Letters needed to Mikulski (and Cardin)/Protect the Rachel Corrie

Senator Mikulski has this to say about the Free Gaza flotilla, according to Frank Cristinzio [Frank_Cristinzio@Mikulski.senate.gov], Mikulski's foreign affairs aide:

 

Statement from Senator Mikulski:

Israel’s internal investigation will tell us the facts and circumstances that led to the tragic loss of life and injury off the coast of Gaza.

But two things are clear. First, Israel, like all countries, has the right to self-defense. Second, Hamas has clearly stated its goal is the destruction of the State of Israel.

Uninspected ships can contain anything from missiles to dirty bombs. That’s why Israel offered to inspect the ships and allow humanitarian aid to be delivered as they have so many times in the past. Yet those aboard the Mavi Marmara cared more about inciting a confrontation that they did about delivering aid. This is clearly a provocative act. Those concerned about the people of Gaza must press Hamas to recognize Israel’s right to exist and renounce violence.

 

You can read Cardin's statement on the AIPAC Web site here: http://www.aipac.org/Publications/Congressional_Statements_on_Flotilla.pdf    It's not quite as bad as Mikulski's, but hers would be pretty hard to top.

 

According to the Center for Responsive Politics  http://www.opensecrets.org/, here's what our two senators have received from the Israel Lobby: 

 

Mikulski:  $551,734

Cardin:     $620,172

 

Please, can you write a letter expressing your outrage at their statements, and possibly making the connection to the scandalous amounts of money they have received from the Israel lobby? Also, let's post letters making this connection everywhere we can think of, and send letters to the media. It's probably not possible to embarrass Mikulski or Cardin, but perhaps we could try.

 

Contact info for the senators is here: http://www.peaceactionmc.org/contactyourrepresentatives.html

 

Denis Halliday Urges Irish-Americans to Defend the Rachel Corrie

 

by Robert Naiman,

Policy Director of Just Foreign Policy

 

Huffington Post

 

Posted: June 3, 2010 08:59 AM

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/halliday-urges-irish-amer_b_598924.html

 

Former UN Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday said it was imperative that the Obama administration support Ireland's call on the Israeli authorities to ensure safe passage for the Irish-flagged Rachel Corrie to carry humanitarian aid to Gaza, the Irish Times  reports. Speaking by satellite phone from on board the Rachel Corrie, Halliday called on Irish-Americans to lobby the Obama administration:

"We also feel there is a role for the Irish diaspora here, in the U.S. and elsewhere to lobby politicians over this continued illegal blockade of Gaza, which is causing such hardship to the Palestinian people."

 

Halliday has some experience with this issue, having resigned from his position as UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq in 1998 over the impact of UN/U.S. sanctions on Iraqi civilians.

 

The issue of the Gaza blockade has tremendous resonance in Ireland, partly because of Ireland's high degree of engagement in international humanitarian causes -- John Ging, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, who had called on the international community to break the siege by sending ships loaded with aid, is also Irish -- but also, of course, because the Irish people have some experience with the consequences for civilians of a colonial blockade.

 

Between 1845 and 1850, more than a million Irish people starved to death under British rule while, as Sinead O'Connor famously noted, food was shipped out of Ireland under armed guard. A million more fled Ireland to escape starvation, many to America, including Falmouth Kearney, President Obama's great-great-great grandfather.

 

Many Irish people -- and Irish-Americans -- take the responsibilities of this legacy very seriously.

 

Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has said:

 

    The best possible commemoration of the men and women who

    died in that Famine, who were cast up on other shores

    because of it, is to take their dispossession into the

    present with us, to help others who now suffer in a

    similar way.

 

That's what Halliday is trying to do. Doesn't he deserve all our support?

 

UPDATE:: Francis Boyle, Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois [also Irish-American] writes:

 

    We could act to deter an Israeli attack upon MV Rachel

    Corrie by invoking International Criminal Court

    Prosecution. According to the ICC Rome Statute, Article

    12 (2) provides "2. In the case of article 13, paragraph

    (a) or (c), the Court may exercise its jurisdiction if

    one or more of the following States are Parties to this

    Statute or have accepted the jurisdiction of the Court

    in accordance with paragraph 3: (a) The State on the

    territory of which the conduct in question occurred or,

    if the crime was committed on board a vessel or

    aircraft, the State of registration of that vessel or

    aircraft; ... " If one of the vessel is Irish vessel and

    the attack was committed against the vessel, the ICC may

    exercise its jurisdiction over this situation since the

    Ireland is a State Party to the ICC Statute. Israel's

    attack may constitute a crime against humanity of

    murder, imprisonment, torture and other inhumane acts

    under Article 7 of the ICC Statute.

 

    Ireland is a party to the Rome Statute. Hence if Israel

    were to attack the MV Rachel Corrie, the highest level

    Israeli officials could be prosecuted for the attack. If

    we got this word out internationally, it might do some

    good.

 

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