Another flotilla – this one with the propagandistic moniker “Freedom Flotilla 2” – is scheduled to head to Gaza in May. Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the civil rights attorney at Shurat HaDin (the Israel Law Center) has come up with an interesting approach to dealing with it:
Shurat HaDin is proposing legislation to the Knesset that would provide that any property, including boats, utilized by any party to attempt to run the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza will be seized by the Israeli government and sold off to compensate the victims of Palestinian terrorism. Attempting to run the blockade is a violation of international law and any property used in the commission of this crime should be seized. This provision alone would give the extremists and the owners of the ships serious pause before they allow them to sail towards Gaza. There are many precedents for such forfeiture laws internationally and its high time the Knesset starts to act preemptively instead of waiting until the next public relations debacle plays out into Hamas’ hands. Look at this section 5 of this statute called the Florida Contraband Forfeiture Act for an idea of what can be easily done.
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