyprus and Port Sai’d. According to the website Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem, the hijacking was widely reported in the Hebrew and Arabic press.12 According to zionist sources, “several” of the Nadija‘s passengers were arrested, and held in jails. They were interrogated for fourteen days and placed under administrative detention without charges. While they were scheduled to appear before a military court on February 29, 1988, however on the following March, they were not charged but administrative detention was extended through April 1988.
Tactics employed in the hijackings—capture in the open sea of entire boat-loads of people, enabled the zionists to maintain a high degree of secrecy not only about the circumstances of the abductions, but also the number, identity and physical condition of those kidnapped and detained, the majority of whom were Palestinians. Very little information exists about the hijackings and where it does exist it is sparse. We do know that the zionists attacked vessels ranging from passenger ferries, cargo ships, private yachts, to fishing boats. We also know that hundreds of people were taken in extra-territorial kidnappings.
Extra-Territorial Kidnappings
In extra-territorial kidnappings, a self-incriminating statement by passengers or crew, or an incriminating statement by another detainee, is usually the only evidence brought before the zionist court. It is this method of obtaining evidence that is crucial for the zionist state to hinge its charges against those it abducts outside its territorial jurisdiction.
The kidnapping and seizure by zionist military authorities of other nationals—especially Palestinians—traveling in international waters or even within other countries, and their subsequent detention, subjection to extreme physical and psychological abuse, trial, imprisonment and sometimes, death had failed to raise fundamental questions as to the acceptable standards of behavior of the zionist state by the international community or the power zionism exerts over individuals outside its claimed “borders”.
The Shoe Fits
The Committee against State Terrorism at Sea joined forces with a group of lawyers, writers and human rights advocates in Jerusalem to gather and disseminate information about the legal and human rights issues in at least fourteen of the hijackings.
On September 1987, participations in the United Nations 4th International Non-Governmental Symposium on the Question of Palestine meeting in Geneva, condemned Israeli hijackings and called for the international community to confront the problems caused by the zionist state’s violations against safety of maritime navigation.13 This was followed on December 7, 1987 with voting on United Nations General Assembly Resolution 42/159 on Measures to Prevent International Terrorism. Only the United States and Israel voted against this General Assembly Resolution. All other nations, including all of America’s allies voted for the resolution. Honduras abstained.14
Of particular interest is that the Resolution mentioned no specific country by name, but the United States and the zionist state must have decided that “the shoe fits”.
Endnotes:
1 Chomsky, Noam, Pirates & Emperors, International Terrorism in the Real World, Claremont Research & Publications, New York, 1986, pp99-100
2 Supplement 1932, volume 26, p743
3 The International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD), State Terrorism At Sea: A Preliminary Report on the Case of Israel by the Committee against State Terrorism at Sea, EAFORD (USA): p7
4 Oppenheimer, L. ed., International Law, edited by H. Lauterpacht, Eighth Edition, Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1955, Vol.1, p609
5 EAFORD (USA), 1988, p3
6 EAFORD, p21
7 EAFORD, pp 21-22
8 Nakhleh, Issa and Tom Voltz, Encyclopedia of the Palestinian Problem website, chapter 33, p12 of 16
9 Sunday Times, London, January 11, 1987
10 Ibid.
11 Ma’ariv, February 23, 1986
12 Nakhleh
13 EAFORD, p43
14 EAFORD p46
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