Israelis act as pirates in international waters: Activist

Press TV has conducted an interview with Massoud Shadjareh, head of the Islamic Human Rights Commission in London, about the Israeli naval forces reportedly capturing a Swedish ship en route to the Gaza Strip to break the regime's long-time blockade of the Palestinian sliver.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Talk to us about the illegal apprehension of the Marianne of Gothenburg by the Israelis in international waters. Many observers of the situation believe that what the Israelis have done is not only in disregard to the people of Palestine and with disregard to the people of Sweden, it is also total a disregard of international law as well?

Shadjareh: It is absolutely correct and it is absolutely outrageous that the Zionist … [entity] is now behaving so clearly and so deliberately outside the international law and they think that they are law to themselves and the reality is that they are behaving as pirates, modern pirates in international waters with impunity going around and taking over these ships and then taking them to their own ports.   

But what makes it even more outrageous is the fact that this is being done systematically. This is not just an individual incident, something going wrong. This is a policy of the Zionist … [entity] and the policies there to ensure imprisonment of a whole nation. Whole of the Palestinian nation is being imprisoned and hold hostage by these new pirates and these are the tactics that they are using and the international community is doing nothing whatsoever. The reality is that the champions of human rights and international law are not only doing nothing whatsoever but they are actually supporting and promoting and using their veto to make sure that the Zionist … [entity] goes ahead with this sort of breaking the international law with impunity.

Press TV: I am sure you have seen the footage of the Israeli forces using a taser on a pro-Palestinian activist on board the vessel. Do you think it is fair to say that it is times like these that the Israelis show their true nature and also humiliate themselves?  

Shadjareh: Yes of course they do. We remember other incidents in past and what is happening now is no different and indeed they are exposing both the tactics and barbaric ideology behind Zionism and the way that they have got no regard for international law or human dignity or human rights or anything else.

But what really is very outrageous is the silence from the whole of the international community. The silence is deafening. What really has created and have made sure that the continuation of the suffering of the Palestinians for over 50 years is the fact that international community has helped and supported this abomination of so-called Zionist state not just to continue its venom against the Palestinians but anyone else would dare to stand up to try to support the Palestinians.    

AHK/KA

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