Zammit: ‘Israel has to stop targeting civilians’

Bianca Zammit has “welcomed” the Israeli foreign minister’s apology but said she expected Israel to take all the measures necessary to ensure that no more civilians are targeted.

The 28-year-old Maltese national was shot in her leg last April by Israeli soldiers while she was accompanying Palestinian farmers on their fields in Gaza bordering with Israel.

On Friday, Israel’s foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman read out an apology for the incident while he was on a visit in Malta, saying he was “sorry” and that it was “always a terrible event when civilians are injured”.

His comments stood in stark contrast to previous statements by Israeli ambassador to Malta Gideon Meir who had claimed Zammit was “used” by terrorists and that the International Solidarity Movement she belongs to was helping Hamas and Islamic Jihad in planting bombs to injure Israeli soldiers.

“I welcome his statement and I hope to see the outcome of the investigation in the near future,” Zammit said yesterday from Gaza in reply to Lieberman’s comment. “He mentioned that he is sorry every time that civilians are injured so I hope that he will be taking the necessary measures to ensure that no more civilians are targeted.”

Zammit added that in contrast to Lieberman’s statement, Palestinian civilians are being continuously targeted by the Israeli military.

“Only two days after I was injured a Palestinian was shot at the same nonviolent demonstrations and he died in hospital. In these last two months there have been reports coming in every two or three days of fishermen and farmers being injured as they work. So civilians are being injured and they are being shot at with live ammunition every day.”

Gazan farmers are being shot at within 300 metres from the Israeli border while fishermen are allowed less than 3 nautical miles at sea under treat of gunfire, Zammit added.

“This is an illegal Israeli imposition,” she said.

Even in the flotilla tragedy, nine foreign civilian activists were killed by Israeli commandos last month triggering international outrage.

“The people here were shocked and they weren’t expecting that Israel would do to foreigners what it does to them on a daily basis,” Zammit said. “It’s clear that this was a humanitarian convoy aiming to bring very much needed machines, wheelchairs to Gaza because the borders are closed and because Israel is impeding their entry into Gaza.”

Since the flotilla massacre, Israel has announced it would “ease the siege” but Zammit says this is having no effect on Palestinians as long as they cannot export their produce, resume their jobs and travel out of Gaza.

“What Israel means by ‘easing the siege’ is that in the last week they have allowed the entry of chocolates, sweets, toys for children and mayonnaise,” she said. “In reality there is a humanitarian crisis happening here because 80% of people do not have money coming in and they depend totally on the UN for food aid. Many people do not have a job, so even if chocolate may be coming in from Israel they may not have the money to buy it.

“To start easing this humanitarian crisis caused directly by the siege we have to look at exports from Gaza. Gaza is a very rich land in terms of resources. It was famous for exporting strawberries and roses, and many factories used to operate here. In the last three years of siege they have been destroyed. If we want to ease the siege we need exports, Israel has to allow raw materials and construction material to come in, and for the economy to restart.”

Gaza flotilla bloodshed: After the shock, the outrage

Few Palestinians believed the Free Gaza flotilla would reach the port of Gaza when it set sail towards the besieged strip carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid and 700 passengers.

Even officials in the Government Committee to Break the Siege – an outreach Hamas foreign ministry branch that for months had been coaching civil servants and volunteers in the art of protocol, diplomacy and logistics ahead of the flotilla’s arrival – were, deep down, resigned that Israel’s military might could stop any ship on the high seas.

Ordinary Palestinians were sceptic the aid would ever be distributed by Hamas on humanitarian grounds – still bitter at the way the aid brought by maverick British MP George Galloway last January “vanished” the moment the cameras were switched off.

Nevertheless, hundreds of Palestinians turned up at the harbour on Sunday in a symbolic greeting of the Gaza-bound flotilla, with dozens of boats sailing out within the meagre 3 nautical miles allowed by Israel before getting shot – a daily scene on the Gazan sea which has cost the lives and livelihood of hundreds of fishermen.

Beyond the Hamas government’s enthusiasm, Palestinians could see the clear solidarity of people from all over the world committed against the blockade, committing also governments and politicians to the movement.

But when on early Monday morning, news that passengers on board the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara had been killed by Israeli commandos started trickling in, Gazans were in utter disbelief, followed by outrage.

“I’m Palestinian, I would expect them to shoot me and claim they thought I had a Kalashnikov, but these were Europeans and foreigners, they had left Turkish ports and were cleared to be free of weapons,” 20-year-old Mahdi told me. “I can’t believe they killed them like that.”

Mahdi works in a printing press that publishes the Hamas daily newspaper Falasteen. He sees names of Palestinian ‘martyrs’ – as people killed by Israeli attacks are referred to – everyday on the front page. Many are killed in the tunnels in Israeli air raids; others are killed working their fields on the border and in daily incursions. But no other front page in the world would carry a word about them.

This time it was different. While everyone expected Israel to live up to its word to stop the flotilla, many somehow ignored the far-right Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman’s accurate warning that Israel would stop it “at all costs”, and the reason was that the majority of passengers were non-Palestinian and therefore less likely to be killed.

This also explains why, when Maltese national Bianca Zammit was shot last month by Israeli soldiers during a peaceful demonstration at the border, an almost daily event happening on the Gaza border, the incident suddenly received international coverage: she was the first foreigner to be targeted by the Israelis at the demonstrations.

And just like the Israeli propaganda machine attempted to tarnish Zammit and her organisation (the International SOlidarity Movement) by linking them to fanatic Islamist terrorists, the Turkish humanitarian organisation steering the Mavi Marmara was linked to global jihad and Al Qaeda – no less.

From early Monday, the Israeli government was already saying that “pistols” and “other weapons” had been used against the Israeli commandos assaulting the passengers on board the Mavi Marmara in international waters, and that “shots were fired” by the passengers.

“The demonstrators had clearly prepared their weapons in advance for this specific purpose,” a statement by the Israeli military said.

Hours later, footage taken by the Israeli military itself proved the weapons were marble balls, stones and iron rods.

The outright worldwide condemnation in the immediate aftermath of last Monday’s tragedy was overwhelming, the shock palpable, not least in Gaza. On Tuesday, Gazans went on a national strike in mourning for the foreign victims, and thousands demonstrated in the streets against the lethal Israeli assault.

As the shock subsides, many Gazans are starting to feel that “Israel revealed its true face” to the world, as a grocery shop owner put it to me this morning. The entire tragedy would have been spared had there not been the blockade of Gaza in the first place – there would be no need for humanitarian aid, nor a need to organise flotillas.

Used to fiery rhetoric but no action, Palestinians do not expect much to change despite the outrage, although the full extent of the implications has yet to manifest itself. Turkey’s leadership might change the political tide on the international chess board, and grassroots activism may be putting governments on edge as they are held accountable. Until then, Gazans’ hopes of the blockade being lifted remain in short supply.

“We Arabs mourn for three days, and that’s it,” a pharmacist said, convinced that Israel will eventually also get away with the Mavi Marmara tragedy, and that Arab countries will be the last to object.

Whether that will yet again turn out to be true will largely depend on how much of Turkish President Tayip Erdogan’s tidal wave of outrage at Israel will flood the Arab streets to the point of leaving some of Israel’s and America’s cosiest Arab allies with no other option but to become, for once, accountable to their people.

Meanwhile, more nameless Gazans are still being killed. Yesterday, two were shot dead by Israeli soldiers in Khan Younis during a ground operation, and three were killed by Israeli artillery shelling in the northern village of Beit Lahiya. Palestinian militiants launched two homemade rockets that landed in Gaza.