{"id":179052,"date":"2012-10-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T20:47:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/?p=179052"},"modified":"2019-03-11T20:47:04","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T20:47:04","slug":"auto-insert-179052","status":"publish","type":"document","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-179052\/","title":{"rendered":"Activists planning to challenge Israeli Gaza naval blockade &#8211; Letter from Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:left;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><strong>Identical letters dated 16 October 2012 from the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:10px;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;I write to draw your attention to an issue that could affect the stability of our region. As I write this letter, a group of activists is moving forward with plans to challenge Israel&#8217;s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. Their ship set sail from Sweden over the summer &#8212; and reports indicate that it will arrive in the vicinity of Gaza within a week. <\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:10px;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;Israel&#8217;s naval blockade is a necessary and legitimate security measure. Its only purpose is to stem the flood of arms into Gaza, where terrorists continue to fire rockets into Israeli communities day and night. The Secretary-General&#8217;s Panel of Inquiry affirmed in its July 2011 report that Israel&#8217;s naval blockade &#8220;was imposed as a legitimate security measure in order to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea, and its implementation complied with the requirements of international law&#8221;. <\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align:justify;padding-top:10px;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">&nbsp;There is no need for this flotilla. There is not a single civilian good that cannot enter Gaza. Numerous mechanisms have been established through which humanitarian assistance can be delivered to the Gaza Strip, which the United Nations and other international actors use on a daily basis to transfer goods.<\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:10px;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;The rap sheets of the passengers on board this ship make clear that they are driven by radical and extremist agendas. For instance, Johan Galtung &#8212; the leader of this provocation &#8212; was recently suspended from the Swiss World Peace Academy for making a series of public anti-Semitic rants. <\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:10px;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;Instead of delivering much-needed goods to address the humanitarian crisis in Syria, the broken moral compass of these self-proclaimed human rights activists has steered them to Gaza. Even without access to today&#8217;s GPS systems, the medieval Vikings had a far better sense of direction. <\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:10px;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;Israel has become the luxury destination of choice &#8212; the Middle East&#8217;s Club Med &#8212; for this special type of self-proclaimed &#8220;human rights&#8221; activist. They know that vacation packages to Israel are deluxe for &#8220;weekend revolutionaries&#8221; &#8212; free from the dangers of arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and execution, which abound in the totalitarian States that make up the rest of our region. They understand that it is much easier to face news cameras in Tel Aviv than bullets in Damascus. <\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:10px;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;The actions of these activists are particularly troubling in the light of the present turmoil in the Middle East. Their clear provocation raises tensions and could easily spark a serious escalation of conflict. <\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:10px;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;I call on the Secretary-General, the Security Council and all responsible members of the international community to take immediate action to end this provocation. <\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:10px;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;The international community must send an unambiguous message to the organizers of these provocations that such initiatives are destructive and counterproductive, calling on all those truly interested in transferring humanitarian goods to Gaza to use established mechanisms. <\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;padding-top:10px;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">&nbsp;I want to stress that Israel is not interested in confrontation, but remains determined to enforce its naval blockade of the Gaza Strip &#8212; and will take all lawful actions to this end. <\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align:justify;padding-top:10px;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\"><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">&nbsp;I should be grateful if you would have the present letter distributed as a document of the Security Council.<\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;margin-left:60px;\">\n\t\t\t\t&nbsp;&nbsp;\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:justify;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;margin-left:60px;\">\n\t\t\t\t&nbsp;&nbsp;\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align:right;margin-left:60px;\">\n\t\t\t\t<span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">(<\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\"><i>Signed<\/i><\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">) Ron <\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\"><strong>Prosor<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:10pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\"><br \/>\nAmbassador<br \/>\nPermanent Representative<\/span><span style=\"color:#000000;font-size:12pt;font-family:Times New Roman, serif;\">&nbsp;<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div style=\"color:#000000;text-align:center;font-size:9pt;font-family:Courier New, serif, monospace;\">\n<p style=\"margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;\">_______________<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Identical letters dated 16 October 2012 from the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;I write to draw your attention to an issue that could affect the stability of our region. As I write this letter, a group of activists is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/auto-insert-179052\/\"> [&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[897],"document-category":[2841],"document-source":[1362],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[2517,5358,2005,5200,5362],"entity":[1985,1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-179052","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","country-israel","document-category-letter","document-source-security-council","document-subject-access-and-movement","document-subject-ClosuresCurfewsBlockades","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-humanitarian-relief","document-subject-ngo-civil-society","entity-state","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/179052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/179052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=179052"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=179052"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=179052"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=179052"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=179052"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=179052"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=179052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}