Palestinian Christian Church and Community Leaders Condemn Attack on Gaza Aid Flotilla
The result of silence is death
The tragic events that took place on May 31st 2010 on the Free Gaza Flotilla in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea and resulted with the killing by Israeli forces of 16 civilian participants, the injury to 50 participants and the arrest of hundreds of participants are serious escalation with local, regional and international repercussions.
With the pain that we all feel for the loss of life, the injuries and the infractions against the basic human rights of peace activists, we remind the international community, the religious communities, the civil society organizations, the UN, the governments of the world that the Israeli action is a crime by any standard and a major transgression against all norms international behavior and places Israel in a separate category of a State incapable of being responsible and restrained when dealing with peace activists on a humanitarian mission.
We, Church Related Organizations, condemn in the strongest language possible the irresponsible actions perpetrated by the Israeli forces against civilian participants of the Freedom Flotilla and call on all to take action that would see Israel subscribe to international norms by ending the siege on Gaza and by ending its military occupation of the Palestinian Territories. It is only through ending the unjustifiable ongoing military occupation of another people’s land that true peace can emerge. In specific we call for the formation of an independent international investigation on the events that led to the perpetration of this most disturbing crime.
It is tragic that no serious interventions were made from third parties to avoid such a tragic end for a good human action. The result of silence is death.
We pray for the souls of the deceased and think of their families, each and every one of them. We also would like to comfort those injured and wish them quick recovery and we hope and pray for freedom of the incarcerated participants and of the whole Gaza population and the freedom for Palestine .