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Maritime Law Expert: Israel Has No Choice But to Stop Gaza Flotilla

(Die Zeit-Germany) Jade-Yasmin Tanzler - Wolff Heintschel von Heinegg is an international and maritime law expert who teaches at Europa-Universitat Viadrina in Frankfurt. He served as an adviser to the Turkel Commission that Israel established to determining how and why violence erupted on 31 May 2010 between passengers on the Gaza humanitarian convoy and Israeli soldiers. He said in an interview: "What you have here is an armed conflict. Which means that the laws governing such conflicts apply; and under these laws, sea blockades are allowed....If you take an objective look at the relevant legal analyses, it's readily apparent that the basic admissibility of the Israeli blockade has never been called into question." "There's only one principle that characterizes a blockade: the principle of effectiveness. In other words, the blockade has to prevent ships from entering or leaving the blockade zone. If the blockade fails to do this even once, it is ineffective and thus immediately becomes legally ineffective as well....The Israelis simply can't afford to let any ship through, if they want to prevent another ship from passing through the blockade zone a few hours later." "The mere fact that they set sail for Gaza does not constitute a criminal act. But if you come out and say, in a public forum, that you're heading to Gaza for the express purpose of breaking the blockade, this is clear evidence of a blockade-breaking attempt. And when that happens, the state that has imposed the blockade doesn't need to wait until the ship in question reaches the 20-nautical-mile boundary; instead, it's got the right to intervene beforehand. Because the state that's imposing the blockade is not only entitled but also duty-bound to maintain its blockade."
2011-06-24 00:00:00
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