Emergency Committee On Israel's Misleading Attack On Rep. Kilroy

Emergency Committee On Israel Targets Rep. Kilroy

Most members of Congress are friends of Israel.  That's why a huge majority, 88 percent, refused to sign a letter accusing Israel of collective punishment when Israel was defending her citizens from the terrorist group Hamas.  But Mary Jo Kilroy signed that anti-Israel letter. A fellow Democratic Congressman called Kilroy misinformed.  Israeli officials feared worse.  Call Mary Jo Kilroy.  Ask her why she joined an assault against Israel. [Emergency Committee on Israel, 8/5/10]

Facts About The Letter That Kilroy Signed  

Prominent Human Rights Groups Supported Letter Urging Easing Of Blockade.  According to the Minnesota Independent: "Among the groups supporting the letter: J Street, The Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation (HCEF), The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), The American Near East Refugee Association (ANERA), The Methodist Church, The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), and Rabbis for Human Rights." [Minnesota Independent, 1/26/10]

Letter Raised Concerns About The Plight Of Both Palestinian And Israel Civilians. A letter written by the American Task Force on Palestine reads: "The people of Gaza have suffered enormously since the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt following Hamas' coup, and particularly following Operation Cast Lead. We also sympathize deeply with the people of southern Israel who have suffered from abhorrent rocket and mortar attacks. We recognize that the Israeli government has imposed restrictions on Gaza out of a legitimate and keenly felt fear of continued terrorist action by Hamas and other militant groups. This concern must be addressed without resulting in the de facto collective punishment of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip. Truly, fulfilling the needs of civilians in Israel and Gaza are mutually reinforcing goals." [American Task Force on Palestine, 1/27/10]

Letter Said Blockade Has Strengthened Hamas. The letter continued: "The humanitarian and political consequences of a continued near-blockade would be disastrous. Easing the blockade on Gaza will not only improve the conditions on the ground for Gaza's civilian population, but will also undermine the tunnel economy which has strengthened Hamas. Under current conditions, our aid remains little more than an unrealized pledge. Most importantly, lifting these restrictions will give civilians in Gaza a tangible sense that diplomacy can be an effective tool for bettering their conditions." [American Task Force on Palestine, 1/27/10]

Signatories Included Prominent Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace Group J Street

J Street Is A Pro-Israel And Pro-Peace Group. According to the Washington Post, "The group bills itself as the 'political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement' and argues that the debate over Israel in the United States has tilted to the right despite the liberal sympathies of most Jewish Americans. J Street supports a 'two-state solution' for Israel and the Palestinians and generally favors diplomacy over military force, according to its Web site and statements." [Washington Post, 4/17/09]

Israeli Blockade Not Just  About Security

Legal Expert: "Blockades Must Meet Humanitarian Standards To Be Lawful." According to Dr. Douglas Guilfoyle, author of Shipping Interdiction and the Law of the Sea and legal professor at University College London:

"International law tells us that states may create and enforce blockades during an armed conflict, but it also tells us that those blockades must meet humanitarian standards to be lawful... During an armed conflict...a belligerent state is entitled to blockade enemy ports as a measure of economic warfare. Historically, such a blockade had to be conducted close to shore. In modern law, however, a blockade may be enforced against neutral vessels on the high seas, where the events on the Marvi Marmara took place... The ships that were intercepted by Israel, however, were carrying aid. The law or [sic] armed conflict requires that blockading states allow aid through to the civilian population; however, the blockading state may control the channel through which aid is delivered, and that is what Israel has been doing. The authority to intercept vessels and control aid deliveries, however, is available only in a lawful blockade. To be lawful, a blockade must not be implemented where the damage to the civilian population is excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the blockade, and this is where Israel's legal position is open to question." [UCL Laws Faculty website, accessed 6/3/10; Times of London, 6/1/10, emphasis added]

• Food Shortages In Gaza Raise "Serious Questions About The Underlying Legality Of The Blockade." According to Dr. Guilfoyle: "The BBC has reported UN agencies as saying that insufficient aid is reaching Gaza, possibly less than one quarter of daily needs. This raises serious questions about the underlying legality of the blockade. The relevant rules of armed conflict prohibit intentionally starving the civilian population and require that humanitarian supplies essential to survival must be allowed to pass, albeit subject to certain controls by the blockading power. To maintain a population at a level just above the bare minimum needed for survival might arguably be within the strictest letter of the law, but could never seriously be thought consistent with its spirit. Calls for the immediate cessation of the blockade may well have a good case in law as well as in humanitarian policy." [Times of London, 6/1/10, emphasis added]

• 2006: Israeli Government Adviser Speaks Of Putting "Palestinians On A Diet." According to the Christian Science Monitor: "Israel says it will withhold $55 million a month in taxes and other fees collected by Israel, but owed to Palestinians. 'The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger,' Dov Weisglass, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, told the Israeli media." [Christian Science Monitor, 2/27/06]

Israeli Blockade Exacerbating Humanitarian Crisis In Gaza.  According to Amnesty International: "Israel's military blockade of Gaza has left more than 1.4 million Palestinian men, women and children trapped in the Gaza Strip, an area of land just 40 kilometres long and 9.5 kilometres wide.  Mass unemployment, extreme poverty and food price rises caused by shortages have left four in five Gazans dependent on humanitarian aid. As a form of collective punishment, Israel's continuing blockade of Gaza is a flagrant violation of international law." [Amnesty International, 6/1/10]

Gaza Blockade Is Only Hurting Civilians.  As the Independent explains: "It is widely accepted internationally that the blockade is hurting the civilian population much more than Hamas, whose grip has tightened in the last three years. It has destroyed a once-entrepreneurial and productive economy, ensured that 80 per cent of its population now depend on food aid, left most of its water undrinkable, and prevented reconstruction of some 75 per cent of the buildings destroyed by Israel's devastating military offensive in the winter of 2008-9, not to mention many, many thousands more destroyed since the beginning of the intifada in 2000; or the building of 100 new schools the UN refugee agency UNRWA desperately needs to meet its ever-soaring demands. It's because world leaders understand this - at least on a theoretical basis since few ever enter Gaza - that the Quartet of the US, EU, Russia and the UN has repeatedly called for the siege to be lifted." [Independent, 6/2/10]

Gaza Blockade Is Collective Punishment.  According to Amnesty International: "This gratuitous exacerbation of the privations already suffered by the inhabitants of Gaza seriously hampered their access to health care and education and destroyed industries and livelihoods. Imposed ostensibly to deter rocket-firing into Israel by Palestinian armed groups, the blockade was nothing less than an outrage - the imposition of collective punishment on the entire population of Gaza. All too predictably, it hit hardest on the most vulnerable - children, the elderly, the homeless and the sick, including those in need of medical treatment outside Gaza - not the armed militants responsible for rocket firing." [Amnesty International, accessed 6/3/10]

UN: Since Blockade Is "Collective Punishment," It Violates The Geneva Convention. According to a 2009 report to the United Nations: "As noted by senior United Nations human rights and humanitarian officials, among others, the blockade of Gaza amounts to collective punishment, which is prohibited under international humanitarian law. Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states that 'No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or terrorism are prohibited. [...] Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.'" [UN Report, 11/6/09]

Israel Indiscriminately Prohibited Various Goods From Entering Gaza. According to Gisha, a Jaffa-based Israeli human rights organization, as of May, the following items were prohibited from entering the Gaza Strip.  According to the group, the partial list "is based on information from Palestinian traders and businesspersons, international organizations, and the Palestinian Coordination Committee, all of whom 'deduce' what is permitted and what is banned based on their experience requesting permission to bring goods into Gaza and the answers they receive from the Israeli authorities (approved or denied)." [Gisha, accessed 6/3/10]

Prohibited Items

Israeli Government Agreed To Ease Blockade

July 2010: Israeli Government Eased Blockade To Let In Goods. According to the Guardian: "Israel today lifted its ban on most consumer goods entering Gaza, but maintained its limits on many building materials, which it said could be used to manufacture weapons.  The authorities published details of items that will still be proscribed. The 'lists of controlled entry items' covers arms, munitions and 'dual use' items that could be used in the development and production of 'military capabilities and terrorist capacities'. The latter includes chemicals, ball bearings, lathes, optical equipment and navigation aides.  The new list of banned goods was published on the eve of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu's visit to the White House. President Barack Obama has been pressing Israel to ease the blockade of Gaza after its deadly assault on the flotilla of ships carrying aid to the besieged territory." [Guardian, 7/5/10]