Flotilla Update: Israel Attacks Convoy, Deaths Reported

[smiths]

it is a tremendous problem that the Israeli state uses hiler and history to justify its actions,
no-one who is against Israeli actions should use their frame of reference by invoking history in the same way

[sunny]

Israel says aid ship Rachel Corrie will not be allowed into Gaza

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Andy David told ABC News today that the MV Rachel Corrie, which may be off the coast of Gaza as early as Friday, will be prevented from entering the blockade area.

“The Rachel Corrie will not be allowed into Gaza," David said. "We are watching it and waiting to see what will happen. Hopefully, the people on board will direct to the port in Ashdod. The naval blockade is still in effect and the ship will not be allowed to enter into the naval blockade area."

On Monday elite Israeli military commandos stormed six humanitarian aid ships taking part in the ‘Freedom Flotilla’ to Gaza, killing at least 9 civilian passengers and injuring dozens more while the ships were in international waters. The Rachel Corrie had been part of the flotilla but had to stay behind in Malta for repairs.


Passengers on the Rachel Corrie, which embarked from Ireland, include Northern Irish Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976. (Photo via Nobel Women's Initiative)


According to organizers of the aid effort, the Freedom Flotilla was an effort by a coalition of human rights and humanitarian organizations to nonviolently break through Israel's illegal blockade, and deliver much needed humanitarian and developmental aid to the Palestinians of Gaza.
The United Nations and activists who have recently visited Gaza say the Israeli blockade, in place since 2007, denies residents of Gaza the basic needs of life: a variety of foods, building materials, electricity, fuel, medicines and school supplies.

Former U.N. assistant secretary-general Denis Halliday, who is on board the Rachel Corrie, told ABC News that they do not intend to stop their mission or head to the Israeli port of Ashdod instead.

"It's a totally unacceptable embargo. There's no justification for it, there's no legality for it, it's not endorsed by the U.N., it's not endorsed by anybody else. It's an Israeli military zone which is without legal status," he said from the ship today in a phone interview with ABC.


"When they tell they are about to board we will cooperate because it's too dangerous not to do so, particularly as you say it may be at night which is the usual tactic. We're not fools, we're not about to throw away our lives," Halliday said, according to ABC.


He said the Rachel Corrie expects to be boarded by the Israelis Friday when they are approximately 80 miles off coast. Some organizers of the aid ships are still saying that the Rachel Corrie may wait until Monday or Tuesday to try to run the blockade. There have been reports that Turkey may send a warship to accompany the aid ships.


The Rachel Corrie is a converted merchant ship bought by pro-Palestinian activists and named after the 23-year-old American peace activist from Olympia, Washington, who was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in 2003, set off Monday from Malta. The ship carrying medical equipment, wheelchairs, school supplies and cement, a material Israel has banned in Hamas-ruled Gaza.


Passengers on the Rachel Corrie, which embarked from Ireland, include Northern Irish Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan-Maguire and several other Irish citizens. Corrigan-Maguire is a Northern Irish peace activist who co-founded, with Betty Williams, the Community of Peace People, an organization that worked for a peaceful resolution to the fighting in Northern Ireland. The two women received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976.

http://www.seattlepostglobe.org/2010/06 ... -into-gaza

[alwyn]

Was Hitler Right?

No! Hitler was not right.

As much as I despise the bigotry, behavior, and outright brutality of the Israeli regime, I cannot imagine how any educated person (or anyone with even the barest vestiges of a conscience, for that matter) could even need to ask that question.

I meant the headline to provoke. And if you actually read the article, I state clearly that 'Hitler was not right'. Shame on the IDF for giving us the latitude to ask the question. And shame on them for acting like Hitler at his worst.

[Simulist]

Was Hitler Right?

No! Hitler was not right.

As much as I despise the bigotry, behavior, and outright brutality of the Israeli regime, I cannot imagine how any educated person (or anyone with even the barest vestiges of a conscience, for that matter) could even need to ask that question.

I meant the headline to provoke. And if you actually read the article, I state clearly that 'Hitler was not right'. Shame on the IDF for giving us the latitude to ask the question. And shame on them for acting like Hitler at his worst.

If I "actually read the article"? Of course I read the article. That's why I was "provoked" by such an obvious and stupid title.

[alwyn]

it is a tremendous problem that the Israeli state uses hiler and history to justify its actions,
no-one who is against Israeli actions should use their frame of reference by invoking history in the same way

okay, I buy this argument. I'm still pissed, and it's still wrong. As my DH tells me this title is the rallying cry of skinheads (don't know how I missed THAT, but I don't know too many skinheads) I will, in deference to the humane and tender consciences of my friends, change the title.

[justdrew]

Israelis celebrating attack on Turkish Aid Ship - infront of Turkish Embassy,Tel Aviv

[The Consul]

.


One wonders how extreme an Israeli action would have to be not to fall within the Hasbara-defined category of self-defense. If a warship torpedoes the next aid convoy as it comes out of the Turkish port and receives a shower of plastic deck chairs when it pulls up alongside the sinking ship for a summary strafing, will that also be self-defense? Only in America!

(And remember, it's a blockade as defined by Israeli reading of international law, but it's not an occupation. Certainly not. Gaza is independent territory.)

.

Trotting out Ed Koch is a good Night of the Living Dead move but only for the last remnants of the fading Sarasota Murder She Wrote Club.
A bomb went off the other day in Northern Ireland. Perhaps Israel is won't to feed the Phoenix of a new IRA? Riders to the Sea in a brand new century.
Massada complex has been off the tracks for quite some time. We have Youtubes of a Gaza family home video of the unprovoked shelling of the beach by the Isreali navy. Children in pieces. Overwhelming horror, indescribable anguish.
A small strip of land, population density 10,600 per square mile, under blocade. Roughly 5 times that of NYC. Unless you are in Jabalia where there are 200,000 hopeless souls in what amounts to little less than a sq mile area.
What would the world look like if you grew up there?
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/tags/jabalia/interesting/
Not a donkey in sight.

[Sweejak]

"Zuabi said that naval boats surrounded the Mavi Marmara and fired on it before soldiers abseiled aboard from a helicopter. She went below to the ship's hold and said that, within minutes, two dead passengers were brought inside, followed by two more who had been seriously wounded."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ju ... neen-zuabi
----------------------------

"I don't know if it was rubber-coated bullets, live ammunition, or what kind, but there definitely was shooting coming from the Israelis toward the ship before they even boarded, and then I saw a helicopter overhead. That's all really all that I was able to see before our vessel took off."
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/060310a.html
----------------------------

"Three people were shot in the head and died instantly so everyone started taking cover. When they actually landed, the activists started to run at them and there was a confrontation beyond belief. It was crazy.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/u ... 142494.ece
----------------------------

"Later we and the rest of the world began to see the images supplied by the IDF which showed a completely different version of what happened. While showing that the IDF commandos did in fact board the MAVI MARMORA, they deleted the portion showing the violent attack by the troops,"
http://israelpalestineblogs.com/2010/06 ... re-at-sea/
----------------------------

Hasan Nowarah:

"They were shooting from their own helicopter before their soldiers even came down to the upper deck of the Marmara ship.

Neish watched in horror as Israeli soldiers gunned down civilians from helicopters as the raid began, and he saw the bloody bodies of at least nine people killed on the Mavi Marmara. He flatly rejects allegations that people on the ship were armed or that they attacked the soldiers.
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/rabble- ... -mavi-marm
----------------------------

"Live ammunition was fired before any Israeli soldier was on deck..."
http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2010/06/201063123021327499.html

[alwyn]

http://www.arguewitheveryone.com/genera ... wdown.html

Sarah Colborne was on the boat, kidnapped, and sent back to Britain. This is her eyewitness account. They were in international waters. They were scanned for weapons before embarking upon the journey.
The idf fired first, and killed people. zionazis.

[Sweejak]

Juan Cole
Eyewitnesses Say Israelis came in with Guns Blazing
http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/eyewitn ... azing.html

[MacCruiskeen]

The mob that assaulted Israeli special forces on the deck of the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara on Monday was not motivated by peace.

Now that line is truly worthy of Goebbels. I simply couldn't read past it. It's shameless.

As for "not motivated by peace" [sic!] - what's that supposed to even mean? How much thought went into that ridiculous formulation (which is, let's remember, part of an approved official statement)? And they offer this bullshit as an excuse for yet another mass murder, yet another massacre of civilians.

The assault on language goes hand-in-hand with the assault on truth, reason and human bodies.

War is Peace.

PS If somebody thinks like a Nazi, talks like a Nazi and acts like a Nazi, exactly what are we expected to call him?

[tazmic]

The mob that assaulted Israeli special forces on the deck of the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara on Monday was not motivated by peace.

But it's true. They were motivated by Israeli special forces' bullets.

(Here's hoping it wasn't a set up for a coming false flag attack.)

[MacCruiskeen]

The late Furkan Dogan (19): wiped off the map.

American, 19, Among Gaza Flotilla Dead
Furkan Dogan Was Shot Five Times, Including Four Times in Head

...by fascists.

A Canadian on board, Farooq Burney, described watching an elderly man bleed to death. The head of a Turkish charity that organized the aid flotilla said an Indonesian doctor was shot in the stomach and a photographer was shot in the forehead.

A doctor, a photographer and "an elderly man"... Brave, brave IDF. Three more existential threats successfully eliminated.

And no doubt they were guilty of attacking those poor defenceless élite fascist commandos. What fearful weapons were the deceased attackers carrying? Stethoscopes? Flashbulbs? Hearing-aids?

In any case, they too have now been wiped off the map.

[MacCruiskeen]

Pass that basin again:

Israel's ambassador in Madrid provoked outrage this morning by suggesting Spaniards should worry more about the number of people dying on the roads every weekend and less about the nine people killed in his country's raid on the Gaza flotilla.

"Yes, nine people have died [sic]. But 155 died in a terrorist attack in India last week. Who cares about that? Have you heard anything about it? Twenty-three Spaniards died on the roads this weekend," Raphael Schutz told El Periódico newspaper.

An embassy spokesman, Lior Haiat, said comments had been taken out of context and the ambassador had been referring to Spanish media coverage. "Of course we care about any deaths," said Haiat, who claimed the flotilla carried 100 Turkish mercenaries. "Even when they are mercenaries and terrorists."

In an interview published in Spanish, Schutz compared the Gaza flotilla activists to the radical Islamist train bombers who killed 191 people on Madrid commuter trains in 2004.

"We are talking about people on board [the flotilla] who are connected to al-Qaida," he said when El Periódico's interviewer pointed out that the Madrid attacks had been carried out by al-Qaida-inspired terrorists. "Fifty of the people who left Turkey are known for their connections with Hamas, with al-Qaida. Are these people pacifists?". They hide behind a few Europeans."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/ju ... a-flotilla

[Percival]

Israel did NOT just jump aboard with the intent to harm, injure or kill, in fact the first group of commandos that came aboard were armed only with NON LETHAL WEAPONS, when they were attacked with knives etc, it was THEN that a second wave of Israelis came aboard with handguns and took control of the situation.

Further, this ship was radioed and told to offload their supplies a few miles away at an Israeli port so that the cargo could be inspected, like many other aid ships have done, and then they would have been allowed to proceed to the Gaza, but they refused and decided instead to provoke the IDF. I believe their agenda all along was to provoke an incident and that they did not in fact have the people of Gaza in mind at all. The evidence makes clear that it was a premeditated provocation designed to get Israel to over-react and further villify the Israeli state.


The blockade sucks but as long as the people of the Gaza continue to support Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza since 2007, Israel has no choice but to take a hard line and do what they must to prevent arms and rockets from entering and getting in to the hands of Hamas militants.

9 dead is nothing to be proud of and I believe Israel botched this terribly, but everyone in this thread is refusing to look at the other side of this story and is instead, en mass, taking the side of the supposed "activists" some of whom I believe, and the evidence suggests, may have been in league with Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist organization which has been randomly shelling Israel, its malls, neighborhoods, marketplaces etc, since 2007.


In light of that how can you expect Israel to just let any ship through without inspection, and what are they to do when a ship refuses to allow an inspection?