You are hereInternational law is clear: Israel had no right to board ship
International law is clear: Israel had no right to board ship
Among the more baldfaced lies being spewed in the media by Israeli officials in recent days is that their military had the right under international law to board American, Turkish, and other vessels on which they killed nine Turkish and American aid workers. Articles 110 and 111 of the Law of the Sea makes it clear that the Israeli military ship could only board the civilian vessel on the high seas if that vessel was also Israeli, if the Israeli warship was in hot pursuit of it after it violated Israeli law in Israeli territorial waters, or if the civilian vessel was engaged in piracy or slave transportation. Obviously none of the cases apply nor has Israel even pretended that they apply. (There is no right under international law to inspect a ship on the high seas for weapons, which the ship was not transporting, nor to enforce Israel's blockade of Gaza to keep out items such as crayons, chocolate, and writing paper, which Israel somehow feels are a threat to its security.) Still, Israeli officials feel secure in the knowledge that they can lie and the American media and government will not call them out on it. This marks the latest in a list of disgraces in which our own despicable government leaders fail to hold Israel accountable for violations of international law resulting in the murder of American citizens, including the attack on the USS Liberty in which 39 American Naval personnel were killed and the bulldozer murdering of American Rachel Corrie.
Below is the text of the Law of the Sea
Article 110: a warship which encounters on the high seas a foreign ship "is not justified in boarding it unless there is reasonable ground for suspecting that:
(a) the ship is engaged in piracy;
(b) the ship is engaged in the slave trade;
(c) the ship is engaged in unauthorized broadcasting and the flag State of the warship has jurisdiction under article 109;
(d) the ship is without nationality; or
(e) though flying a foreign flag or refusing to show its flag, the ship is, in reality, of the same nationality as the warship."
