The Paris based human rights organization, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has been informed that two boats, carrying a total of sixty passengers, are scheduled to depart from Cyprus on Wednesday August 12, 2008. The boats are bound for the Gaza Strip, in an attempt to break the siege of Gaza and deliver humanitarian aid. The passengers include human rights observers, aid workers, journalists, plus doctors from Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and another fifteen countries.
FIDH is very concerned that the two boats may not be allowed to reach their final destination as the Israeli Occupying Power continues to occupy the territorial waters of the Gaza Strip. FIDH notes that according to the (1949) Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a signatory, "the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate" (Article 55).
FIDH also notes that, according to the 1966 UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to which Israel is also a signatory, "All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development." The UN International Covenant also states that, "In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence." In addition, the UN International Covenant clarifies that "Those having responsibility for the administration of non-self-governing and trust territories, shall promote the realization of the right of self-determination, and shall respect that right, in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations."
FIDH urges the Israeli Occupying Power to allow these two boats to reach their destination safely, in order to deliver their medical and humanitarian supplies to the civilian population of the Gaza Strip.
FIDH also calls upon diplomatic missions in Israel who represent those nations which have citizens on board these boats to ensure the security of their citizens by urging the Israeli authorities to refrain from any military activities, or any other kind of operation, against these boats and their passengers.
This boat symbolizes the moral authority of the international civil society community. These sixty civilians from a total of sixteen countries have come together in order to break the conspiracy of silence about the criminal and inhumane siege that is suffocating the 1.7 million civilian population of the Gaza Strip. FIDH therefore urges all High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and other relevant bodies, to immediately act in order to put an end to the siege being imposed on ‘Protected Palestinian civilians’ and the continuing grave human rights violations being imposed on them by Israel.