Greens NSW Senator Lee Rhiannon today issued a statement calling on the Israeli gov­ern­ment “to imme­di­ately release Michael Coleman”, an Aus­trali­an member of the Freedom Waves to Gaza Flotilla, who has been arrested by the Israeli Defence Force.
“I have also asked the Depart­ment of Foreign Affairs and Trade to work hard to ensure Mr Coleman is safe and is released without delay,” Senator Rhiannon said. “It is the Israeli Defence Forces that have acted illegally as the boat Mr Coleman and other Freedom Waves par­ti­cipants were on was in inter­na­tion­al waters when inter­cep­ted.
Senator Rhiannon added: “The United Nations Human Rights Council Inquiry Report of September 2010 found that the Israeli blockade of Gaza is illegal. It is time to end it once and for all”.
The President of the ECAJ, Dr Danny Lamm, issued Rhiannon with a stinging rebuke. “As usual when it comes to Israel, Senator Rhiannon has blundered badly. She is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law. There is not a skerrick of evidence that Michael Coleman is in any danger, as she has implied.” Dr Lamm said.
“Senator Rhiannon’s char­ac­ter­isa­tion of the blockade of Gaza and the boarding of vessels that are used to break the blockade as “illegal” is men­dacious nonsense, as will be imme­di­ately under­stood by anyone who has read the Palmer Report. Unlike Senator Rhiannon, Sir Geoffrey Palmer of New Zealand, is an expert in inter­na­tion­al maritime law.” Dr Lamm said. “Palmer and other legal experts, Alvaro Uribe (Colombia), Joseph Ciechan­over Itzhar (Israel) and Süleyman Özdem Sanberk (Turkey), invest­ig­ated this issue earlier in the year. They concluded that Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza is legal, describ­ing it as a legit­im­ate security measure in response to the real threat posed by ter­ror­ists in Gaza.”

“The experts also concluded that ships that are being used for the purpose of breaking the blockade may lawfully be boarded and com­mand­eered by Israeli forces, even in inter­na­tion­al waters.” Dr Lamm added.
“It is ludicrous to suggest that this latest attempt to break the blockade is necessary to bring medical supplies to Gaza”, Dr Lamm stated. “More than 30,000 tons of supplies are trans­por­ted into Gaza from Israel every week, including at least 5 truck­loads of medical supplies. The people who want to break the blockade are not inter­ested in providing human­it­ari­an assist­ance to the Palestini­ans. If that was their fun­da­ment­al aim, they could send their supplies in by land via Israel. Their main purpose is to harm Israel and her people”, Dr Lamm concluded.
Rhiannon’s statement can be accessed at:
http://lee-rhiannon.greensmps.org.au/content/media-release/call-govt-action-on-australian- detained-israel