Last night the UN Security Council agreed an unprecedented (US backed) statement critical of the Israeli state in which it "condemns those acts which resulted in the loss of at least 10 civilians and many wounded, and expresses its condolences to their families."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/10201165.stm
No such humanitarian insight was shown by the Israeli trade union federation Histradut - which issued a statement pinning blame on the victims of the attack:
Couched within platitudes about the ‘the ongoing suffering of the inhabitants of Gaza’, and support for the humanitarian assistance for the residents of Gaza’ - these unconditional backers of the IDF attacks on Gaza in 2008/9 go on to claim:
“The conduct of the flotilla’s organizers and their methods of action utterly contradict the cooperation and the responsibility to achieve the goal we all aspire to attain — effective humanitarian assistance for the residents of Gaza.”
“The Histadrut clearly states that if the organizers of the flotilla would have complied with this fair and legitimate offer to travel to Ashdod port and participate at the inspection of the supplies, the Histadrut would have assisted to ensure that the humanitarian aid would have been transferred to Gaza while cooperating with our colleagues from the PGFTU, ITUC and all the trade unions throughout the world.”
“We are saddened by the fact that an action whose goal is apparently humanitarian assistance deteriorated to the violence that lead to loss of life. Unfortunately, the conduct of the flotilla organizers, through the rejection of the Israeli proposal, was to attain provocation to strengthen Hamas, agitate the real peace efforts in the region (such as Histadrut and PGFTU) and create an incident which now threatens to unravel the delicate diplomacy which had successfully in recent weeks brought about a renewal of peace negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.”
On the same day that hundreds of brave Israeli progressives demonstrated in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem against their state's murderous violence against the Gaza aid convoy, you will search the lengthy Histradut statement in vain to find a single word of criticism of those responsible for the loss of innocent life.
http://www.tuliponline.org/?p=1828
