Say what you will about the Israel-Palestine conflict, it unites people across borders.
NOW Magazine has learned that a prominent U.S. lawyer is joining forces with an Israeli-Canadian woman and a Toronto attorney to launch a lawsuit against a Canadian activist group intent on breaking the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The Canadian Boat to Gaza is one of several international groups planning to launch ships with the so-called Freedom Flotilla II. Organizers say they want to deliver humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip, which has been under an Israeli naval blockade since Hamas took power there in 2007. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of an Israeli-Canadian woman named Cherna Rosenberg, alleges that the CBG is intending to deliver material support to Hamas, which the Canadian government considers a terrorist organization.
Rosenberg is being represented by two heavyweights of the North American pro-Israel community in Ed Morgan, a University of Toronto law professor and former head of the Canadian Jewish Congress, as well as New York-based Neal Sher, former head of the American Israel Public Affairs committee, the most powerful Israel lobby group in Washington.
The Canadian boat “is part of an international effort where ships from any number of countries go there claiming to be humanitarian,” said Sher. “The fact is, Gaza is controlled by Hamas, which is a designated terrorist organization. It’s against the law in Canada to provide support to terrorist groups, and that’s what they’re doing. This flotilla is, I believe, really aimed at provoking Israel. It’s all part and parcel of an orchestrated campaign that’s been going on for some time to delegitimize Israel, to denigrate Israel.”
The suit hinges on Rosenberg’s experience living in the Israeli city of Sderot, where she moved from her birthplace of Montreal. The suit claims she was traumatized by Hamas mortar shells fired indiscriminately into the town, and is seeking $1,000,000 in damages from the CBG as well as $20,000 for costs Rosenberg incurred when she relocated to Haifa for safety. This part of the suit may be the most difficult to uphold, because it appears to be holding the CBG responsible for past Hamas violence, even though the CBG has yet to deliver any materials to Gaza.
The suit is also seeking an injunction against the CBG’s participation in the Freedom Flotilla, which is slated to set sail in a few weeks’ time from an undisclosed Mediterranean port. Morgan says he filed the suit last Friday, and it’s been mailed to the CBG.
CBG spokesperson Wendy Goldsmith said she wouldn’t comment directly on the lawsuit because she hasn’t seen it yet, but she is adamant that her organization is not supporting Hamas.
“This is a civilian-to-civilian initiative. We’re not working with any government in either country,” she said. “We’re part of the international flotilla, which is a group of 32 different countries, and each of us have various connections with non-governmental organizations, artists, co-ops who are trying to make a living in Gaza, so those will be the recipients of the aid that comes on the boats. We’ve asked independent international bodies to inspect our ships at the point of departure, during our voyage, and once we arrive in Gaza to ensure that we’re not carrying anything that is illegal or harmful. We’re committed to non-violence.”
“I think it’s a totally bogus suit, and it should be laughed out of court,” said Michael Mandel, an international law expert at Osgoode. “Basically it depends on a willful misreading of the criminal code, which says you can’t intentionally help to commit terrorist acts. But this is a humanitarian mission. It lacks the intent.”
A little over a year ago, passengers aboard a ship from Turkey carrying humanitarian goods to Gaza, were attacked by Israeli soldiers. Nine passengers were killed, and the Canadian government and UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon have discouraged activists from launching the Freedom Flotilla II.
Goldsmith believes it’s worth the risk. “We don’t support the illegal and inhumane blockade of Gaza,” she said, “and since our government has refused to respond and is in fact is one of the most supportive governments of Israel, it’s up to us as citizens with a conscience to do whatever we can to break the siege.”
Predictably, people on both sides of this lawsuit are so ideologically divided they can’t even agree on what conditions are like within Gaza. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees recently said that the Israeli blockade is “a form of collective punishment” that has so crippled Gaza’s infrastructure that half the territory’s 1.5 million people have access to running water only once every four days.
Sher says the UN is biased. “Experts who have been on the scene have said there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” he said.
