Khaberni - Israel faces an unprecedented legal and logistical dilemma after taking control of the Resilience Fleet that was heading to Gaza, encompassing the highest number of activists in the history of such fleets, with 500 activists representing 40 countries, including parliamentarians, international journalists, human rights activists, and celebrities influential in their communities.
According to legal expert and director of the Justice Center for Human Rights, Hassan Jabarin, the manner in which the Israeli naval forces controlled the 50 ships participating in the fleet places Tel Aviv in the face of an international legal quandary.
The ships were raided in international waters, not Israeli territorial waters, and were heading to the territorial waters of Gaza over which Israel has no sovereignty according to Israeli law itself; therefore, Israel legally has no right to raid these ships.
Based on the circumstances and procedures of taking over the fleet’s ships, the activists are considered kidnapped rather than detained, hence any detention measures taken by Israel against them would fall under abduction and not legal arrest, as Jabarin states.
The Difficult Options
The legal expert, based on Israeli law, limits the options available to Israel to deal with the Resilience Fleet activists to only two.
The first option is to deport the activists within 72 hours via airplanes, not by sea, knowing that Israel has not returned the ships it seized in previous fleets, and some of these ships might sink according to Israeli statements.
It is noted that the Israeli naval forces resorted to spraying many of the Resilience Fleet's ships with large amounts of water, preparing them for sinking.
The second option is to arrest the activists, and this option faces significant legal complications, as it requires bringing the detainees before the border court in Ramla within 96 hours to extend their detention.
The director of the Justice Center believes that the arrest option is fraught with legal problems, as what Israel is doing is kidnapping, not arrest in the legal sense.
This description is based on three main legal issues facing any Israeli action:
First, the lack of constitutional, legal, or sovereign jurisdiction of Israel over international waters.
Second, the jurisdiction of the border and transit court is limited to cases of illegal entry into Israel, which does not apply to the activists, as they were attempting to reach the borders of the Gaza sector, which even Israeli law does not consider part of its territory.
Third, the lack of judicial authority of the court itself in this case.
These legal complexities and constitutional issues, according to the expert, push Israel towards resorting to the deportation option to avoid continued media coverage of the issue.
However, deporting 500 activists all at once imposes its own massive logistical challenges related to securing the necessary airplanes and arranging the required procedures, placing the Israeli authorities between two equally difficult options.
The Nature of the Activists
The sensitivity of the situation is amplified due to the nature of the activists in this fleet, as the presence of parliamentarians and international journalists among the detainees increases the pressure on Israel's already worsening image.
Israeli officials are aware of how critically Israel's international image could deteriorate, as reflected by statements from former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who acknowledged that Israel's image suffers globally, indicating that any harsh handling of the fleet would further exacerbate this decline in international reputation and put Tel Aviv in a lose-lose situation on all fronts.
Immediately after Israel took control of a number of ships of the Resilience Fleet, large demonstrations broke out in several European countries, including France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Greece, and Turkey.
Dr. Jabarin reveals that Israel's previous experience with fleets heading to Gaza is very limited, with the largest previous fleet having just over 100 activists, while the latest fleet in June only included 12 activists.
This significant jump in numbers poses an unprecedented challenge that the Israeli authorities have not encountered before, which explains the apparent confusion in handling the situation.
The timing also complicates the Israeli situation, as the expected evacuation operation coincides with Yom Kippur night, prompting Israel to call in a special unit from the prisons to participate in the tasks alongside the military.
Israeli estimates suggest that the evacuation and ship transfer operations will continue until Thursday, but the arrival of additional ships launched from Italy two days prior could surprise these calculations and increase logistical pressure.
